Rapping Beats

MP3s or WAVs?

It’s important to make the right decision when shopping for rapping beats. It will help you be seen as a professional who knows what he or she is doing. When you’re buying rap beats and instrumentals do you go for the MP3 or the WAV? Are MP3s good enough to make professional music with? Read the rest of the article below to learn how to make the right buying decision to make the most of your money!

My name is DatPaki (aka Lyrical Militant) from PBE Music – I’m a producer/MC/Songwriter from Winnipeg, Canada. This article is part of a series called "Urban Music Business Tips" which is all about how to work at being a successful independent Urban Music Artist. I hope that I can help out some of the new up-and-coming rappers and singers start their urban music career off right. If you follow the tips in this series, you’ll be a BIG step ahead of your competition! Most music artists never think about this kind of stuff!

You can get the whole series at my website.

Q: When buying rap beats and instrumentals online should I get a WAV or MP3 file?

A: This questions is more important than more Urban music artists think. In all honesty, both types of hiphop beats and r&b beats can work. But when it comes to recording professional music, you always want to have the best possible quality at every step of the process. Rap beats that are WAV files are some of the highest quality audio files that you can get. MP3 is a COMPRESSED audio format – that’s why the audio files of the rap beats are much smaller than WAVs. This means that a TON of audio data is basically being chopped off the WAV file. And although it can still sound ok, it is not the BEST possible quality of sound. Bringing MP3s hiphop beats into the studio to do recording, mixing or mastering is looked DOWN upon. Don’t get caught slipping and look like an amateur when you go into the studio – pick the WAV whether you buy or download rap beats.

That’s assuming you have access to the wav. Some hip hop and r&b producers aren’t willing to give up WAV files (for whatever reasons.) But whenever possible, download the WAV file or ask your producer specifically for the WAV. Most producers are ok with sending you a WAV of the hiphop beats for a small fee if you ask. If you can’t afford the WAV file or the producer you doesn’t offer WAV files you CAN still use an MP3 – just make sure that the MP3 file is NO LESS than 320 kbps (your producer SHOULD know what that means.)

Remember, MP3s are compressed audio files with a lot of "lost" data. So you want to have the highest possible bit-rate (the "kbps" number). 320 is the highest you can have. If the MP3 file is any less than 320kbps, your best bet is to find another producer to download from. Remember, it’s important to make the right decisions. MP3s can be ok for mixtapes and promo songs (even though they are looked down upon in the Pro Audio world), but if you’re making a single or commercial album – GET THE WAVs!

Hope this was helpful!

If you want to learn more about the urban music business, look out for my other articles in this series! You can also email me anytime.

Holla @ ur boy!

DatPaki