Settings for mp3 encoding mono voice recordings?

Discussion in 'Audio' started by bobjester, May 3, 2002.

  1. bobjester

    bobjester Guest

    Hi there,

    Most advice for mp3 encoding relates to stereo music, I am hoping someone can help me by giving some suggestions for encoding plain voice recordings (seminars, talks etc.)

    I hope to achieve quite small file sizes, recordings are done onto minidisc (not as good as CD quality), but I want the end result to be at least as good as a cassette tape copy.

    I will try experimenting myself, but any tips from those more experienced than myself would be very much appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Bob
     
    bobjester, May 3, 2002
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  2. cd-rw.org

    cd-rw.org Active member

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    How low bitrate do you want? MP3 as a format is not at it's best in ultra-low bitrates. You may want to check RealAudio, WMA, OGG etc. for that (I haven't tested these though).

    "--alt-preset standard -mm -b80" should give you very nice quality and bitrates around 100kbps.

    I tried "--alt-preset 64 -mm -b32" with music material, and it wasn't bad.
     
    cd-rw.org, May 3, 2002
    #2
  3. bobjester

    bobjester Guest

    Thanks for the quick response!

    Having a closer look at the lame docs I found
    --preset voice (CBR 56kbps)
    and I really am hoping to achieve something like 56kbps. I am yet to try this out, but considering frequent portions of silence in the recordings, using -v may prove benificial.

    Also while searching the web I found this useful link
    http://david.weekly.org/audio/speech.php3
    Even his 48kbps mp3 sample sounds better quality than the original recordings I have, so it looks like I should end up with pretty small files :)

    I'll post back the results of my testing for anyone that may be interested.

    Cheers
     
    bobjester, May 3, 2002
    #3
  4. cd-rw.org

    cd-rw.org Active member

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    One problem of LAME is the amount of features and there even are some outdated ones like the "--preset voice". According to my knowledge it's very much out of date and does not take advantage of recent LAME improvements. Test it though and tell me what you think.

    I wouldn't rely on David's website. Just test a few settings and choose the one that fits your ear.

    I may come up with another suggestion for you to try..
     
    cd-rw.org, May 3, 2002
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  5. cd-rw.org

    cd-rw.org Active member

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    Yes,

    Just use "--alt-preset xx -mm" where XX is the desired bitrate. Should produce optimal results, but go ahead and test the voice option too - I just think that it hasn't been developed for a long time.
     
    cd-rw.org, May 5, 2002
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