AIF audio file question

M

mrpink89

I found a website that has some good audio downloads (free sound.org) good stuff. they have a lot of what i need since i am not to happy with my own personal sounds. However, some of the files are aif.
does this matter? all my other audio files are WAV and some of these good sounds are aif.

I worry about using the aif files because i am not sure how it will sound mixed with the WAV's when i render it for the finished product. or does it not matter?
 
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.aif (or .aiff) are uncompressed PCM sound (like .wav) so if your software handles both, you won't have any inherent problems mixing them. There are other things to look out for (such as bit depth or sample rate), but the file format shouldn't make too much of a difference, unless it is compressed.
 
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Thanks for the info.

All of my own personal WAV files say
the bit rate is 4680 under the properties function on my computer

some of the sounds I downloaded do not say 4680 however they are uncompressed. i don't know how to find the sample rate but will this be any problem in the future upon making the final copy?
 
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Better yet here is what my recorder says

Rec Format -PCM-24
Sample Rate 96K

Dual mono mode

I know what dual mono is but i had a guy at the store at the time do the presets for good audio and i've been so busy i never wrapped my head around it so I am just trying to clear things up
 
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Neither uncompressed .aif or .wav file formats sounds better than the other. The quality will all be in the "manufacturing" chain of the sound - the quality of the source material, mic choice(s) & placement, preamp & setting choices, AD/DA conversion, post editing & processing, all of the usual suspects. The quality issues begin when you convert to "compressed" audio formats.

Most DAWs and NLEs can import both AIFF and WAV files. Most DAWs will convert incoming audio files to the format of the open DAW session. Some NLEs use them directly as the file source, .aif and .wav files at different bit/sample rates all in the same timeline, which can very seriously complicate OMF and AAF exports.

There are all kinds of freeware, shareware and products available to convert file formats. Pro Tools deals well with just about anything, so I've never had to research any of them, so I don't know where to point you.
 
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Hey Doube A thanks for the input. so you're saying i should just stick to sounds with the exact same bit rate? (96) ? what bit/ sample rte numbers should i be looking for?
 
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mrpink89 said:
Hey Doube A thanks for the input. so you're saying i should just stick to sounds with the exact same bit rate? (96) ? what bit/ sample rte numbers should i be looking for?
Click to expand...

Minimum 44k 16bit, ideally 48k 24bit. You can still use your 96k samples, it's just a bit unnecessary.

Nearly all DAWs/NLEs are able to handle any sample rate you throw at it, just remember that you may have to redither the output if downsampling from higher bitrates.

What AA was saying is that the likely source of any perceived quality differences will be in other areas of your workflow chain (which might include compressed/lossy conversions for instance), and not the sample format itself.
 
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As others have effectively stated, aif and wav are just uncompressed container formats. Think of them the same as RAW is an uncompressed container format for video. There are not (and cannot be) any inherent difference between aif and wav, just as there couldn't be between two uncompressed video formats.

In general it doesn't really matter which you use and both being uncompressed, you can convert between them to your heart's content without any loss of quality/fidelity. However, bare in mind that mixing and matching wav and aif in the same project can sometimes cause problems with NLEs when it comes time to exporting (particularly OMF/AAFs), as can mixing and matching sample rates and bit depths (as Alcove has mentioned).

Your recorder should be set to PCM, 24 bit with a sample rate of 48kHz. Any sound FX designed for use in TV/film audio post will also be in this 24/48 format (wav or aif). If you come across something in a different format (say 96k, 16 bit or 44.1k) there's no great loss in converting them to 24/48 but of course if you can get them in 24/48 to start with it's always better to avoid bit depth or sample rate conversions.

G
 
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Thanks guyz. i found some audio clips in the 48/24 range and will use them

SO I don't have to convert my 96k to 48?

also what is the point of 96k? everywhere i read people say it's pretty much pointless
 
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also a lot of the sound clips i found online are in Stereo. I recorded all my stuff in Mono and have heard everything should be recorded in mono. from room tone to affects. what would be the damage if I used these clips anyways? and by damage i mean would there be a problem when i later rendered the final footage and what not because some things are mono and others are stereo?
 
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mrpink89 said:
A lot of the sound clips I found online are in Stereo. I recorded all my stuff in mono and have heard everything should be recorded in mono. From room tone to affects (effects), what would be the damage if I used these clips anyways? and by damage I mean would there be a problem when I later rendered the final footage and what not because some things are mono and others are stereo?
Click to expand...

Okay, late's back up a bit.

It was advised that PRODUCTION SOUND be recorded in mono. The human voice emits from one source (through the vocal chords and out of mouth) so only one (mono) mic is needed. Foley is almost always recorded in mono as well.

Most sound effects are recorded in mono but "distributed" in stereo - identical sound on both the left and the right stereo tracks. There are plenty of sound effects that are real honest-to-God stereo sounds, but many of them are all about the ambient details - recorded in a canyon or alleyway, for example, it's the reverb/echoes that are important and give the sound character.

What matters in the final render is the placement of the sounds in the sound field, be it stereo or any of the surround formats. Dialog (and Foley) is almost always placed in the center of the stereo field or the center speaker of a surround field; this is because human brain/ears "edit" and "remix" so that we hear most sounds in the "center" (both ears) unless it is relevant to "survival" (hearing a hungry carnivore off to the left). So yes, we are always aware of where the sound is actually coming from - front, back, left, right, up, down - but placement only registers when it has importance.

Mixing a film, however, has little to do with reality; sounds are selected, edited and mixed with the entire purpose of eliciting an emotional response from the audience. This is one of the toughest jobs in sound-for-picture, to make the soundtrack emotional & impactful and yet almost completely unnoticed.
 
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You should be able to figure this out your self. You have all the files, you have the software and you have the ears. Imagine a test, then execute it and listen to what happens. First seek understanding, then seek to be understood.
 
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mrpink89 said:
SO I don't have to convert my 96k to 48?
Click to expand...

If you have some material at 96k in your timeline, that won't be a problem most of the time but as you gain nothing from 96k and as mixing sample rates can on occasion cause problems, it's worth getting into the habit of only having 48k material in your timeline by converting any audio which is not at 48k sample rate to 48k.

mrpink89 said:
also what is the point of 96k? everywhere i read people say it's pretty much pointless
Click to expand...

There are some specialist applications for 96k but the main point of 96k is for use as a marketing tool. 44.1k/48k sound cards and digital audio equipment has been around for decades and the technology was effectively perfected for very low cost quite a few years ago. This presents a serious problem for audio equipment manufacturers/retailers; how do you get people to buy new audio equipment if it doesn't sound any better than their existing equipment? The answer (apparently) is to double one of the numbers involved and market the equipment as HD (High Definition) even though HD Audio is exactly the same definition as good ol' 44.1k/48k! Actually, in audiophile circles even 96k is becoming old hat and 192k and even 384k are starting to become popular, which is particularly sad because anything over about 110k is actually lower definition than 44.1k/48k!

mrpink89 said:
so i can use the stereo sounds then? and yeah i was talking about ambient effects
Click to expand...

Alcove has covered this well but it's worth mentioning that everything the ear hears is in stereo (we have 2 ears). For single point source sounds like dialogue, Foley and most hard effects it makes sense to record them in mono and then place them within a stereo (or multi-channel) soundfield. Ambiances though by definition are not single point source sounds, so almost without exception they need to be recorded and used in stereo (or multi-channel in the case of surround sound formats).

G
 
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