Question about audio format.

I

ironpony

Carbonite Member
I got music scored for me from a guy who lives far away, which I have not done before. I wanted to cause I liked his music. But I'm not really technologically knoledgible in this area. What format should I have the music maled to me in? wav, mp3, H.264? What is highest best quality to present a movie with at festivals? It also has to be a format that Premiere Pro will accept since I am getting it maled back to me, and I will edit the music into the movie. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
ironpony said:
I got music scored for me from a guy who lives far away, which I have not done before. I wanted to cause I liked his music. But I'm not really technologically knoledgible in this area. What format should I have the music maled to me in? wav, mp3, H.264? What is highest best quality to present a movie with at festivals? It also has to be a format that Premiere Pro will accept since I am getting it maled back to me, and I will edit the music into the movie. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Ditto what Gary said, Lossy compressed file formats like mp3 or H.264 are okay for final distribution but should never be used as a recording format for source files.
 
I don't think it's being used as a recording format. I will ask him. But is H.264 the best for final distribution?
 
Well you're going to take the music he sends you and put it into your movie and then export the movie to give to the festival right? So you want him to send you the music as either a WAV (windows) or AIFF (apple). Use that music in your movie, and then export it. Exporting it is more complex than just choosing a format name as it depends on a whole host of settings you have for what you want and what the festival requirements are. But for SURE, you want the music sent to you to be in WAV or AIFF, 16 or 24 bit, 44.1 or 48k. You'll need to convert it to 16bit 48k for editing purposes but you can do that yourself w/o losing quality.
 
H.264 is a hi-def video distribution format codec, not an audio format per se. Whether you use it depends on what you're doing with your finished movie, if it's HD or SD, and the requirements of the festival or distribution. For that matter, you might export your finished movie in several different formats depending on the destination of the copy. But it's NOT an appropriate format in which you should receive the music files from your composer.
 
ironpony said:
I got music scored for me from a guy who lives far away, which I have not done before. I wanted to cause I liked his music. But I'm not really technologically knoledgible in this area. What format should I have the music maled to me in? wav, mp3, H.264? What is highest best quality to present a movie with at festivals? It also has to be a format that Premiere Pro will accept since I am getting it maled back to me, and I will edit the music into the movie. Thanks.
Click to expand...

You 'want' WAV or AIFF format, no compression 48k sample rate at 24 bits.

This is also the same 'setup' you need for any original recording for dialog, foley, or other sound effects.

The only variation would be accept 16 bits if the device is not capable of 24.

There is Broadcast WAV which provides for metadata, but that is not an absolute requirement.

Premiere Pro will accept both file formats.
 
I believe Premiere Pro's timelines operate at 32 bit floating point. Can anyone confirm this?
 
ironpony said:
I got music scored for me from a guy who lives far away, which I have not done before. I wanted to cause I liked his music. But I'm not really technologically knoledgible in this area. What format should I have the music maled to me in? wav, mp3, H.264? What is highest best quality to present a movie with at festivals? It also has to be a format that Premiere Pro will accept since I am getting it maled back to me, and I will edit the music into the movie. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Definitely 24-bit WAV :thumbsup:

You want the original to be the very best quality possible.
 
I've recently resurrected a recording I made back in the 90s (I've always used Cubase for music production) and was a bit surprised by the 'old' sound. Most of my old stuff is still quite usable. I tracked it down to me having made the mistake of converting the midi sound sources to audio files in mp3 NOT wav as I normally do. Even though these mp3s were only of synths and electric pianos, the difference was quite obvious. More annoying was I obviously didn't notice at the time!
 
Okay thanks. What 96khz, better than 48, or should I go with 48? The rest of the audio was recorded at 96.
 
ironpony said:
Okay thanks. What 96khz, better than 48, or should I go with 48? The rest of the audio was recorded at 96.
Click to expand...

Can you restate your question? It doesn't make too much sense. Are you saying that the music was recorded at 96kHz? That's not out of the ordinary. Or are you saying the "rest of the audio" meaning "dialog" was recorded at 96kHz? That's out of the ordinary for film. If the music was recorded at 96Khz and you're working in a 48kHz timeline, you're going to have to SRC it at some point. Even for feature films, I've seen music recorded at 96kHz -- it will be SRC'd to 48kHz (to match everything else) by the MADI box on the way to the console (or at some point prior to hitting the console).
 
If the composer is making music to match what happens in the film, then you want him or her to export it in a format so that when you import it, the music will be in the correct place in the film - just like when the composer made it. For that, you use OMF or AIFF.
 
Jema said:
If the composer is making music to match what happens in the film, then you want him or her to export it in a format so that when you import it, the music will be in the correct place in the film - just like when the composer made it. For that, you use OMF or AIFF.
Click to expand...

Typically, what I've seen is the scoring mixer deliver music stems as .wav files. There should be an accompanying Excel sheet of some sort that clearly states where each music cue (which consists of stems) is placed - usually indicated by timecode. If not, the timestamp will suffice too.
 
