unable to import .mp3 files into AE CS3… help?

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

MP3 import is disabled in the Public Preview for licensing reasons. It will be available in the shipping product. This is true for a few other formats as well (MPEG-2, H264, etc.)
As a woraround, you can easily convert your MP3 files to AIFF/WAV using any audio application (even Quicktime Pro or iTunes).

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
ar(AT)adolforozenfeld.com

[Jim Milina]

thank you for the info.

i didn’t know about mp3 conflicts with AE so that’s good too.

thanks again.

…j

[Jim Milina]

are there other restrictions? a complete list somewhere?

…j

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

This may have been the truth to some degree so far.
AE is debuting a new media handling layer (called MediaCore) in CS3. So MP3s should work fine in the final product. It’s a supported format. It’s disabled for obvious licensing reasons in the Public Preview. In fact, audio previews (including MP3s) are real time now because of this new media handling technology.
Of course, we can discuss if using compressed audio is a good idea, but it still should work. I myself work with uncompressed audio, but… 🙂

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
ar(AT)adolforozenfeld.com

[Simon Roughan]

Funny you should say that with such passion. I use .mp3s everyday with AE (v 6.5 pro) and have never had a problem.

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

I’m completely in shock. I’ve never seen an MP3 work in AE ever. It sounds fine in AE, but when rendered ALWAYS sounds bad. Always.

Can you describe your workflow with MP3’s?

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com

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Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:

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[Simon Roughan]

My workflow is as follows…
I make commercials for a regional TV station in Germany. We get our music and voice-over files from an audio studio in munich as .mp3s.
I load the mp3s into AE, and use them ONLY to time my animations. Then I render out as QT, without audio. I put the film and audio together in the Avid and make a master tape. No problems. Although, like I say, I never render audio in AE. But the mp3s sound fine when I make a audio preview or ram render, and of course played out of the avid.

best of luck
Simon

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

… And there you go. I figured.

You aren;t actually rendering with the MP3 as your audio.

As we said, though they sound good in AE, MP3’s do not render out of AE well. You’ve avoided this issue by not rendering with Audio.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com

—————————————-
Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=111087911

[Simon Roughan]

Yep, thats true. But why would anyone use AE for audio renders? 99% of the time the rendered files go into a NLE, (for broadcast anyway) and they are better suited for audio work. I use Audition for tweaking audio, or making effects etc. For me, AE is only for pictures.

Simon

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

That mught be your workflow, but at every studio I’ve worked with audio usually comes in first. Then things are animated to the final audio. I won’t start any gig from a client until that have a pretty solid audio track. Otherwise it kills the project when things change, and costs me a lot of money to redo things.

So for me, going into a video editor is an extra step that’s unneeded.

Sometimes there are audio tweaks after the fact, and it has to go into an editor, but even then, they need the original audio so they can time everything, and match up the animation their new audio.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com

—————————————-
Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=111087911