The Beginner DJ’s Guide To Music Formats and Encoding

Music comes in all different kinds of formats. Depending which type of DJ you are, you could be going analog or digital.

Whichever the chase, the format of your music greatly relies on your personal preference and gear.

DJs have 3 main choices of formats:

  • Vinyl records
  • Compact Discs
  • Digital Music

I want to dig a little deeper into the later – if don’t have a firm grasp on your music collection, you could be making a huge mistake.

Vinyl records

Vinyl has been around for as long as we can remember. Being the format of choice for DJs of the past (and still to this day), vinyl provides an analog sound neatly packaged on a 7′ or 12′ vinyl disc.

Many DJs prefer to use vinyl because they say it has a ‘warm’ feeling. This is mostly in due part to the analog recording methods – the music will have a much higher low and high end.

But like many things, vinyl is dying out.

One main reason is that digital music has captured the world; there’s not much reason to go visit your local music shop for the average person.

Another reason is the price to press vinyl. Vinyl is a way more expensive than simply recording your song digitally – this means the producers are able to keep more of the profits from sales.

Finally, vinyl is physical so its limitations is soley based on which stores provide it – you can’t download vinyl durr.

Compact Discs (CDs)

CDs saw a rise in popularity during the late 80s and early 90s but like vinyl, they too are dying out.

CD is still a great format for DJs however.

Music on CDs have a much clearer sound and provide a very large range of low and high end sounds.

To get nerdy on ya, CDs generally are encoded at 44Khz. This gives the sound a very strong quality.

One side effect of CDs though is what people dub the ‘loudness war’. Producers and labels will intentionally increase the loudness of tracks because “people like louder music”. All this does is kill the dynamic range of the song.

CDs can also be easily ripped and burned which is why they are still a very popular choice amongst DJs.

Digital music

Ah, the MP3 – I love how a simple file type is bringing down the entire archaic music industry.

Since its inception, MP3s are the easiest of all three formats to find an distribute.

Hell, you’re probably listening to MP3s as you read this post.

However, one overlooked aspect of MP3s are the bitrate in which they are encoded.

Generally speaking, you’ll see these types pop up:

  • 192
  • 320
  • V0
  • FLAC

There are still dozens more and can be any range depending on who encoded them.

To put it bluntly, you want FLAC. FLAC is a lossless music format which means it gives you the full dynamic range.

Flac also lets you reencode at lower levels if need be. You can do this with the lower encoded bitrates but when you try to bump them up, the sound will distort.

One drawback of shops that sell MP3s is that they offer a limited range of bitrates.

Sure, 192 may sound great in your bedroom but when you throw it up on very big speakers, the sound is amplified and any imperfections will be obvious.

Aim for the best

To give you the easiest choice, if you’re a DJ that spins vinyl, stick with it – the analog sound is delicious.

If you’re spinning CDs or Digital, try to either buy the original or 320/FLAC. This also goes if you’re ripping and burning the tracks back and forth.

I know it’s a small subject but if you go with a muddy track, it’s only going to get worse when you blare it.

Go with the best right away, it’ll pay off.

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