[John Fishback]

From what I’ve read, aac will give better quality at a given data rate compared to mp3. However, not every player will handle aac. Just about all will handle mp3. If you want the most people to be able to play your track, mp3 is probably the best choice. If it’s all about quality, then aac.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

When weird things start happening it’s a sign to repair permissions and trash preferences. If you don’t know how to do that, search the FCP forum for either and you’ll quickly find lots of info. Also, look for reference to a program called FCP Rescue that stores good prefs and trashes bad.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Check in FCP in the FCP menu>Audio/Video Settings>A/V Devices tab>Audio set to ProIO Out. Also check the View menu>Audio Playback>Audio Follows Video and also in View>External Video>All Frames is checked. Hope this helps.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Is it possible you are seeing the effect of incorrect field order.? FCP normally is lower field first. I have no idea what the field order of your other media is. Check to make sure everything is consistent and that your encoder is set to the correct field order. When I made my first DVDs I was using some footage from a Media100, AfterFX and FCP. One of them had different field order from the others. When I viewed it on the DVD, the incorrect footage looked hyper-interlaced with everything shaking. Just a thought.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

You didn’t say what version of FCP, QT or Compressor you’re using. You can probably find what you need in Compressor. I’m using Compressor 2.0.1 which is part of the FCP5 suite. Check with your clients to find out what QT version they are using. Then pick the appropriate QT preset in Compressor that works best for your footage. If it’s talking heads or footage without much motion, you can use a lower data rate. If there’s lot of motion in the frame, you’ll need a higher data rate. The best thing to do is take a short scene from you program and compress it using various presets until you find one that looks good and isn’t too big. Be aware that you can change settings inside the presets and save them as your own settings.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Creating an accurate monitoring environment is part art part science. There are many factors that contribute to the the difference that you and your client are hearing. If you’ve ever sung in the shower, you’ve probably heard how certain notes resonate and sound very full and present. This is due to standing waves which occur at sound frequencies defined by the dimensions of your shower. When you hit that certain note, it sounds great.

However, it’s not great when this happens in a listening environment. And in untreated rooms, it happens all the time, although, usually not as dramatically as in the shower. The distance between parallel opposite walls, and floor and ceiling cause effects at certain frequenies. The objective in designing a proper listening environment is to eliminate all these unwanted effects. You do this by using devices that absorb, refract and diffuse sound. But, it has to be balanced. The bathroom is a very “live” environment (many reflections). A heavily draped and carpeted room would be a “dead” environment (less reflections). The best listening rooms have a combinaton of both dead and live elements.

I suggest you look at https://www.rpginc.com/. RPG sells many products that are used in various environments to control sound – listening rooms, recording studios, concert halls. There’s a lot of terrific information about acoustics on their website https://www.rpginc.com/research/index.htm. They are very helpful on the phone.

As to your current problem, there’s no easy answer to what’s happening. You could be listening to excellent monitors and your client might be listening to cheap speakers. Your room might be dead and his live. You might be listening very loud and he could be listening at lower levels. Your monitors could be near-field and his set back. All these factors affect how the audio is perceived.

The best approach is to try to make sure your monitoring environment is “right.” There’s no way to ensure every listener will hear the sound the way you do in your edit room or studio. BTW, the same thing is true of video. You have no control over what the viewer is watching your program on. It could be a ten-year old TV or a brand new HDTV.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Best idea with speakers is to find a vendor in your area where you can go in and listen. Burn audio from a couple of your projects and bring that as well as some audio CDs along with you. Buy the speakers sounds best.

The NTK is an excellent mic. As for a very inexpensive mic, IMO you can’t beat the Marshall MXL-990. Find a place where you can listen to it against more expensive mics and you’ll be very surprised.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Search for smooth or ease in, etc, and you’ll find a bunch of posts about this. Here’s one thread I found.

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?univpostid=847324&forumid=8&postid=847609&pview=t

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

ev’I draeh taht .erofeb ):

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

If you make your own cables, be careful to wire them exactly the same to avoid putting the signals out of phase.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors