Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality? (Read 7638 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Which is the best encoding method fastest encode, high quality encoding or highest quality encoding?

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #1 –
Best for what? Speed, or quality, or something else?

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #2 –
What do you mean by "encoding"?  Are you asking about the file format (WAV vs MP3, etc?).

The "studio standard" for recording & production seems to be 96kHz,  24-bit WAV.    Your final distribution format should be whatever you or your clients/customers want. 

In reality, there is no "quality" difference between 24/96 and 44.1kHz/16-bit (CD standard).  Although you may not hear a difference between WAV and lossy formats (MP3 or AAC), it's considered bad practice to use lossy files in production.    And, with repeated compression/decompression steps, the quality loss may become audible.

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: pdq on
Best for what? Speed, or quality, or something else?

Best for quality. mp3 quality at 320 kbps. I've used highest quality but it sounds kind of low I guess.

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #4 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
What do you mean by "encoding"?  Are you asking about the file format (WAV vs MP3, etc?).

The "studio standard" for recording & production seems to be 96kHz,  24-bit WAV.    Your final distribution format should be whatever you or your clients/customers want. 

In reality, there is no "quality" difference between 24/96 and 44.1kHz/16-bit (CD standard).  Although you may not hear a difference between WAV and lossy formats (MP3 or AAC), it's considered bad practice to use lossy files in production.    And, with repeated compression/decompression steps, the quality loss may become audible.

mp3 with the best quality. The the thing is I don't record I encode music and I want some recommendations for 320 kbps. I don't if you ever been to websites like [nope] to download music. They encode music and it sounds really nice high quality. I'm trying to as they do.

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #5 –
lame -b 320

but I would recommend:

lame -v 0

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #6 –
MP3, I presume. If so, why was this posted in General Audio?

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #7 –
Quote
mp3 with the best quality. The the thing is I don't record I encode music and I want some recommendations for 320 kbps.
320kbps is the highest MP3 bitrate.  Other than selecting the bitrate (or VBR quality setting) LAME is optimized for the best results by default, so unless you have some very-unusual situation you shouldn't have to "tweek" it.

Here are some recommended LAME settings for various situations.

At 320kbps, you it's very unlikely that you will hear any diference between the MP3 and your uncompressed original in a blind ABX Test.    In fact, you should be able to go even lower and not hear any difference.

Quote
They encode music and it sounds really nice high quality. I'm trying to as they do.
Of course, it has to sound good before it's compressed...  That's the hard part... 

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #8 –
This is what I mean in the red circle. http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/7222/v3tu.png

I want to know which is better if fastest encode, medium quality or highest quality?

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #9 –
Quote
I want to know which is better if fastest encode, medium quality or highest quality?
Move the slider to Highest Quality, of course.   

At higher bitrates the quality setting isn't as important, but you should avoid the lowest-quality "fastest" setting.  At lower bitrates where you are throwing-away more information and more-likely to get compression artifacts, it becomes more important to optimize the encoder.

Also, choose "Joint Stereo" instead of "Stereo".    "Joint Stereo" is "smarter" and it makes the best use of the bits (for the best quality), depending on the left/right sound in the file.    There is no downside, and you still get full-stereo playback.      With "Stereo", each channel would be encoded at half the bitrate (160 kbps) and sounds that are common to both channels would be encoded twice. 

I don't have ACID, so I'm not familiar with that interface/window.

One thing that looks odd is that your "Template" says 128kbps, but "Format" and 'Bitrate" both say 320.

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
With "Stereo", each channel would be encoded at half the bitrate (160 kbps) and sounds that are common to both channels would be encoded twice.

Actually, that would be what is described as "dual channel". Normal stereo allows more bits to be allocated to one channel than the other, as needed.

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Quote
I want to know which is better if fastest encode, medium quality or highest quality?
Move the slider to Highest Quality, of course.
You say that, but it looks like the same FhG codec pack that used to ship with CEP. If so, in at least one version of that encoder, choosing "highest quality" completely destroyed the quality - there was a bug.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=47949

I assume it's fixed, but I haven't used it for years so don't know. The fast option uses a different encoder giving completely different (and, at the time I used it) very good results. For VBR I'd always use lame, but sometimes FastEnc would be better for CBR. It's 7 years since I compared though!


The best objective quality isn't to save as mp3 at all, but to use FLAC or WAV.

For encoding mp3 to 320kbps, most people here would recommend Lame. Unless something is broken, or it's some very rare sample that gives a particular encoder problems, it's hard/impossible to hear the differences between half-decent encoders at that bitrate.

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...ncoder_settings

Cheers,
David.
 

SoundForge/ACID Pro: Which encodes fastest: high vs. highest quality?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Quote
I want to know which is better if fastest encode, medium quality or highest quality?
Move the slider to Highest Quality, of course.
You say that, but it looks like the same FhG codec pack that used to ship with CEP. If so, in at least one version of that encoder, choosing "highest quality" completely destroyed the quality - there was a bug.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=47949

I assume it's fixed, but I haven't used it for years so don't know. The fast option uses a different encoder giving completely different (and, at the time I used it) very good results. For VBR I'd always use lame, but sometimes FastEnc would be better for CBR. It's 7 years since I compared though!


The best objective quality isn't to save as mp3 at all, but to use FLAC or WAV.

For encoding mp3 to 320kbps, most people here would recommend Lame. Unless something is broken, or it's some very rare sample that gives a particular encoder problems, it's hard/impossible to hear the differences between half-decent encoders at that bitrate.

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...ncoder_settings

Cheers,
David.
How Do I use lame in soundforge?