exporting high quality

[James P. Anderson]

hello i tried to open up an audacity project with itunes, audacity  
itself and quicktime.
normally i would have ahd no problems doing this, but i changed the  
bit rate sample to
96khz and 36 bit floating and then my project(vinyl to mp3 transfer)  
did not play in anything
including audacity. itunes previously ALWAYS accepted my mp3s i made  
in audacity. it did not
this time. quicktime also plays the recordings i make in audacity.  
once i changed those settings(cd quality i guess),
nothing played. audacity also would not open and play the file once i  
closed the app. and tried to open it by clicking
on the file with which i used audacity to create. what's wrong? i  
want to redo my vinyl collection at 96khz and 32 bit
for the best sound quality, but if nothing will play the mp3 exports
(and most importantly transfer to ipod, then i'm stuck with poor  
sounding stuff. i was AMAZED at the difference in
audio quality when i played back the recording at the new quality  
settings when audacity was still open and running.
jay

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    | From James P. Anderson
    | Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:10:50 -0700
    | Subject: [Audacity-help] exporting high quality
    | i tried to open up an audacity project with itunes, audacity  
    | itself and quicktime.
    | normally i would have ahd no problems doing this, but i changed the  
    | bit rate sample to
    | 96khz and 36 bit floating and then my project(vinyl to mp3 transfer)  
    | did not play in anything
    | including audacity. itunes previously ALWAYS accepted my mp3s i made  
    | in audacity. it did not
    | this time. quicktime also plays the recordings i make in audacity.  
    | once i changed those settings(cd quality i guess),
    | nothing played. audacity also would not open and play the file once i  
    | closed the app. and tried to open it by clicking
    | on the file with which i used audacity to create. what's wrong? i  
    | want to redo my vinyl collection at 96khz and 32 bit
    | for the best sound quality, but if nothing will play the mp3 exports
    | (and most importantly transfer to ipod, then i'm stuck with poor  
    | sounding stuff. i was AMAZED at the difference in
    | audio quality when i played back the recording at the new quality  
    | settings when audacity was still open and running.

CD quality is 44 100 Hz 16 bit, so recording at 96 000 Hz 32 bit is much
higher quality, roughly comparable to DVD-Audio (a high quality audio-only
DVD). But MP3 is a lossy compressed format that does not support a higher
sample rate than 48 000 Hz (hence the reason exporting MP3s at 96 000 Hz
does not work), and it's questionable if a great deal of the improvement from
recording at 96 000 Hz 32 bit will be audible in an MP3.

The highest quality MP3 you can export from Audacity is 48 000 Hz (set this
in the Project Rate button bottom left after you have made the recording
at 96 000 Hz), and 320 kbps (set this on the File Formats tab of Preferences,
at MP3 Export Setup).

An alternative solution to maintain as much quality as possible is to export as
a 96 00 Hz 16 bit WAV (File > Export as WAV, leave Project Rate at 96 000 Hz,
and set the Uncompressed Export Format on the File Formats tab of Preferences
to WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM) ). iTunes won't accept 32 bit WAVs or AIFFs.
Then convert the WAV to the lossless "Apple Lossless" format in iTunes which
a modern iPod will accept. You set the conversion format in iTunes in its
Preferences at Advanced > Importing: Import using Apple Lossless encoder.
Then you have a right-click or control-click option to convert the WAV to an
Apple Lossless file. This will be larger than the MP3 (typically it will take 4 MB
per minute compared to 1 MB per minute for MP3 and 10 MB per minute for
WAV) but it will have the same quality as the WAV export from Audacity.  

I assume if you are on OS X that iTunes will accept a 96 000 Hz file - it will on
Windows.


Gale Andrews            



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[James P. Anderson]

thanks that helped a lot.
i need to know something else, gale:

i have a piece of audio that i want to edit.

i have an audio segment that i have cut near the end and separated it from the original audio.
i want to duplicate/repeat the middle portion of the original audio (not the segment that i cut and separated).
however, i want the segment that i will duplicate/repeat to meet the segment that i cut flawlessly. this seemed
really easy, but it's not. i don't know how to do it. it isn't just a question only of cutting and pasting as i thought.
i need to be precise. i think i will be using the "right at playback position" and the "left at playback position" commands
but i do not know in what way.
jay


-----Original Message-----
From: Audacity Help [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Fri 7/27/2007 1:30 AM
To: Anderson, James
Cc: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Audacity-help] exporting high quality
 

    | From James P. Anderson
    | Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:10:50 -0700
    | Subject: [Audacity-help] exporting high quality
    | i tried to open up an audacity project with itunes, audacity  
    | itself and quicktime.
    | normally i would have ahd no problems doing this, but i changed the  
    | bit rate sample to
    | 96khz and 36 bit floating and then my project(vinyl to mp3 transfer)  
    | did not play in anything
    | including audacity. itunes previously ALWAYS accepted my mp3s i made  
    | in audacity. it did not
    | this time. quicktime also plays the recordings i make in audacity.  
    | once i changed those settings(cd quality i guess),
    | nothing played. audacity also would not open and play the file once i  
    | closed the app. and tried to open it by clicking
    | on the file with which i used audacity to create. what's wrong? i  
    | want to redo my vinyl collection at 96khz and 32 bit
    | for the best sound quality, but if nothing will play the mp3 exports
    | (and most importantly transfer to ipod, then i'm stuck with poor  
    | sounding stuff. i was AMAZED at the difference in
    | audio quality when i played back the recording at the new quality  
    | settings when audacity was still open and running.

CD quality is 44 100 Hz 16 bit, so recording at 96 000 Hz 32 bit is much
higher quality, roughly comparable to DVD-Audio (a high quality audio-only
DVD). But MP3 is a lossy compressed format that does not support a higher
sample rate than 48 000 Hz (hence the reason exporting MP3s at 96 000 Hz
does not work), and it's questionable if a great deal of the improvement from
recording at 96 000 Hz 32 bit will be audible in an MP3.

The highest quality MP3 you can export from Audacity is 48 000 Hz (set this
in the Project Rate button bottom left after you have made the recording
at 96 000 Hz), and 320 kbps (set this on the File Formats tab of Preferences,
at MP3 Export Setup).

An alternative solution to maintain as much quality as possible is to export as
a 96 00 Hz 16 bit WAV (File > Export as WAV, leave Project Rate at 96 000 Hz,
and set the Uncompressed Export Format on the File Formats tab of Preferences
to WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM) ). iTunes won't accept 32 bit WAVs or AIFFs.
Then convert the WAV to the lossless "Apple Lossless" format in iTunes which
a modern iPod will accept. You set the conversion format in iTunes in its
Preferences at Advanced > Importing: Import using Apple Lossless encoder.
Then you have a right-click or control-click option to convert the WAV to an
Apple Lossless file. This will be larger than the MP3 (typically it will take 4 MB
per minute compared to 1 MB per minute for MP3 and 10 MB per minute for
WAV) but it will have the same quality as the WAV export from Audacity.  

I assume if you are on OS X that iTunes will accept a 96 000 Hz file - it will on
Windows.


Gale Andrews            



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Tested on: 7/27/2007 9:30:20 AM






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[audacity-help mailing list]

    | From Anderson, James
    | Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:21:34 -0700
    | Subject: [Audacity-help] exporting high quality
    | i have a piece of audio that i want to edit.
    | i have an audio segment that i have cut near the end and separated it
    | from the original audio.
    | i want to duplicate/repeat the middle portion of the original audio (not
    | the segment that i cut and separated).
    | however, i want the segment that i will duplicate/repeat to meet the
    | segment that i cut flawlessly. this seemed
    | really easy, but it's not. i don't know how to do it. it isn't just a question
    | only of cutting and pasting as i thought.
    | i need to be precise. i think i will be using the "right at playback position"
    | and the "left at playback position" commands but i do not know in what way.

