Instagram Audio Quality

[Adam5FA8]

Hi guys,

I make beat videos which I upload to instagram (as a standard post).

I use a WAV file of the beat in after effects and I render out through media encoder.

The specs for my render are H.264 2560x1440, AAC 320Kbps 44.1kHz. I've A/B'd multiple different video specs and they seem to make no impact on the audio quality. I've also A/B'd multiple audio settings including using different bitrates, using an MP3 instead of a WAV file, and using different sample rates. The best audio I found was with the above mentioned specs. 

Here's my problem, the audio that comes straight out of adobe media encoder loses some top end information like it has been lowpassed. And then when uploading to instagram it loses even more and the hihats and top end material becomes phasey as well. I tried rendering the same video out in the same specs through FL Studio (zgame visualiser software) and found that it kept all of the top end information in tact. However upon uploading this video to instagram it plays back with all the highs in tact but it creates a really weird and phasey stereo field.

So I'm left with option A, render through after effects and lose top end information, or render through FL Studio and get phasing artifacts, neither of which I'm happy with. 

I was wondering if anyone knew of any way to keep the highs intact when rendering through after effects and If there was another export setting that instagram supports that has better audio quality??

Thanks!!

[Mylenium]

I'm not clear what you are saying. It simply sounds like you're completely messing up the audio beforehand by overcranking the levels or individual frequency bands. Things like master levels and evening out the spectrum distribution do matter. Outside dedicated audio programs that support 24bit audio and such some stuff will simply be lost. That's just how it is. Normal audio players have no way of dealing with out-of-range amplitudes nor are they able to smooth out and reconstruct clipped samples. In addition, MP3/ MP4 will of course always be quantized to the respective bands used by their algorithms, so there is no point in using excessive settings to begin with, even more so since AE is terrible at resampling audio. Ideally, source audio and output audio settings must be identical so AE simply passes it through. Again, you almost definitely need to fix your audio files and master them suitably, not expect the encoders to handle out-of-spec audio correctly. Start by actually checking your audio waveform and at the very least bring it down to a common broadcast spec like -3 or -6 dB. That alone could greatly improve encoding results.

Mylenium

[Adam5FA8]

Thanks Mate!

I guess my point is why does after effects remove my top end but the alternative software keep it? If the resulting audio was similar across the two I'd look to mixing/mastering issues however I tried mastering to lower levels and still recieved the same issue. And the fact that the FL Studio video kept the top end and the after effects video didn't tells me that it may be something to do with how after effects is processing my audio rather than the details of my mix. My main question is what is the best render settings to achieve the best quality audio in adobe media encoder, for upload to instagram?? There doesn't seem to be much information on this online

[Rick Gerard]

If you want the best audio quality your audio tracks should be optimized in a program like Audition and saved as 40kHz 16 bit PCM WAV files. You should follow all audio standards. When you render your master using the Render Cue, or render for distribution using the Adobe Media Encoder, don't mess with the presets. They are all properly set up to industry standards. Fiddling with the audio and the video settings is asking for your streaming server to recompress your video with a sledgehammer. Everybody that streams video, runs it through their own compression system so they can build multiple versions to stream depending on the bandwidth. You have to follow their recommendations. I've never had any problems rendering audio from After Effects or Premiere Pro if I have properly prepared the source file and the final mix. This is something you can't eyeball, you have to know what you are doing and you have to know how to understand what the dials are telling you, and most of all, if you want a really good audio mix, you have to have a really good way to monitor the sound. Computer speakers are just barely adequate for mixing for computer speakers.