So if I use MP3 audio format in Vegas 5. Does it work or not ? because I think WAV file much bigger than MP3 file. How about quality of them ? can we tell the differences ? or not much

Thanks Mr Phil

MP3 will work. However, MP3 is smaller because it's compressed, and that means there has been a quality loss. Generally MP3 files are lower quality than WAV files. Try a side by side comparison and see which sounds better or worse to you.

Thanks a lot

Now time to do comparison. That what I thought.

You also might want to consider using the Sony PCA format. This is a lossless compression, that will reduce your wave file size down with no loss in quality. MP3 will always be less quality compared to WAV. Higher bit rate MP3's are better quality than lower bit rates, but then your file size is also getting bigger. If you go with 320Kbs MP3 files, you will probably not hear a difference between that and Wav files. 190Kbs is pretty good too, but that's about the bottom line for MP3 compared to WAV.

I did a comparison on compressed formats and it tells you pretty much what you would expect to hear compared to a WAV and the file size differences.

Check it out here:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=19&MessageID=215681

One note, the PCA audio compression doesn't seem all that impressive compared to the original WAV file when I used it on the Pink Noise audio, but this compression ratio drastically increases with music and such.

Just to add... using an MP3 in your project as a one time go can get you by in a pinch but be aware that MP3s in your project will most likely be re-compressed when you render to other lossy formats like wma, wmv, mpeg mp3, AC-3, etc. again.

What that means is that each time you render MP3 or any already compressed lossy format you will be removing even more data/quality from the file that has already had data/quality removed from it to start with. Once this data has been removed during compression there is no way of getting it back. You can't take an MP3, for example, save/render it to wav/PCM and restore it.

Just take an MP3 and load in in Vegas, Sound Forge or any editor and see how many times you can re-save each generation to MP3 until you have garbage.

In short, compressed lossy formats are for delivery not editing and you should avoid using lossy compression formats almost at all cost.

Like Red says above, a great way to save audio is PCA, I regularly see a 50% reduction in file size over wav/PCM. I've whined on each version wish list for Vegas, when saving projects and selecting Copy and trim media with project, the option for PCA .

MJ

Personally I think mp3 sounds like crap. On high quality recordings and depending on the type of music of course, the degradation of mp3 is often completely unacceptable. But if I'm riding around in my '98 Ford Explorer which has a lot of rattles from many miles of dirt road, well mp3 is not much of an issue. I can hardly stand it through my studio monitors though. Oh well. . .

drbam

Very useful information. thank you very much. Now is there any sofware to rip CD to PCA format so that I can store music to HD for video editing ?

Thanks again

Well yes, the old Sonic Foundry Siren does. It was changed to Screenblast Siren but I don't know the specs. on it or if it even exists anymore. If not, too bad, it's an excellent media player etc.

Since you already have Vegas, you can rip the CD to Vegas and render to PCA. Not as efficient but...

Be aware that PCA is only supported by Sony/Sonic Foundry apps.

MJ