John Willett said:
Definitely 24-bit WAV :thumbsup:

You want the original to be the very best quality possible.
Click to expand...

Agreed. However, if the composer generated the music in 16-bit, and I've seen this happen, there's no point in up-converting it.


ironpony said:
Okay thanks. What 96khz, better than 48, or should I go with 48? The rest of the audio was recorded at 96.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, why is all the other audio recorded at 96kHz? Unless you're going to be doing some pretty intense signal manipulation in post, 96kHz is overkill and a complete waste of storage space. Audio for digital video runs at a native 16-bit, 48kHz resolution. Recording in 24-bit, 48kHz is a good idea to preserve detail on lower-level sound sources. 96kHz is only really useful at all for FX recording where the sounds will be bent and stretched all over the place.

Also, do you know how your audio post-production will be handled? If you're mixing in your NLE (bad idea), then you're working with it at 16/48. If you're sending it to a post suite (recommended) that uses a DAW like ProTools, then chances are it will be edited and mixed at 24/48.
 
Typically, what I've seen is the scoring mixer deliver music stems as .wav files. There should be an accompanying Excel sheet of some sort that clearly states where each music cue (which consists of stems) is placed - usually indicated by timecode. If not, the timestamp will suffice too.
Click to expand...
Yes, that works fine too - it slipped my mind! Thanks.
Come to think of it, I've seen composers make wav files of their music including all pauses, so it's a soundtrack running the entire length of the movie. Then you just import it and it usually works as is.
 
Why 24 bit 96K? To be honest, because you can. The audio producers all have golden ears and argue endlessly about resolution and bit rate. 16 bit 44.1KHz sampling is standard for CD release. 24 bit expands things and can be heard working well on material with wide dynamic ranges. I can't hear any longer the difference between 44.1 and 48KHz sampling, and 96KHz to me now sounds the same. Other people claim that they can hear the difference. However, as data storage and cpu load are rarely an issue, I see no reason to NOT record at the best quality (which is proven by the physics) you can.
 
paulears said:
Why 24 bit 96K? To be honest, because you can. The audio producers all have golden ears and argue endlessly about resolution and bit rate. 16 bit 44.1KHz sampling is standard for CD release. 24 bit expands things and can be heard working well on material with wide dynamic ranges. I can't hear any longer the difference between 44.1 and 48KHz sampling, and 96KHz to me now sounds the same. Other people claim that they can hear the difference. However, as data storage and cpu load are rarely an issue, I see no reason to NOT record at the best quality (which is proven by the physics) you can.
Click to expand...

As an odd question... when a recording device is put into 96K Hz mode, does that also change the input filter to have a cut off of 48K Hz? Or would it remain at 24K, which would be appropriate for 48K Hz?
 
Alex H. said:
Agreed. However, if the composer generated the music in 16-bit, and I've seen this happen, there's no point in up-converting it.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily - it's a great shame he did it at 16-bits, but if you are editing it with other stuff recorded at 24-bits (which is the norm nowadays) it would be best to up-convert the music to 24-bits and do all the editing at 24-bits.



Alex H. said:
Just out of curiosity, why is all the other audio recorded at 96kHz? Unless you're going to be doing some pretty intense signal manipulation in post, 96kHz is overkill and a complete waste of storage space. Audio for digital video runs at a native 16-bit, 48kHz resolution. Recording in 24-bit, 48kHz is a good idea to preserve detail on lower-level sound sources. 96kHz is only really useful at all for FX recording where the sounds will be bent and stretched all over the place.

Also, do you know how your audio post-production will be handled? If you're mixing in your NLE (bad idea), then you're working with it at 16/48. If you're sending it to a post suite (recommended) that uses a DAW like ProTools, then chances are it will be edited and mixed at 24/48.
Click to expand...

96kHz means that you can have gentle filters rather than brick-wall filters at 20kHz - but, I agree, that 48kHz is normanny fine for video.

I would never originate at 16-bits (HD video is standardised at 24/48 I think, rather than 16/48) as 24-bits gives you the safety headroom and a much better ability to manipulate and edit without compromising the quality.
 
"For that, you use OMF or AIFF"
Jema, do you mean 'AAF' (Advanced Authoring Format) which is similar to a OMF? Both of which contain an EDL and insert clips at the proper place on a timeline as well as other parameters such as, volume & envelopes, pan, fades, ect. depending on the NLE or DAW.
- I concur, a 24 bit PCM file from the music folk. Normally 48k for video use.
- If the video is destined for MP4, a (data compressed) AAC audio file is the norm. The Nero AAC encoder is arguably one of the better AAC encoders. The Nero encoder requires a command prompt or third-party GUI.

OT... I survived Hurricane Sandy, but a tree fell on my house, luckily there is minimal structural damage, but loss of power, internet, ect. Still no power, ect. as of today, 11-07. )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top