Korg still have not included WAV files for players...

[pax-eterna.1]

I always understood in the old days (PA1x, PA2x) because of storage options and costs, but in these days of almost unlimited storage at very cheap prices, I am surprised they did not allow WAV files to be used in the players.

Even at 320kbs an MP3 does not match a pure WAV

What do others think?

[QuiRobinez]

I always understood in the old days (PA1x, PA2x) because of storage options and costs, but in these days of almost unlimited storage at very cheap prices, I am surprised they did not allow WAV files to be used in the players.

Even at 320kbs an MP3 does not match a pure WAV

What do others think?

I think that at higher resolutions above 256kbps most people don't hear it but are going to guess.

but try it yourself, here's a test, 6 examples and you can pick which is the wav file from each example.

If it's really that noticeable then you should get 6 out of 6 right.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/ ... io-quality

[pax-eterna.1]

I always understood in the old days (PA1x, PA2x) because of storage options and costs, but in these days of almost unlimited storage at very cheap prices, I am surprised they did not allow WAV files to be used in the players.

Even at 320kbs an MP3 does not match a pure WAV

What do others think?

I think that at higher resolutions above 256kbps most people don't hear it but are going to guess.

but try it yourself, here's a test, 6 examples and you can pick which is the wav file from each example.

If it's really that noticeable then you should get 6 out of 6 right.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/ ... io-quality

haha, I never try those tests as you have no idea how honest they are...I'd hazard a guess that if you ran these though a scope, the waveforms would be near identical, and deliberately setup to be that way. I've seen others where the proponents heavily weight the samples toward WAVs to try and prove THEIR case, so yeah, I never do them.
I know in my studio and on stage a WAV file sounds cleaner and less "muddy" than even a 320kbps file...there is just a subtle variation in the clarity of the parts.

I am not going to enter into any more discussion, arguing the merits of either, as on this subject everyone is going to plead what they believe....

I just thought it interesting the Korg engineers while allowing WAVs for samples do not allow WAVs in the players.

[AntonySharmman]

If you have High-End loudspeakers for Hi-Fi Audio , it's easy to distinguish the difference by bare ears !

Mp3 algorithm has a critical disadvantage that a few people worldwide are aware , this is the cancellation of nearby frequencies
in order to save file size , for instance if your audio file contains 325 , 330 , 335 Hz frequencies only one will be converted
and all others nearby frequencies will be cancelled.
So a detuned Synth , a flanger guitar , a rich cymbal , will sound tiny in MP3 format compared to original recording !
Even in the best MP3 Lame encoder of 320Kbps VBR/CBR, these frequencies lacking is present , even PaSeries lossless
compression , in fact is not lossless , it cancels some nearby high frequencies due to be accurate ...

Any Kind of compression for any format when this is less than 65% in size of raw format , it's definitely a lossy format.


Hope this helps

[mstodola]

So why does Korg compress their samples. Memory is no longer that expensive. They don't use the best processors either.

[horby allthumbs]

hi all , here we are in 2025 and the PA5x doesn't record or play .wav .alac .flac or even .ogg files, and maximum .mp3 bitrate is 256 . I agree with experts on here the difference between ,wav and mp3 is very clear IF you have good audio equipment; if none of your speakers are bigger than 4 or 5 inches you may not notice a huge difference but it will still be there. I noticed that I couldn't get my mp3 recordings to sound like the live play which on a top range pro keyboard is ridiculous ( genos records and plays .wav natively) I bought a small behringer interface and connected it to my fire tablet and with a free wave editor have re-recorded several tracks to .wav , I have exported them to mp3 @ 320 kbps, alac at 720 , flac @950 and ogg at 484 they are all worlds better than the keyboard originals with .wav at the top flac and alac variable 2nd and third depending on the music and ogg just behind in 4th although perfectly acceptable. Given music is all about sound quality shouldn't korg be introducing wav into OS 1.4 or 1.5. Is it only me or do others find they can't accurately listen to their own music while playing so depend on recording to assess the work. Strangely the PA5x recognises .wav files in sampling mode and shows them in disk mode but they don't even show up in player mode.

[AntonySharmman]

The fact that PaSeries do not record wav files is because player do not support any other audio format than mp3 and this is mostly because Style player is not meant to be a media player and MP3 format was an exception due to please users a long time ago and still remain the same although they could had added at least wav audio format.

Generally recording keyboard audio is always the realtime low Z output option with no other thoughts as pro always do , the option to create Mp3 files of high quality for players have some solution under proper Mp3 encoders though.
There are 2 Mp3 encoders that work decently and you can hardly distinguish the difference between wav and them even in spectrum analyzers.
One encoder is for 2 decades known as the Lame 320 Kb/sec CBR encoder that compresses most wav pretty damn well ...
Compressed size is 21 % of wav size



My favorite Mp3 encoder I use is Fraunhofer v4 Encoder 320 CBR that is the best of lossy Mp3 encoders and very hard to see the difference.
This encoder is preset in Adobe Audition from version v2022 AFAIK.
Compressed size is 21 % of wav size.
In average frequency spectrum analysis of a 5 min song , wav & Mp3 are identical.




Hope this helps

[horby allthumbs]

hi Since realising how huge the audible difference is between wav and mp3 or alac I have done numerous re-recording upscaling downscaling sampling and so on ; If your audio system is low quality with small speakers (or on a phone or mp3 player) there may not be much difference between 192kbps on mp3 and 256kbps but there is a noticeable difference up to 320 kbps and an even bigger one down to the trusty 128kbps I have been recording in wav and direct to flac at either 900 or 1100kbps and they are in all ways superior to any mp3 recording which is not surprising as the mp3 has lost 83% of the music data; to think that this loss makes little or no difference to the human ear also ignores the fact that it can be resonances and interferences in music that contributes to its quality despite the fact that some of these may not even be audible to humans but can subtly change other audible sound waves in the music if these are removed as superfluous during lossy compression the music cannot sound the same . All my mp3 players can play wav and mp3 some play flac and ogg so a player that can play all these would hardly be an huge step or cost if included in the PA5X, I have 24 year old tesco mp3 player that cost £2.99 that plays wav and has massive 250MB storage so only 5 tracks with wav.

[horby allthumbs]

hi again I keep digging and the more I dig the more interesting it becomes apparently in compressing to mp3 an instrument or sound that is played at the same time as another louder sound is deleted as the belief is that it can't be heard , clearly that is a false idea as complex sounds have all kinds of resonances and over tones and wave interference even if you can't "hear" the lesser instrument it will still have an effect on any sounds reaching the ears if this is the case how does mp3 deal with say orchestral music where many instruments will over lap yet it is the joining together of those instruments which creates that sound. Does anyone on here know how the PA keyboards record the mp3 file is it recorded as a wav then compressed because that is what an mp3 is defined as if it is recorded directly as an mp3 how is that done as if there is no original uncompressed quality audio file what would be compressed , compressing on the fly seems a bit odd , any one have in depth knowledge.