AV News 190 - November 2012
Firstly may I say that if you already use a piece of software and are happy
with it - then fine I have no wish to make anyone change their software or
their method of working .... but to humour me, maybe on one of our
somewhat frequent rainy days, you might like to try the following experiment
and then let me know how you get on.
Download a copy of Audacity version 2 and then download some free sound
effects from one of the websites (You might try www.sounddogs.com). Select
ones that have different sample rates and some that are .WAV and some that
are .MP3.
Make a new project and then import a number of these files onto the
various tracks. Press play and you will hear that all the tracks play in the mix.
You can then export the combined tracks as a wav file at 44,100hz.
Now open your usual audio software and carry out the same procedure but
ensuring that on this occasion the first track you put in has a sample rate of
44,100hz. When you then try and add in the other tracks that are of a lower
sample rate the following message usually appears:
'Sample rates different! The sample format of this file being inserted is
different to that of the multitrack session. Pressing OK will first make a copy
of the file and then allow you to adjust the conversion setting'.
What it in fact does is to allow you to convert the lower sample rate file to
44,100hz by adding more slices to the waveform and it then saves it as a
separate new file. Why does it do this? Because unfortunately the program
can only handle files having the same sample rate within the multitracks.
Well what is the problem in doing that I hear you ask?
Well nothing really as your output mix will be at the desired 44,100, CD
quality .... but of course you end up with lots of additional files stored on your
computer. However we have not quite finished with our testing!
Now start another session but this time ensure that the first track you insert
has a low sample rate - let us say 8,000hz. Now when you then try and add
in a 44,100hz track the same message will come up....but this time you will
have no option but to convert that 44,100hz track to 8,000hz - all tracks will
be converted down to 8,000hz!
Why hasn't anyone noticed this problem before?
I suspect that this is because some people go out and record every part of
their soundtracks themselves be it voiceovers or sound effects and have
therefore recorded all of their tracks at the preferred 44,100hz.
The problem only becomes apparant when you try and use lower
resolution (but often adequate) third party historic or archive recordings
within your mix.
Audacity, despite it being somewhat looked down on because it is a free
program, is extremely versatile in that it plays and mixes whatever tracks you
put in without problems. It then allows you to mix the tracks together and then
export the resulting file either as a MP3 or WAV at whatever resolution you
wish. Give it a try!!
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