"the best" form of audio/music to your amv

Vivi-mage · Post by **Vivi-mage** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:06 am

Which is the best form of audio/music to add to amvs?? Is mp3 good or should it convert to some other form??

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:06 am

If you are happy with the sound an mp3 gives you, then by all means use it. Most consumers are happy with mp3. Turning mp3 in other formats will not make them sound any better; I'm assuming you were looking at WAV or AIFF files. Since mp3 compression as a process degrades the original sound source, it would be futile to convert it back.

However I personally like to use WAV files 44.1K or 48K, 16 or 24 bit. Generally I end up using 44.1 16 bit, since most music readly available is in this format. I start with the best sound possible, and when the need arises I compress down to smaller formats.

So to summarize, use your ears, if you are heppy with what you hear then go with that.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 1:54 pm

The thing is, though, you're right that decoding MP3 to PCM doesn't gain you any quality... however, video editing programs generally find PCM WAV files much easier to work with than MP3s. Less crashiness and whatnot.

If you plan to submit your video to a convention, it's highly recommended to rip a lossless WAV from the actual audio CD; convention speaker systems are generally very, very good, and therefore any flaws in the audio will be that much more audible. And you're going to have to recompress the audio when you send it in anyway.

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 6:55 am

Scintilla wrote:The thing is, though, you're right that decoding MP3 to PCM doesn't gain you any quality... however, video editing programs generally find PCM WAV files much easier to work with than MP3s. Less crashiness and whatnot.

This is an interesting point you've made, I'm curious, can you elaborate on this futher? My understanding of file handling is that relatively larger files such as WAV would be cumbersome and harder to mange, could the employment of a decoder during the process cause the problems you mantioned? I would like to know more.

narcted · Post by **narcted** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:10 pm

MP3s are compressed, so they take more resources to handle than less compressed formats. They also technically are inferior in sound quality because they depend on perpetual noise shaping.

madmallard · Post by **madmallard** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:04 pm

Scintilla wrote:The thing is, though, you're right that decoding MP3 to PCM doesn't gain you any quality... however, video editing programs generally find PCM WAV files much easier to work with than MP3s. Less crashiness and whatnot.

crashiness... yes. The less you give your pc to do at once, the better, especially if premier is your tool of choice.

....between your av and your sig, i got a headache...

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 12:30 am

Well here is the full answer for ADOBE

"MP3

You can import and export MP3 files with audio rates of 44.1 kHz 16-bit in Premiere with no loss of quality. Premiere converts imported MP3 files to uncompressed 44.1 kHz, 16-bit audio. MP3 files with other rates are resampled and may skip when you play or scrub them in the Timeline of DV-NTSC projects. (DV-NTSC projects use audio rates of 32 kHz and 48 kHz.)

Due to a limitation in the way that Premiere handles MP3 files, Adobe recommends that you use fixed bit rate encoded MP3 files in Premiere projects, instead of variable bit rate encoded MP3 files. "

So in fact, you can use MP3 files, however it's wise to follow the guidelines above, and as for Audio quality, you must ask yourself a question, if MP3 is such a bad format then why is the Ipod the biggest selling audio device today? Suggesting that when a person enters an environment presented with audio, I seriously doubt if that person could tell if the audio they are hearing is MP3 or WAV. Most people can't tell the difference. Given it's at a resonable bit rate.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 12:58 am

maciko wrote:... and as for Audio quality, you must ask yourself a question, if MP3 is such a bad format then why is the Ipod the biggest selling audio device today? Suggesting that when a person enters an environment presented with audio, I seriously doubt if that person could tell if the audio they are hearing is MP3 or WAV. Most people can't tell the difference. Given it's at a resonable bit rate.

You must remember that the audio is going to go through <i>another</i> round of compression:

1) When the editor encodes the video for Internet distribution. That is, unless s/he forgets to compress the audio (as quite a few people here have done) and thus ends up with an unnecessarily big file. If you didn't start with a pretty high-bitrate copy, the audio quality will often take an audible hit.

2) When the editor encodes the video for submission to a convention. Yes, the bitrate will be much higher in this case, but the sound system at the con will also be MUCH better quality, and any MP3 artifacting will therefore be that much more noticeable. (Even at last year's KoP Otakon prescreening, which was in someone's basement with merely a good surround sound setup, we could tell which videos had used low-bitrate MP3 audio sources.)

madmallard · Post by **madmallard** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:50 pm

so to summarise, use a *.wav file first in Premier, and then compress it down. Like the others said, you don't want to compress an existing *mp3...

if MP3 is such a bad format then why is the Ipod the biggest selling audio device today? Suggesting that when a person enters an environment presented with audio, I seriously doubt if that person could tell if the audio they are hearing is MP3 or WAV. Most people can't tell the difference. Given it's at a resonable bit rate.

They will if its a double compressed mp3 definetly. And most other amv editors i know start noticing about 160kps depending on the type of music. Do they listen? yes, but they still notice.

also, consider how many people who have ipods are into amvs. ;p