vocal audio not showing up...

[jmack]

Okay, this is a really weird issue.

If someone can, please check out one of our shows at http://www.hoodhype.com they are encoded at 96kbps. Now Major's (the host) vocals are fine, but why, when I hear the audio played back at a lower rate 24kbps, everything comes up, the music, the background music, the sound fx.. but his vocals are completeley stripped!

Does it have something to do with the bitrate somehow and the frequency of his vocals on the track? I mean hows that possible?

[pwfenton]

Okay, this is a really weird issue.

If someone can, please check out one of our shows at http://www.hoodhype.com. they are encoded at 96kbps. Now Major's (the host) vocals are fine, but why, when I hear the audio played back at a lower rate 24kbps, everything comes up, the music, the background music, the sound fx.. but his vocals are completeley stripped!

Does it have something to do with the bitrate somehow and the frequency of his vocals on the track? I mean hows that possible?

Why would you (or anyone else) want to listen to a 96kbps file... at any other bitrate?

[jmack]

theres a reason, and it has to do with syndication.

but thats not really my point. i guess my question is, why would that happen? i mean if someone's vocals are SUPER compressed, would that be the issue?

the thing is, if you listen to any of the episodes after episode 2 at hoodhype.com, you can hear in Major's voice, how it has a weird "phasing" sound to it... Wichita rutherford knows the issue as well as he was checking it out with me a while back...

im just confused as to what setting in our set up would cause this...

we usually apply compression, some reverb, and some eq on the vocals... but thats about it.

[foxholeunder]

Ok...I just tried opera/explorer/firefox/and netscape and all I get is a resulting page that says...

This address cannot be used for browsing


just thought I would pass that along

Jeremy
Revolution Radio

[pwfenton]

theres a reason, and it has to do with syndication.

but that's not really my point. i guess my question is, why would that happen? i mean if someone's vocals are SUPER compressed, would that be the issue?

the thing is, if you listen to any of the episodes after episode 2 at hoodhype.com, you can hear in Major's voice, how it has a weird "phasing" sound to it... Wichita rutherford knows the issue as well as he was checking it out with me a while back...

im just confused as to what setting in our set up would cause this...

we usually apply compression, some reverb, and some eq on the vocals... but thats about it.

I can't hear your stuff... your link doesn't work, but I will tell you two things that can cause the two things you describe.

First you talk about "compression". There are two kinds of compression you could be talking about... audio compression is the sort of thing that makes things all the same loudness. That can't cause any of the things you describe.

Then there is file compression. That's the kind of compression that takes a file, like your podcast, and makes it physically smaller to make it easier and faster to download.

That "phasing" sound usually happens when a file that has already been compressed, gets compressed again. You should always record your shows completely uncompressed (as a .wav file) and then compress them ONCE to whatever size you want, before you send them out.

If your original recording is an .mp3... let's say at 128 KBPS, and then you try to compress that file further to let's say 32 KBPS... you will get that swooshy sound.

If, however, your original file is an uncompressed .wav file and you convert it to a 32KBPS .mp3 file... It will sound much better.

It's compressing a file that has already been compressed that starts things sounding weird.

As for a vocal part disappearing completely there is only one thing that I can think of that could make that happen. If a single sound source like a voice is recorded in stereo, and the left channel is 180 degrees out of phase with the right channel... It will sound fine in stereo.... but if you convert it to mono by combining the two signals, they will cancel each other out and the track will be silent. +10 added to -10 equals zero.

[jmack]

http://www.hoodhype.com

(i think the period was screwing up the url up there)

thank you so much PW! I think you have it spot on with teh stereo... im 99% sure thats the problem!!

I owe you one!! Have a great day!!

[mesoed]

theres a reason, and it has to do with syndication.

but thats not really my point. i guess my question is, why would that happen? i mean if someone's vocals are SUPER compressed, would that be the issue?

the thing is, if you listen to any of the episodes after episode 2 at hoodhype.com, you can hear in Major's voice, how it has a weird "phasing" sound to it... Wichita rutherford knows the issue as well as he was checking it out with me a while back...

im just confused as to what setting in our set up would cause this...

we usually apply compression, some reverb, and some eq on the vocals... but thats about it.
I've run into this issue lately as well, and can't figure out if it's due to Audacity or my hardware. I typically record in Audacity as a 128 kbps WAV (have the same problem when recording at 64), then import this into my Audacity work file, and export as a 64 kbps MP3. File sounds great in Audacity, phase problems in my recorded audio after the export via LAME. Have had the same issue in Adobe Audition, so it's probably not Audacity. Only one file compression in the mix. All recorded mono (though some of my other audio elements are stereo).

[audio2u]

... I typically record in Audacity as a 128 kbps WAV (have the same problem when recording at 64)....


For a start, if you're saving at 128kbit, that's a compressed format, and WAV is not a compressed format (at least, not PCM WAV files anyway).
A true WAV file is storing 1411 kbits per second. Anything less than that and you're compressing your audio data (as opposed to audio dynamics compression), which as previously stated is to be avoided at all costs.

[mesoed]

... I typically record in Audacity as a 128 kbps WAV (have the same problem when recording at 64)....


For a start, if you're saving at 128kbit, that's a compressed format, and WAV is not a compressed format (at least, not PCM WAV files anyway).
A true WAV file is storing 1411 kbits per second. Anything less than that and you're compressing your audio data (as opposed to audio dynamics compression), which as previously stated is to be avoided at all costs.
Didn't realize that bit rate didn't matter if you were exporting as a WAV.
Okay... so I'm saving the audio as a WAV file first (bit rate doesn't matter), then importing it into my work file and then saving it as a 64 kbit MP3. Either way you say it... only one compression.

[audio2u]

Fair enough then! :)