How To Get Good Audio?

[bkc98]

Maybe not a PE7 question, but..... I'm creating a slideshow with audio. It's about 11 mins long. It's got about 80 images along with about 30 video clips. What is the best process for getting the highest quality audio?

I'm simply authoring an MPEG 2 video so it can play on a computer and a Playstation 3 (no DVD).

What is the process I should use to get the highest quality audio for my video? I've used MP3s, WAVs, and WMAs but after rendering the MPEG with TMPGEnc, it just does not sound good.

Should I separate the audio from the video? Is there something specific I can do in PE7 to help it out?

Any help is appreciated...

Thanks!

[ATR]

The first thing is to use audio obtained with use of a good microphone. As for the video with audio, good microphone would be in order there too. And, audio could be edited with one of the Audio Editors like the free Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Camtasia has a great audio enhancement feature, but is expensive.
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

Separating the audio and video would probably enter the mix for certain audio editing, followed by re-joining the video, deleting the original audio, and linking the edited audio to the video.

If you are after a Premiere Elements end product with 5.1 channel sound, forget it. You can import video with 5.1 channel sound into Premiere Elements 7 Timeline, but the best that you can do is get Dolby Digital (Stereo, 2 ch) for burn to disc as well as Personal Computer/and any of those export types.

I am not completely clear on how and if Premiere Elements 7 enters your workflow.
How are you creating your slideshow with audio, Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements, both of them, other? Your estimated slideshow length of 11 minutes for the slideshow does not agree well with my estimated time for that slideshow based on what you gave, 80 images and 30 video clips.

From the sounds of it (no pun intended), it appears that you are probably creating/authoring an MPEG2 version of your slideshow using TMPGEnc. Never been there, done that. So, I cannot speak to audio problems with TMPGEnc.

Assuming that you started with a good microphone, had no computer audio driver related or other audio problems with TMPGEnc, and have a good computer sound system/speakers, then you might download the free 30 day tryout of Premiere Elements 7 to see if you get better results. But, before you do, take a good look at the formats of your starting media. Also, make sure that your computer has the resources to meet the task.

ATR

[bkc98]

No mic involved in my projects...

I currently own PE7 to edit my projects using the images and video clips I mentioned along with WMA music files (songs I ripped and converted or downloaded from ITunes and converted -- I've used WAVs and MP3s in the past as well) and am trying to get better audio quality out of my finished product.

You are correct I'm authoring for MPEG-2 files (saved as MS DV AVI from PE7, then the resulting AVI is encoded using TMPGEnc - I've read this is the best way to get the highest quality final product using DV-AVI videos and jpegs), but I just wanted to know how everyone else is getting good audio quality from their projects being edited in PE7.

Thanks...

[ATR]

Thanks for the clarifications.

It is my recollection that most of the threads here that have to do with Premiere Elements audio fall into the following categories:
a. No audio
b. Audio out of sync
c. complaints about no 5.1 channel sound export supported, only Dolby Digital Stereo
d. once upon a time, there was an issue with Sony Vaio and the audio absent from DVD-VIDEO, etc.
e. noise removal from original media

Many fixes are related to video audio format, maybe HD capture side issues, recording of original media, resources issues, need for updated audio drivers, etc.

But, I do not recall many, if any, questions about the quality of the audio from the exports. Usually good microphone to record, good everything in between avoiding re-encoding of certain file types, and good computer/home theater sound system/speakers for playback yields good quality audio for the end products. Generally speaking, the export presets are optimized for video as well as audio settings and often give the best results (but can be customized in the search for better).

You could check out the problems/solutions for Premiere Elements audio at the Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe
http://www.adobeforums.com
and I believe it should should similar trends.

In what way have you had doubts about the sound quality of the Premiere Elements Dolby Digital Stereo, other than it is not 5.1 channel sound?

ATR

[bkc98]

No specific doubts on PE7's abilities...I'm just mainly curious as to the process PE7 users apply to get the highest quality results for their projects so maybe I can try a few different things as it pertains to how audio is treated and get an improvement on my projects.

I'll check out the other forum you mentioned.

Thanks...

[Chuck Engels]

What are the sources of your audio files? Did you rip them from CDs? If so, what program did you use? Are they downloads? MP3s can be especially problematic when it comes to quality. The files are created with various quality settings as are WAV files, if they are not recorded/created at good quality you won't be able to improve upon them.

[ATR]

CE

This is from post #3 of this thread and should answer some of your questions....

No mic involved in my projects...

I currently own PE7 to edit my projects using the images and video clips I mentioned along with WMA music files (songs I ripped and converted or downloaded from ITunes and converted -- I've used WAVs and MP3s in the past as well) and am trying to get better audio quality out of my finished product.

You are correct I'm authoring for MPEG-2 files (saved as MS DV AVI from PE7, then the resulting AVI is encoded using TMPGEnc - I've read this is the best way to get the highest quality final product using DV-AVI videos and jpegs), but I just wanted to know how everyone else is getting good audio quality from their projects being edited in PE7.

ATR

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks ATR, I missed that part.

bck98, What program are you using to do the conversion and how high do you have the quality settings ?

One thing that I notice is that you are converting a lot of times, converting the audio to MP3 or WAV and then exporting from Premeire Elements and then again to MPEG2 for authoring to a DVD.
Not sure why you heard that TMPGEnc was the way to go, I know lots of people that burn DVDs with Premiere Elements all the time and get great quality, I know I do.

[ATR]

CE,

I get great audio also from my Premiere Elements exports.

As I said, audio quality is rarely, if ever, an issue if recoding issues are not added into the mix.

It is not clear what is being expected, how better? Unless, the thought is that there might be a better setting out there. Those export presets are usually optimized for best results. I do not recall seeing a audio complaint here, just the search for a possible better.


ATR

[bkc98]

Right, no real complaint, just looking for some possible tips from others doing the movie making thing.

I've gone the export AVI -> encode using TMPGEnc route for several videos now, mainly coming from the old MovieMaker days where folks on that forum as well as PapaJohn.org discussed the process for highest quality video results.

Funny thing, only yesterday I looked at the PE7 Share options where I can choose from many different output formats and settings. I created an MPEG but it's over 2GB in size and the file extension is .m2t. When I get a little more time, I'll play with these settings more and check the overall quality. I think I'll be surprised at how well PE7 does what I want.

[ATR]

bkc98

Looking forward to your results.

ATR