compressing for voice over to 8kHz

Mushka · Post by **Mushka** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:20 pm

Hi!

Besides a musician, I am also a Voice Over and usually get the weirdest petitions when it comes to formats! This one I am working for is

PCM wave
16-bit sample rate
8 Khz Audio Sample Size
128 kbps

My first problem is that DP does not support the 8Khz audio sample size, so I tried with Itunes and it works, the problem is the results are terrible.

Anybody know a way of compressing to this format with good results?

Any help will be deeply appreciated!!

Thanks again!!

Mr_Clifford · Post by **Mr_Clifford** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:52 pm

I would try and get the client to clarify, because 8kHz is an unusable format if you want any sort of sound quality. (they've gotten sample rate & bit depth around the wrong way too, which makes me think they don't know what they're talking about). I suspect they meant 48k and left off the 4 by accident.

In fact they've put 128kbps at the bottom, which is MP3 terminology.

I reckon they probably want a 48k 16bit audio file compressed into a 128kbps MP3 - which would make a hell of a lot more sense.

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 12:14 am

I would bet he's working for mobile devices as I do. 8KHz16Bits is oftenly used in these as qcp or amr format. Hey Mushka if you're really working for mobile make sure you heavily compress everything and eq out under 250Hz and over 8kHz as you won't need it anyways...

And most important: DON'T EXPECT IT TO SOUND LIKE YOUR ORIGINAL BECAUSE IT WON'T!!!

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 3:36 am

Dwetmaster wrote: Hey Mushka if you're really working for mobile make sure you heavily compress everything and eq out under 250Hz and over 8kHz as you won't need it anyways...

More like 250 to 4k.

doodles · Post by **doodles** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:11 am

8k?

honestly?

can you even stand to listen to anything at that level?!!

Mushka · Post by **Mushka** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:33 pm

Thanks everybody for the information!!! These files are destined to a phone IVR system and apparently that is the format required.

I sent them today! Even with the compression and the EQ, they sound terrible to me, but the client liked them and that's what matters!

Thanks again!

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:09 pm

Mushka wrote:they sound terrible to me, but the client liked them and that's what matters!

Ain't that the crazy truth in this strange biz...