Sound

Last year, I recorded a bunch of traditional African music with some pretty standard sound field equipment. The recording sessions were very long. I decided to bring these WAVE audio files into FCP. I want to cut individual songs out of the sessions and export them as smaller WAVE and AIFF files, so that my friend can then take these files into Pro Tools and further manipulate them. I was wondering if anyone can tell me the best way to do this to achieve the best quality of sound. I know there are a bunch of different ways to rate compressors, etc... but I don't know what this all really means when it comes to the final files I need to hand over to my friend.

Can anyone offer up some suggestions?

<<<pretty standard sound field equipment.>>>

That's not enough to go on. Are they on DAT tapes?

Koz

Sorry about that.

I used a small mixer attached to a Marantz Compact flash recorder. So all my files were recorded digitally as WAVE files which I downloaded directly onto my hard drive-- where they are now.

If you are going to work in DV, your best bet is AIFF files at 48khz.

The wave files will eventually go to my friend who will clean them up in pro tools. We'll then take these doctored recordings and compile a cd for sale.

The best sound quality will be achieved by the least amount of conversion possible. So depending on the sample rate and bit depth you recorded the files at, being that your destination is CD which is 44.1Khz & 16 bit, if that is what your field settings were, then you should keep the files at that rate through the entire process. By converting them to 48k AIFF in FCP and then back to 44.1k you may lose some quality. You'd be better off giving your friend the original .wav files and letting him extract just the songs you want in Protools.

I could give him the originals except that they're so long and so many that he'll never get through them-- that's why I'm trying to find a way to cut them down.

Now if I originally recorded at 48 Khz 16 bit in .wav format, then when I go to export the pared down files, they probably should be 48 Khz 16 bit .wav files to avoid as much loss of quality.

When he is finished with them in Pro tools, what's the best way to go about converting them for the best 44.1 Khz CD quality?

So I recorded the music in the PCM 48 Khz 16 bit stereo format using a Marantz Compact Flash Digital Audio Recorder.

After he has finished tweeking them in Protools he can master and save them in Protools as 44.1k files and burn them to CD.

Hi-

Try doing your editorial in Audacity rather than FCP. Last time I checked, it was a free download, it's very inuitive, and it seems to get along with .WAV files just fine.

tc