AMV Comp Audio Set-up

[Infinity Squared]

Righto... I'm currently the AMV coordinator for Manifest (Melbourne Anime Festival) AMV Competitions 2005 (in case you didn't know ). Anyway, I've just put a proposal to the Manifest Organising Committee to allow me to hire audio equipment that are rather high-end to be used for the normal AMV competition and the Iron Chef AMV comps we are running. I have been met with some resistance in the committee and I am currently doing research on the merits of my proposal.

The audio equipment that we are thinking of putting together typically would incorporate concert style speakers, and about 300-600 Watt subwoofer. The room we are screening in is a typical university lecture theatre seating about 200-250 students.

The question now are:

Is such a set up good to have for AMV screening/competitions?

Do you put effort enough into your AMVs that you believe it deserves to be played with very good audio equipment?

Will an audience notice a difference between normal lecture theatre speakers and with a concert/subwoofer speaker system?

[Infinity Squared]

Do you put effort enough into your AMVs that you believe it deserves to be played with very good audio equipment?[/b

Oops... I meant in terms of the audio editing and compressions that you may employ in your AMVs.

[trythil]

Do you put effort enough into your AMVs that you believe it deserves to be played with very good audio equipment?

Oops... I meant in terms of the audio editing and compressions that you may employ in your AMVs.

I think that any AMV deserves the highest-quality audio and video reproduction possible. You don't want to make a high-quality* video look and sound bad, and you don't want to make a low-quality* video look and sound worse than it already does.


* Referring to audio and video quality.

[Infinity Squared]

Do people believe though that a lot of AMVs with about 128kbps compressed MP3 audio will not end up sounding any different in any speaker system, as in there's no point in going for high powered stuff since you won't notice much difference?

Personally, I believe that a subwoofer system will always increase the quality of the screening because the bass levels are generally preserved even on 128 kbps audio compressions.

Actually, I also want to know what audio compression settings people use for their AMVs.

[Kionon]

I firmly believe the best set up equals the best experience. Are AMVs worth it? Well, I don't know. Are independent films worthy? Are parody videos worthy? Is any video/audio fan based material worthy? I say yes, because I'm an editor. Doesn't mean everyone agrees, just as your governing council may not. Although I think they'll receptive to the fact that a good AMV area setup can attract attendees and attention. I know certain people who come to cons just for AMVs. Better experience, better the likelihood that person will not go somewhere else.

As for audio compression, I actually use IMA ADPCM. I'm old school. I've tried many different audio codecs, and I like this one the best. No one has ever complained about my audio, in fact, most people are outright amazed, especially when they turn it up or play it on high end equipment.

[Scintilla]

Do people believe though that a lot of AMVs with about 128kbps compressed MP3 audio will not end up sounding any different in any speaker system, as in there's no point in going for high powered stuff since you won't notice much difference?

Most people do not use such low quality for their convention submissions.

The standard is MPEG-1 Layer II audio at a bitrate of 384kbps and a sample rate of either 44100 or 48000 Hz.

[Infinity Squared]

That is true and hence why I want to get more figures from people because I want to come back to the committee and tell them, "HA! People in a-m-v.org are putting their audio in greater quality than the 128 kbps that you claim they are all running in."

[trythil]

That is true and hence why I want to get more figures from people because I want to come back to the committee and tell them, "HA! People in a-m-v.org are putting their audio in greater quality than the 128 kbps that you claim they are all running in."

I guess this means that we should petition people submitting to your contest to use linear PCM transcodes of CD rips.

Seriously, though, I've also used MPEG layer II at 384 kbps, 44.1 kHz for everything. There _was_ a time when I did consider using linear PCM, but that didn't quite mux right for some reason.

[Beowulf]

Theres not a con in the world that puts the proper amount of effort into the presentation of my videos.

The safest route is to just get the best equipment you possibly can, because people like me will be bitching about it no matter how good it is.

[Castor Troy]

The audience is now deaf.