The quality of audio in editing vs. hearing it over the stereo

[Nicole285476060td9]

Hello,

 Is there any insight as to why the quality of audio sounds much better in Audition than when it is played over a car stereo? I convert the final to Media Encoder.

Thanks, 

Nicole

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

If the same file sounds fine in Audition, but not so good on your car stereo... then you need a better car stereo!

[Nicole285476060td9]

Haha! This is true. 

Steve, I read some other threads about reducing breathing sounds, and I tried using the multitrack compressor and moving the controls down a bit (after selecting broadcast), which seems to have slightly helped. Are there any other techniques to use in Audition? Just to remove the harshness of the breath, not the breath itself.

Also, would changing the quality in which I convert the mp3 matter? For example, MP3 128 kbps vs. MP3 256 kbps High Quality

Thanks!

 Nicole

[Nicole285476060td9]

Correction: multiband compressor, not multitrack

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

You really need to do expansion, not compression. Things to try: first normalize your file to -1dB (this is the level that all the compression presets are adjusted to work at) and then go to Effects>Amplitude and Compression>Dynamics Processing and start with the Compander preset. This will give a very slight boost to the main body of speech, but will reduce the level of the lower level sounds, which tend to be where the breathing noises are. That said, you may have to play around with it to optimise it for your particular vocal.

As to whether the MP3 data rate makes a difference - well it always does, although how much difference it will make to speech is a bit moot. 128k generally sounds pretty awful, but now that Audition has the LAME encoder, it might be a teeny bit better than it was with the Fraunhofer one we had to put up with for ages.

[Nicole285476060td9]

How do I normalize a file to -1dB?

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

Effects>Amplitude and Compression>Normalise - and set the value. This will set the highest peak in your file to -1dB, which is what you need in order for the Dynamics Processor presets to work properly.

[Nicole285476060td9]

Is this all done in waveform?

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

Yes!