Best render settings - after effects

[georgec59914511]

Hey

I know this question gets asked millions of times but struggling to find a good answer to my question

I'm uploading music videos to Youtube. I'm using WAV audio in my project and wondering what the best render settings would be to export it for youtube? These videos need to have the best possible quality audio. Im exporting with media encoder 2017 cc. I'm assuming just select the Youtube preset. Should I change any of the settings?

Audio codec AAC, Version 1, Version 2?

Stereo, mono, 5.1?

Any advice? thanks!

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

If you are uploading to YouTube use the YouTube preset that comes with the AME that matches your project settings. Only monkey with the presets if you have carefully studied formats, compression, YouTube standards and recommendations, and you have become an expert. Any messing around with the switches without a really good understanding of what they do is just asking for trouble because YouTube, and any other streaming service, will look at your upload and re-compress it to fit their standards. The farther off you are from the recommendations the less likely that the automatic re encoding of your video will be high quality.

On another note, preparing Audio for it's best reproduction also requires a fairly extensive knowledge of hot do mix and prepare audio for delivery. AE is not to tool to use to make audio refinements. Study up on Audition and make sure you have a good understanding of how mixing, eq, compression, loudness and everything else effects the final quality of your audio. Again, there is no single click this button and set this value answer to your question. It requires time, study, expertise and skill. That's why a good audio engineer is $$$$ per hour, and worth every penny.

One more thing. If you really want to to a great job you can't accurately judge audio without an equalized audio playback system in a balanced room with good speakers set at the appropriate listening distance. There's no way to know exactly what you are getting without the right tools.

I hope this helps. If you are not happy with the audio you are getting when you upload to YouTube and you are using the presets in the AME then your audio problem is not in the compression settings, it's in the audio track.

[georgec59914511]

Hi thanks for your reply. I'm not using AE to refine audio. All audio has been professionaly produced using Pro tools, mixed and mastered by engineers. My question was about rendering settings and nothing to do with mixing? I have produced the music videos and was simply wondering if the youtube preset was infact the best quality option to use. I'm not familiar with AE as I normally use FCP. I will use the youtube preset then. Thanks

[VICTORIA2554591449fw]

whats the best high quality render settings for editing in resolve an animated 3d object with lots of strong angular lines

[Rick Gerard]

If you are rendering a composition for further editing, you should use the Render Queue and the default High Quality or High Quality With Alpha (if you need transparency) Output Module presets. Until you acquire an expert understanding of formats and compression settings, or you are given specific rendering instructions from a client, just use the defaults. 

Do not render an MP4 if you are doing some more editing. All MP4's are only 8-bit, the color is compressed in blocks of 4 pixels, the luminance is compressed, and only 1 out of 3 frames are actually all pixels. The P and B frames are predicted by guessing where the pixels move and where the color goes.

[VICTORIA2554591449fw]

Indeed. What I want to know is whats the best codec to output

[Rick Gerard]

The Output Module presets I mentioned will give you visually lossless 8-bit files. You can increase the bit depth of the presets to Trillions of colors. I have done that because of the work that I do, and I made the changes using the Edit/Templates/Output Module menu. I never render 8Bit for anything except test renders for client approval. Those are always H.264 using the YouTube preset in the Media Encoder.

I also created a half dozen custom presets that my clients requested, using everything from EXR and DPX sequences to DNxHR. I rarely fiddle with Output Module settings in the Render Queue because I have edited or added presets for all of my normal workflows.

[eikonoklastes]

Recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help