> Lou Judson wrote:
>
>> 3. As far as I know you can only make MP3s from 16 bit audio.
I use Adobe Audition for this job, which can produce Mp3's from any format.=
I tend to be going from 32bit float or poss 24 Integer and sometimes 16 bit=
.
I've not done critical listenening comparisons recently (about 5 years ago=
actually) but comparing the LAME encoder to Fraunhofer one in Cool Edit Pro=
V1.2 (an earlier version of Audition) the Fraunhofer one was the clear
winner also at the time LAME didn't do variable bit rate encoding which can=
be VERY useful IMO.
>> dither 24 to 16 and save as a new files before compression.
Yes this is the conventional wisdom but IMO an oversimplification:-
Dither is great, makes digital audio linier rather than steppy, a possible=
issue is it does this by adding a small amount of noise - typically noise
will be added at about -95dB on a 16 bit dither.
Almost all recordings will have courtesy of Ambient noise, mic & mic amp
noise rather greater than that anyway so:--
In practice most "nature" recordings will self dither without any extra
help.
So IMO in these cases only dither if:--
1) in post production you fade to zero or otherwise create sound files with=
sound levels below about 90dB below max level.
2) you are recording very loud stuff
On the other hand the ambient/mic/amp noise will likely be so much louder
than the dither signal that whilst it may do no good the harm is very
minimal - but hey if it's not needed why add it?
To paraphrase others comments good advice
Use highest quality for the original record [you will need headroom and you=
may need to drag some very quiet stuff up in level]
This can be very successfully squeezed into a lesser format for listening
enjoyment
John L
|