Importing MP3 into PT, quality issues?

[DanDan]

Yes the title is an Oxymoron but I have a real question. I have been asked to 'Master' some recordings of live gigs. They were recorded on some form of MP3 device at 320bps, 44K I am told, although I haven't seen these files yet. I will be importing these files into PT for processing and light editing.
Does PT do this transparently, i.e. with no quality loss ( if one can use the word quality in the same post as MP3!) OR should I be using some Master Quality conversion utility such as Barbabatch or other? The client has already done this import into LE, and it does take some time. I have HD3 Accel.

Ta, DD
Sound Sound - Homepage

[MarkRB]

Originally Posted by DanDan

Yes the title is an Oxymoron but I have a real question. I have been asked to 'Master' some recordings of live gigs. They were recorded on some form of MP3 device at 320bps, 44K I am told, although I haven't seen these files yet. I will be importing these files into PT for processing and light editing.
Does PT do this transparently, i.e. with no quality loss ( if one can use the word quality in the same post as MP3!) OR should I be using some Master Quality conversion utility such as Barbabatch or other? The client has already done this import into LE, and it does take some time. I have HD3 Accel.

Ta, DD
Sound Sound - Homepage

Ooooo interesting question! What are the options available when importing/converting an mp3 to WAV?

I've never seen any options in any software going that way. It would be interesting if there was any difference between conversions. I'm sure you aren't the only person to have to deal with this problem, as I know I have.
The import into PT from mp3 takes seconds (unsurprisingly). I'd have a listen to the original mp3s before you do any work.

[UnderTow]

I've heard differences in MP3 decoders. (Some major). These days I use CDex mainly and have been experimenting with SoX. SoX looks good but no definitive answers yet.

Alistair

[Alexey Lukin]

It looks like mp3 decoding is mostly standardized these days, and lower-quality fast decoders are becoming rare. One thing to look for is the bit depth of the output WAV format. Most decoders decode to 16 bits, and the major artifact is clipping of the waveform. Some decoders can decode to 32-bit floating point format, which prevents clipping (examples include RX with QT installed or a special filter for Audition).

[DanDan]

Ta for the input guys. Lucky that I checked this out. The files had been imported into a 48kHz PT session at the 'Fast' setting. I had them redo the import into a 44.1kHz 24Bit session. The MP3's were recorded at 320 kbps and thus not too bad. I chose not to go further than that as these were live recordings directly off the mix board in small situations. I used a Massenburg Eq, Lin MB, a bit of Waves widening, L2 chain. Worked out fine.
Best Regards, DD