Quick Question about Sound Forge!

[Scott Pollak]

I'm in the process of recording narration (a ton of it) for a client in India.

I'm mastering the recordings as stereo .wav files, but also sending them stereo .mp3, 128k, for them to use. Why in stereo I have no idea.

But they asked if there will be a loss of quality if they edit the files in Sound Forge. I can't imagine that there would be, or why.

Does anyone know if, in fact, there WOULD be any loss of quality if they take my .mp3 files and edit them in Sound Forge?

[jason216]

Scott I use sound forge to master everything I do. There is no way that the quality is effected...If you use the right bit depth and sample rate...umm 128 is 128 is 128 and 16 bit is 16 bit...if the signal is hot enough all should be good. you can also send them 198 and 24 or 32 bit but cd standards are still at 16 bit - 128...so unless they are doing a movie and need 198 or higher...you're good to go. Also sometimes people like stereo files for two reasons
1. They just don't know any better
2. They might want to process them in some way...like only do one side or something...but that's rare

I usually take the mp3's however and convert them to wave files...do what I need done..then convert back to mp3's...that way you do get all, or at least some of the freq's you need before you dumb them back down again. But in reality...if you start with an mp3...you're already missing a lot of info...

but you're right...we speak in mono and they can be converted to stereo-like files (dual mono) but I've never sent a stereo file that was sent back because it was mono...stereo takes up room on your hard drive also...why send stereo if you don't have too.


Good to talk to you again
Jason

[jsgilbert]

Anytime you do something in an MP3, regardless of the software and then re-save to Mp3, you get additional lossy compression. This is the nature of the beast, regardless of the platform or editing software.

128k stereo is the equivalent of 64k mono. It already is considerably less than 256 k stereo (128k per track) or what most people refer to as the minimum for CD quality.

As for Soundforge it self, I have found that its Codecs and plugins are of extremely high quality and I would put them up against most of the ones out there.

[jason216]

Yeah...What he said...LOL

Hi JS...
Jason

[Colin Campbell]

128k is fine for mono but as JS states, in stereo the mp3 codec has to crunch more and it's not so hot.

They should accept mono 128, do their editing and then if they must, convert to stereo (though I can't imagine why.)

The ultimate would be to send them the .wav files, have them edit them and then save them however they please.

[Paul Plack]

Is there any reason to ever send a "dual mono" voice track? Every editor I've seen, including the audio segments of video software, would happily mix stereo music and SFX with mono voice, and allow panning the mono voice to the desired location in the stereo field of the mix.

I'd lean heavily on the "doesn't know any better" hypothesis. Perhaps educating the client is an opportunity for value added here, especially if he's already thinking about quality.

[jsgilbert]

Often when mixing to film or video, combining mono and stereo tracks can be an issue. I have 7 spots that have have the audio redone becuase the voice only comes out of one speaker. If the final mix is going to be stereo (2 track) then the mono v.o. track should be converted to a sereo track as well. V.O. doesn't gain or lose anything going back and forth from stereo to mono as long as it's kept in a lossless format (wav/ aif) It is eseentially a single mono track vs. 2 mono tracks.

Also, various conversion codecs that will convert into web video or PDA or cell phone video, may also have issues ifthe source audio is off kilter. In these cases, things like variable bit rates and other things can become pretty important. Good flash programmers will usually ask for me to give them wav files at 44.1k 16bit for them to do their own encoding. Sometimes I am asked to do the conversion when a flash programmer doesn't have great audio conversion tools or if they have little experience on the audio end of things.

Learning these aspects of the "job" makes you a more valuable commodity. Realize that there is a value to doing editing, mixing, sound sweetening (removing breaths) converting, etc. Everything takes you time and potentially creates a level of responsibility where something can go wrong. In the chain, there are numerous people who get paid for these contributions and this all takes time and often requires lots of time to get proper communication and sign off. Don't hand it away along with a low fee.