I assume you are using Audacity 1.3.3.

Those two commands won't help you extend a selection.  

I'd tend to do it selecting by the segment, Edit > Find Zero Crossings then
Edit > Split New it to a new track. Then you can Edit > Repeat your middle
section to extend rightwards past the segment below and Edit > Silence the
superfluous part from the point on the timeline where the segment starts.

Or you could leave the segment on the original track and use Time Shift
Tool to drag the right edge of the middle section to the segment. Then
you could select, Edit > Find Zero Crossings and Edit > Duplicate the middle
section to a new track, drag the duplicated part leftwards until its right edge
snaps to the left edge of the section above (note the yellow vertical line to
indicate the snap), then delete any superfluous track on the left edge of the
duplicated section.



Gale Andrews
   
,




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[BassBinDevil]

James P. Anderson wrote:

hello i tried to open up an audacity project with itunes, audacity itself and quicktime.
normally i would have ahd no problems doing this, but i changed the bit rate sample to
96khz and 36 bit floating and then my project(vinyl to mp3 transfer) did not play in anything
including audacity.

36 bits is wildly excessive.  Even 24 bits is more resolution than just about any playback or recording hardware is accurate to.  Try "Signed 24bit PCM"; that seems to be more compatible with other editors and players than floating point.  48 kHz is pretty good; unless you really plan to burn CDs I wouldn't go down to 44.1 kHz.  CDs are on their way out...

[audacity-help mailing list]

    | From BassBinDevil
    | Sun, 29 Jul 2007 04:23:03 -0700 (PDT)
    | Subject: [Audacity-help] exporting high quality
    | James P. Anderson wrote:
    | > hello i tried to open up an audacity project with itunes, audacity itself
    | > and quicktime.
    | > normally i would have ahd no problems doing this, but i changed the bit
    | > rate sample to
    | > 96khz and 36 bit floating and then my project(vinyl to mp3 transfer) did
    | > not play in anything
    | > including audacity.
    | 36 bits is wildly excessive.  Even 24 bits is more resolution than just
    | about any playback or recording hardware is accurate to.  Try "Signed 24bit
    | PCM"; that seems to be more compatible with other editors and players than
    | floating point.  48 kHz is pretty good; unless you really plan to burn CDs I
    | wouldn't go down to 44.1 kHz.  CDs are on their way out...

Actually he was exporting to MP3 for storage in iTunes, which was why the
96 000 Hz Project Rate gave him an invalid MP3. There is no such thing as
36 bit (he meant 32 bit) which was the Default Sample rate he was recording
at and is recommended if his computer is fast enough and has the disc space.


Gale Andrews
   


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[James P. Anderson]

gale,
    i don't get it. now i have a new issue that is REALLY  
confounding. the two last times i tried to export my file from  
audacity, i got an error message
saying that audacity needs to locate and use the  
libmp3lame ...etc..and it needed to find it first before exporting  
could happen. well, i already HAD
the particular mp3 encorder that audacity asked for. moreover, i  
never once had to download it again after i downloaded it the first  
time.
the first of the last two times i had to search for the encoder  
download. this was BEFORE i actually downloaded the latest version of  
audacity.

well, it happened to work, but i don't even remember what i did to  
make it work; that is the newly downloaded mp3 encoder. this last  
time, i got the same error message, and decided to email you before i  
downloaded again the encoder from the link at sourceforge.
why is it asking me to download the mp3 encoder again? i don't  
remember exactly how to make it work anyway once i do download it.
jay
On Jul 29, 2007, at 1:40 AM, Audacity Help wrote:

