best audio quality from CD at DVinfo.net

Bret Pritchett · March 6th, 2005, 01:31 AM

I'm using a music track off of a CD I have to edit a video to (using Premiere). What is the best format to rip the audio in? MP3, WMA, WAV?

Glenn Chan · March 6th, 2005, 03:01 AM

WAV. No processing overhead, least complex (least likely to cause problems), and full quality sound.

Other codecs can save hard drive space but there are tradeoffs (not working, lower quality audio, processing overhead), and it just doesn't make sense to use them for video editing. Your video files take up so much more drive space anyways.

Rob Lohman · March 6th, 2005, 06:33 AM

Use Exact Audio Copy for that (if you are on PC).

And yes, as Bret said, WAV.

Bret Pritchett · March 6th, 2005, 09:29 AM

thanks

Isn't wav the file format the CD is in already? Couldn't I just copy it directly off the cd without a program?

Jack Smith · March 6th, 2005, 11:04 AM

The structure is different on the CD.They are CDA's.They are wav files but you cant get at them directly.Put the CD in your computer drive and look at it with windows explorer.You see the size of the tracks?( 1k)Glenn and Rob are right.Use an extracter.

Glenn Chan · March 6th, 2005, 07:10 PM

For some things, you may also find iTunes to be very useful.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

You can configure it to automatically rip CDs into WAV format (or MPEG4 or MP3). If you are looking through sound effects, I find it very useful. As well, you can get it to rip your entire SFX or music library to a hard drive as wav or mp3. iTunes is a great way to organize all your sounds too.

Rob Lohman · March 7th, 2005, 03:54 AM

The format on a CD is actually PCM. WAV is a container format
that supports different codecs, uncompressed PCM is one of them
(and the default).

The reason why you want to use a program (depending on your
Operating System and tools/drivers installed you could also copy
the files directly indeed) to do this copying is the following:

Audio CD's (and Video CD's as well) use a lower amount of error
correction bits than a data disc does. Why? Becacuse you don't
want to loose a bit of data, but loosing some bits of audio is
generally not a problem (ie, you can't hear it).

This results in the fact that you can burn 800 MB of music or video
(in VCD format) on a 700 MB disc for example.

So what programs such as EAC do is work with the drive and the
error correction mechanism to get the best copy of the disc as
possible. It reads each sector multiple times and then combines
these with the help of error correction information to get the data
as good as possible (with the least amount of "errors" in them).

Small price to pay (in terms of time) to get the best quality, the
product is free.

Hope that explained it a bit.

Jack Smith · March 7th, 2005, 11:41 PM

Thanks for the info Rob.Quick question.... what other codecs would a wav file support?

Harris Ueng · March 8th, 2005, 12:36 AM

This link from NCH Swift Sound (Australia) may be of use to you. I don't know if it's comprehensive, but it seems so...

[codecs for .wav files]
http://www.nch.com.au/acm/index.html

March 6th, 2005, 01:31 AM	#1
Bret Pritchett Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 44	best audio quality from CD I'm using a music track off of a CD I have to edit a video to (using Premiere). What is the best format to rip the audio in? MP3, WMA, WAV?

March 6th, 2005, 06:33 AM	#3
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Use Exact Audio Copy for that (if you are on PC). And yes, as Bret said, WAV. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

March 7th, 2005, 03:54 AM	#7
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	The format on a CD is actually PCM. WAV is a container format that supports different codecs, uncompressed PCM is one of them (and the default). The reason why you want to use a program (depending on your Operating System and tools/drivers installed you could also copy the files directly indeed) to do this copying is the following: Audio CD's (and Video CD's as well) use a lower amount of error correction bits than a data disc does. Why? Becacuse you don't want to loose a bit of data, but loosing some bits of audio is generally not a problem (ie, you can't hear it). This results in the fact that you can burn 800 MB of music or video (in VCD format) on a 700 MB disc for example. So what programs such as EAC do is work with the drive and the error correction mechanism to get the best copy of the disc as possible. It reads each sector multiple times and then combines these with the help of error correction information to get the data as good as possible (with the least amount of "errors" in them). Small price to pay (in terms of time) to get the best quality, the product is free. Hope that explained it a bit. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

March 8th, 2005, 12:36 AM	#9
Harris Ueng Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Palo Alto, CA Posts: 55	This link from NCH Swift Sound (Australia) may be of use to you. I don't know if it's comprehensive, but it seems so... [codecs for .wav files] http://www.nch.com.au/acm/index.html __________________ ELeven Feet Media, LLC - a nimble design & brand communications firm for growing companies http://www.elevenfeetmedia.com

March 6th, 2005, 03:01 AM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	WAV. No processing overhead, least complex (least likely to cause problems), and full quality sound. Other codecs can save hard drive space but there are tradeoffs (not working, lower quality audio, processing overhead), and it just doesn't make sense to use them for video editing. Your video files take up so much more drive space anyways.

March 6th, 2005, 09:29 AM	#4
Bret Pritchett Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 44	thanks Isn't wav the file format the CD is in already? Couldn't I just copy it directly off the cd without a program?

March 6th, 2005, 11:04 AM	#5
Jack Smith Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: ontario Posts: 445	The structure is different on the CD.They are CDA's.They are wav files but you cant get at them directly.Put the CD in your computer drive and look at it with windows explorer.You see the size of the tracks?( 1k)Glenn and Rob are right.Use an extracter.

March 6th, 2005, 07:10 PM	#6
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	For some things, you may also find iTunes to be very useful. http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ You can configure it to automatically rip CDs into WAV format (or MPEG4 or MP3). If you are looking through sound effects, I find it very useful. As well, you can get it to rip your entire SFX or music library to a hard drive as wav or mp3. iTunes is a great way to organize all your sounds too.

March 7th, 2005, 11:41 PM	#8
Jack Smith Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: ontario Posts: 445	Thanks for the info Rob.Quick question.... what other codecs would a wav file support?