VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[mythwoman]

Happy 4th Everyone!

There's no need for a quick answer here especially since its a holiday. But I feared that I might forget to ask this next day.

I use soundforge to record my auditions and surprisingly, I've started to get some work here and there. A new job I just got needs the recording to be in .wav

I'm so used to recording in mp3 though and under the save menu there are two forms of .wav

One says Scott Studios Wave
The other says (Wave) Microsoft

Can anyone tell me the difference and which is best?

This new job is for a DVD kids program and will be recorded on 48 khz on 24bit.

Oh, can someone also explain AIFF? On Voices.com sometimes clients ask for this.

Take care All!!!
Mary aka mythwoman

[Edo]

Hi Mary,

I'll just jump in for the 4th of July is no holiday here

The Scott Studio's WAV is designed to be directly imported in the radio automation software released by studio vendor Scott Studio's. It can hold information from their database... you don't need that.

The Microsoft WAVE file format is the common thing to use, and the files are marked "filename.wav". You have the option of recording up to 192k in Sound Forge, but as you stated, for video use 48k/24 bit is widely used. This is what you want to select for your output in Sound Forge.

Please be advised that recording or saving in MP3 involves a pretty strong datareduction, thus lowering the overall sound quality because vital volume information is lost in the compressing process. If you record in MP3, use the highest possible bitrate, like 320kb/s. Some engineers will be able to tell the difference, but the majority of people would hear the same quality as if it were uncompressed (studio quality) WAV-files.

AIFF stand for Audio Interchange File Format and is (like WAV) an uncompressed audio format, developed in the late eighties in cooperation with Apple Macintosh. Like WAV, AIFF also needs a lot of space, although nowadays harddisk capacity nor internet connectivity speeds play any significant role to not use these formats.

Most DAW's (Digital Audio Workstations) -in your case Sound Forge on your computer- can handle a variety of audio formats.

To save as .wav @ 48khz and 24 bits, you need to adjust your input in Sound Forge. Create a new file and hit record. In the window that pops up, select the [new] button and enter the appropriate values there (24 bits/48khz) and then select whether you want to record in mono or stereo, depending on the client's needs. One more thing for safety... hit the [calibrate] button and mark the DC Adjust box to get rid of any DC voltage getting into your recording. This often happens if you use internal soundcards. Some of the PSU's DC always leaks into the signal path. If you use external USB interfaces or soundcards, that is hardly the case at all. But just to be on the safe side, you'd better avoid DC in your recording. With the above information I presume your soundcard or interface supports the 48k/24bit recording sequence... it's not always the case, so look out for that.

The advantage of recording in 24 bits / 48khz is an overall higher sound quality. I hope I'm not getting too technical here, but hey I'm here now, I might as well tell you just the same

Every BIT of the 16 or 24 (or even 32 bits!) represents a dynamic space of 6dB, hence in 16 bits you'll experience 96dB dynamic range. At 24 bits that value increases to 144dB, a significantly higher value. A large orchestra in a concert hall would have dynamic ranges like that, audible to the human ear. I'll leave the 32 for now, for there's a lot of difficult matter surrounding that... Now the difference between recording in 44.1Khz (cd format) and 48k (used in video and DVD) is simply a matter of more frequency spectrum to play with. ---and now comes the really technical stuff--- In the digital domain you make rounding errors due to the quantization. If all processing is done in the 16 bit domain, these rounding errors will build up and therefore decrease the signal to noise ratio SNR. If all the processing is done in the 24 bit domain and the audio is quantized to 16 bits per sample afterwards, these rounding errors will be negligible (if that's the proper English word, I'm not sure).

Okay... back on earth...

Please follow the instructions in blue and you'll be safe




Oh... and happy 4th of July to everyone it applies to (this being a global forum and all)... I hope the fireworks are as wonderful as the voices in here!

[Lizden]

What Edo said.

Liz
_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[mythwoman]

Cool,

Very technical stuff but it helps tremendously. I tried to explain to the producers how I mainly use my studio for auditions but I think they're okay with me using it to record jobs too.

Actually, I recorded a commercial for a client through Voices.com using 44.1 khz with 16-bit and saving it as mp3. It sounded okay with the music they added in the video they sent me.

But this project is a kids program and will likely require more clarity.

Thanks so much for taking time during the holidays to help me out Edo!

Mary aka mythwoman

[Edo]

As I said Mary, 4th of July is no holiday where I'm at... and even if it was, I'd still have that answer ready for you I think. This forum is so awesome, I just need to pay back sometime for all the knowledge I gained here. And what better way than to help other people out by sharing experiences?

To just focus on your "saving to MP3", please be sure to save as an MP3 with the SoundForge template (it's when you save the file) set to highest standards like:

"256 Kbps, CD Transparent Audio"
"320 Kbps, CD Transparent Audio"

or when saving to 48 Khz MP3:

"Highest Quality VBR Stereo Audio"

Then you'll never have to worry about the loss of sound quality whereas the value 192 Kbps or lower will already cause some audible artifacts or even distorted sound suffering from the data reduction. Stay away from that always, and aim for the highest quality. Your clients will love you for it, and at the same time you give them no cause to ever question your skills...

[mythwoman]

Edo,

Please forgive me, I often forget to see where people are from as since the names are in bold and their location is in a smaller font.

Take care and thanks again for the advice!
Mary aka mythwoman

[Eddie Eagle]

You will need a 24 bit sound card and pre amp or power source with 24 bit capability to save a 24 bit file.

[mythwoman]

Alrighty folks,

I have yet another question to add to this post because its basically still the same topic.

I've been given my assignment on how to record:
48/24 uncompressed .wav files

And it's not due till the end of July.

I've followed every bit of advice here so far that makes sense.

But I think I missed what exactly they mean by 'compressed' .wav files.

So... could anyone help me out with this too?

Later!
Mary aka mythwoman

[bobsouer]

[mythwoman]

Thanks Bob!

I'm terrible at technical directions. But if I just stick with 48/24 and record it'll be okay? Even when I save it as a Microsoft Wave file, not the Scott Studios Wave?

Mary aka mythwoman

[bobsouer]

Mary,

If you record at 48K/24bit, and save as a WAV with your WAV template set to 48K/24bit then yes, it will just save in that format. If you're not familiar with the templates, just look at the SAVE dialog in Sound Forge. In the group of pull-down lists and text boxes in the bottom half of the dialog, you'll see the box for the name of the file, below that the "save as type" pull down list, and below that a pull-down list of recent locations. Below that is the pull down list for templates. Right under the template list is a box with a description of the settings for your default template (unless you've applied some other template, in which case it will show the settings for that template) and if you recorded at 48K / 24bit, that should be reflected in the text in that box right under the template pull-down.

I hope that helps.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[mythwoman]

Yes, thanks again Bob!

Mary aka mythwoman