>
>     | From Anderson, James
>     | Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:21:34 -0700
>     | Subject: [Audacity-help] exporting high quality
>     | i have a piece of audio that i want to edit.
>     | i have an audio segment that i have cut near the end and  
> separated it
>     | from the original audio.
>     | i want to duplicate/repeat the middle portion of the original  
> audio (not
>     | the segment that i cut and separated).
>     | however, i want the segment that i will duplicate/repeat to  
> meet the
>     | segment that i cut flawlessly. this seemed
>     | really easy, but it's not. i don't know how to do it. it  
> isn't just a question
>     | only of cutting and pasting as i thought.
>     | i need to be precise. i think i will be using the "right at  
> playback position"
>     | and the "left at playback position" commands but i do not  
> know in what way.
>
> I assume you are using Audacity 1.3.3.
>
> Those two commands won't help you extend a selection.
>
> I'd tend to do it selecting by the segment, Edit > Find Zero  
> Crossings then
> Edit > Split New it to a new track. Then you can Edit > Repeat your  
> middle
> section to extend rightwards past the segment below and Edit >  
> Silence the
> superfluous part from the point on the timeline where the segment  
> starts.
>
> Or you could leave the segment on the original track and use Time  
> Shift
> Tool to drag the right edge of the middle section to the segment. Then
> you could select, Edit > Find Zero Crossings and Edit > Duplicate  
> the middle
> section to a new track, drag the duplicated part leftwards until  
> its right edge
> snaps to the left edge of the section above (note the yellow  
> vertical line to
> indicate the snap), then delete any superfluous track on the left  
> edge of the
> duplicated section.
>
>
>
> Gale Andrews
>
> ,
>
>
>
>
> Outbound message virus free.
> Tested on: 7/29/2007 9:40:40 AM
>
>
>

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    | From James P. Anderson
    | Thu, 6 Sep 2007 22:18:46 -0700
    | Subject: [Audacity-help] Mp3 encoder issue
    | I don't get it. now i have a new issue that is REALLY  
    | confounding. the two last times i tried to export my file from  
    | audacity, i got an error message
    | saying that audacity needs to locate and use the  
    | libmp3lame ...etc..and it needed to find it first before exporting  
    | could happen. well, i already HAD
    | the particular mp3 encorder that audacity asked for. moreover, i  
    | never once had to download it again after i downloaded it the first  
    | time.
    | the first of the last two times i had to search for the encoder  
    | download. this was BEFORE i actually downloaded the latest version of  
    | audacity.
    | well, it happened to work, but i don't even remember what i did to  
    | make it work; that is the newly downloaded mp3 encoder. this last  
    | time, i got the same error message, and decided to email you before i  
    | downloaded again the encoder from the link at sourceforge.
    | why is it asking me to download the mp3 encoder again? i don't  
    | remember exactly how to make it work anyway once i do download it.

Just to confirm, if you are still using Audacity 1.3.3 on an Intel Mac, this is  
the LAME binary that Audacity wants:
http://spaghetticode.org/lame/libmp3lame-osx-universal-3.97.zip

Use Stuffit or other application to extract libmp3lame.dylib as I presume
you have done before.

I would suggest that your Preferences file may have become corrupted,
at least as far as the MP3 encoder entry is concerned. The Preferences
file is called audacity.cfg and is stored at:
 
 ~/Library/Application Support/audacity.cfg

Exit Audacity then open audacity.cfg in a text editor and delete these two
lines:

[MP3]
MP3LibPath=

Then save audacity.cfg, open Audacity and tell it where to find
libmp3lame.dylib thus:

    * Click Audacity > Preferences.
    * Go to the 'File Formats' tab.
    * In the bottom of the window there is a section called 'MP3
       Export Setup'.
    * Click on the "Find Library" button  
    * This will ask you if you want to locate the lame encoder. Click 'yes'.
    * In the dialogue box, go to the folder where you put the unstuffed
       libmp3lame.dylib file, and select it.
    * Click OK.

On the same File Formats tab, you then set the bitrate of the exported
MP3. The default bitrate is 128 kbps. A higher bitrate gives you higher
quality at the expense of a larger filesize, and vice-versa. 128 kbps
takes up about 1 MB of space per minute.

