What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.
I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?
Advise appreciated....... thnx!

I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?

Anything uncompressed (eg .wav files) or one of the lossless compression
schemes. The tools you're using to do the edits will generally prefer
the former.

In article writes:

What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.
I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?

The only degradation you'll suffer as long as you stay in the
uncompressed format (WAV or AIFF) is what you do with your editing or
processing. There is no equivalent to "generation loss" when saving
and re-opening a file.

It's pretty much a given that you'll be working with uncompressed
files, since MP3 editors and processors are somewhat limited.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 20:14:37 +0800, Racer wrote:


What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.
I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?

By not using a compressed file format.
One normally records wav files. Were you considering something else?

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:33:42 +0100, Laurence Payne
wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 20:14:37 +0800, Racer wrote:


What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.
I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?

By not using a compressed file format.
One normally records wav files. Were you considering something else?

I wasn't sure but thanks to you all for the info
that I should stick to uncompressed formats
like 'wav' until all editing is finished and only
then, convert it finally to 'mp3'.
thnx!

"Racer" wrote in message
...

What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.
I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?
Advise appreciated....... thnx!

Linear PCM files. That's often WAV format in PC-Land and AIFF in MacWorld.
Some applications may favour other or proprietry pCM formats.

geoff

Racer wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:33:42 +0100, Laurence Payne
wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 20:14:37 +0800, Racer wrote:


What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.
I mean, how do you avoid gradual signal
degradation with each edit/save operation?

By not using a compressed file format.
One normally records wav files. Were you considering something else?

I wasn't sure but thanks to you all for the info
that I should stick to uncompressed formats
like 'wav' until all editing is finished and only
then, convert it finally to 'mp3'.
thnx!

The primary concerns in avoiding any degradation
is to avoid any unneeded sample-rate conversions
and bit-depth reductions, particularly truncation.
If your final format is a CD (or a 44.1/16 MP3)
then start and stay at 44.1kHz.
Use 24 bit all the way through and dither to 16bit
just before making a CD and ruining (converting)
to MP3 ;-]
Edits and other processing will be more accurate
at 24Bit.
These points are well debated in these threads
but any degradation will be minimal with this approach.

good luck
rd

"Racer" wrote in message
...

What audio file formats do you use if ........ if your
first recording is a band and you know that the
music file produced will be open, edited and
saved many many times before finally being
made available in the MP3 format.

By far the most universally readable format is .wav. Broadcast .wav is the
only international standard that is expected to be supported indefinitely.

I don't use anything else and convert almost everything I take in to that
format. This is because one never knows at the time when one is quite
literally making history or at least may need to use the files again after
20 years.

--
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com