Garageband mp3

[E-mann]

What I noticed in garageband that when I export a mp3 there was no extra space at the intro. Is this true? or is it just me, bc one of my songs I used was mp3 first for tracking and it was still the same when i mixed it in with my wav files.

E-man

[Gerk]

If the music starts right away then there will be no extra space, it doesn't do any sort of padding of the beginning.  If you want/need space leave an empty bar at the beginning.

[E-mann]

So I can use mp3 for tracking? Bc people told me theres issues and tell me to use wma.

[Gerk]

You _can_ use MP#, but there are potential timing issues.  There's a few threads on it here, do some searching.

[E-mann]

I already did some searching. I just wanted to know if garageband did do the timing issues or not bc I did one song with it and no issues but other people do have issues with mp3. So im confused.

[Gerk]

The timing issues don't have anything to do with the DAW software you use, it's a problem with a random number of frames at the beginning of an MP3 file when it's encoded ... any DAW you use will have the same issue.

[CosmicDolphin]

What I noticed in garageband that when I export a mp3 there was no extra space at the intro. Is this true? or is it just me, bc one of my songs I used was mp3 first for tracking and it was still the same when i mixed it in with my wav files.

E-man

The extra padding is milliseconds ( about 30 I think ) but definitely enough to throw tracking out if everyone posts MP3's.

CD

[Gerk]

And it's random. Won't always be the same. 

[CosmicDolphin]

And it's random. Won't always be the same. 

Yeah , so you can't allow for it 

[Studioplayer]

I discussed this a while back. See the example in this thread.

http://www.musicianscollaboration.com/forum/index.php?topic=1837.0

Mp3's will cause timing issues. Best to not use them for tracking.

OGG or WMA is better for compressed tracking. 

Dave

PS. You have to really zoom in to the start of the track to see the padding (dead space). It's not audible until you start trying to line up other peoples tracks. Then you'll hear timing issues.

[E-mann]

Ahh I c thx! For the help. I guess it is random. One song it has zero millisec off. Then other had some off. I guess wma and ogg is the way to go.