Exit Audacity, which will save the new location of libmp3lame.dylib to
audacity.cfg and that ought to solve the problem. If you prefer not to
edit audacity.cfg, simply delete the file but you will then have to reset
all your Preferences again.  

Due to the quantity of email handled, please try and remind us of your
operating system and version of Audacity when you write. Audacity >
About Audacity will always tell you your version of Audacity.


Gale Andrews




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[James P. Anderson]

gale,
i apologize for not including the OS version and Audacity versions.  
They are, respectively, Mac OSX (intel), and Audacity 1.3.3 (beta)
the explanation in your email solved my issue. thank you!
jay
On Sep 7, 2007, at 1:37 AM, Audacity Help wrote:

>
>     | From James P. Anderson
>     | Thu, 6 Sep 2007 22:18:46 -0700
>     | Subject: [Audacity-help] Mp3 encoder issue
>     | I don't get it. now i have a new issue that is REALLY
>     | confounding. the two last times i tried to export my file from
>     | audacity, i got an error message
>     | saying that audacity needs to locate and use the
>     | libmp3lame ...etc..and it needed to find it first before  
> exporting
>     | could happen. well, i already HAD
>     | the particular mp3 encorder that audacity asked for. moreover, i
>     | never once had to download it again after i downloaded it the  
> first
>     | time.
>     | the first of the last two times i had to search for the encoder
>     | download. this was BEFORE i actually downloaded the latest  
> version of
>     | audacity.
>     | well, it happened to work, but i don't even remember what i  
> did to
>     | make it work; that is the newly downloaded mp3 encoder. this  
> last
>     | time, i got the same error message, and decided to email you  
> before i
>     | downloaded again the encoder from the link at sourceforge.
>     | why is it asking me to download the mp3 encoder again? i don't
>     | remember exactly how to make it work anyway once i do  
> download it.
>
> Just to confirm, if you are still using Audacity 1.3.3 on an Intel  
> Mac, this is
> the LAME binary that Audacity wants:
> http://spaghetticode.org/lame/libmp3lame-osx-universal-3.97.zip
>
> Use Stuffit or other application to extract libmp3lame.dylib as I  
> presume
> you have done before.
>
> I would suggest that your Preferences file may have become corrupted,
> at least as far as the MP3 encoder entry is concerned. The Preferences
> file is called audacity.cfg and is stored at:
>
>  ~/Library/Application Support/audacity.cfg
>
> Exit Audacity then open audacity.cfg in a text editor and delete  
> these two
> lines:
>
> [MP3]
> MP3LibPath=
>
> Then save audacity.cfg, open Audacity and tell it where to find
> libmp3lame.dylib thus:
>
>     * Click Audacity > Preferences.
>     * Go to the 'File Formats' tab.
>     * In the bottom of the window there is a section called 'MP3
>        Export Setup'.
>     * Click on the "Find Library" button
>     * This will ask you if you want to locate the lame encoder.  
> Click 'yes'.
>     * In the dialogue box, go to the folder where you put the  
> unstuffed
>        libmp3lame.dylib file, and select it.
>     * Click OK.
>
> On the same File Formats tab, you then set the bitrate of the exported
> MP3. The default bitrate is 128 kbps. A higher bitrate gives you  
> higher
> quality at the expense of a larger filesize, and vice-versa. 128 kbps
> takes up about 1 MB of space per minute.
>
> Exit Audacity, which will save the new location of libmp3lame.dylib to
> audacity.cfg and that ought to solve the problem. If you prefer not to
> edit audacity.cfg, simply delete the file but you will then have to  
> reset
> all your Preferences again.
>
> Due to the quantity of email handled, please try and remind us of your
> operating system and version of Audacity when you write. Audacity >
> About Audacity will always tell you your version of Audacity.
>
>
> Gale Andrews
>
>
>
>
> Outbound message virus free.
> Tested on: 9/7/2007 9:37:19 AM
>
>
>

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