Best Sound Recording Format?

MadMaverick wrote on 5/17/2016, 3:05 AM
I have an H4N Handy Recorder. It has a plethora of recording formats. I was wondering which one you guys recommend going with? There's MP3, and there's WAV. For MP3 there's quite a few different kbps settings. Would it be best to go with the highest number? I currently have it set on 128 kbps, and it sounds pretty good.

I can always see differences in quality when it comes to the picture... but I've always had trouble spotting quality differences with sound. A lot of times something with a way lower kbps sounds just as good as something with a high kbps to me.

I've been told that it's best to record sound at 48KHZ. Which seems to only be available thru the WAV format. One reason I've heard that it's best to record at 48KHZ is to keep sound from drifting... which I found kinda confusing, cause I've never experienced this problem... at least not knowingly.

What's the best volume to generally record on with the H4N? I have it set on 65, and that seems to be a good general setting. I suppose the answer to this is to just adjust it based on the circumstances.

While we're at it, what's the best settings in Vegas to render out audio in a video, or with audio by itself?

I guess most of this is personal preference, but was just wondering what you guys recommend.

Comments

rraud wrote on 5/17/2016, 9:36 AM
For video, the standard is 48kHz / 24 (or 16) bit PCM (.wav or .aif) S/FX are usually recorded @ 96k if they;re going to be altered. Music is usually recorded at 88.2, 96 or 192k.
MP3 and other 'lossy' formats are for final delivery an are generally avoided. For non-cridical material, If one does use MP3, the highest kbp/s rate available (320kbp/s for instance) yields the best quality.
musicvid10 wrote on 5/17/2016, 7:02 PM
mp3 never was widely supported as an audio format for video, and AAC is more efficient (meaning same quality in a smaller package).