How to improve audio quality

I got the 8GB Nano as a gift. I already had good headphones -- Shure eC4's. The audio quality from the Nano is not as good as what I get off my laptop. Fooling around with the EQ settings gives a small improvement but overall the quality off the laptop still beats the Nano. Most of my tunes were ripped at 192 using Musicmatch several years ago. Did iTunes somehow transfer these to my Nano at 128? What is the default rip rate under iTunes? Can I change it? Or is the audio quality on the Nano just mediocre to begin with?
Thanks for any advice you can give me.

You must re-import everything at the new bitrate of 192kbps. You can clear your iTunes first before doing this to ensure there are no duplicate files.
The info contained in the other post is wrong. You cannot just sync your iPod at the new bit rate you selected, this will change nothing.
When you imported your CDs at 128kbps, a lot of info was lost from the original CD. This is how compression works. Put simply, when importing the songs iTunes discards any info that you cannot hear in order to make the file size smaller. That info can consist of anything such as frequencies that the human ear cannot hear (but which may affect harmonics). The theory being that if the ear cannot hear it, it's of no use.
Once imported into iTunes at 128kbps, increasing the bitrate to 192kbps without importing the CD all over again will not replace the info that was lost originally because it was discarded and cannot be recovered, and it will not improve the sound quality of your already imported files.
If sound quality is important to you, import the CDs again at the new bitrate.

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Does Encoding AAC Files with VBR on Improve Audio Quality ?

Does Encoding AAC Files with VBR on Improve Audio Quality ?
Are there Disadvantages ?
Bonus Question 1:
Usually, an 'auto' type encoding tool will screw up the natural flow of the music and miss subtle changes in the energy, volume, etc.. -stuff that is just to subtle for it to catch -Generally I wouldn't trust an 'auto' type setting to pick up this subtle stuff. Yet people say using VBR improves sound quality (and NOT file size). Why and how ?
Bonus Question 2:
What is the max bit rate VBR uses ? If I set my AAC encoder to 320 kbps and turned VBR off, wouldn't the sound quality be superior to encoding with VBR on (simply because the kbps are set at 320 the whole time...) ? Sure, the files encoded with VBR off would be larger, but wouldn't the quality be better ?
Bonus Question 3:
Lastly, I did a little test and encoded one song with VBR off and one with VBR on. The VBR song was 1.5 MBs bigger - Huh, I thought, is that increased file size the result of improved resolution throughout the whole song, or just one little section (haven't had time to listen to them)?
Message was edited by: temptemp9

These are some pretty tough questions. I like VBR encoding in general, as it does allow for more complex passages to take advantage of higher bit rates while less complex passages fall back to a lower bit rate, while keeping within fairly consistent file size parameters. Whether VBR yields better results at different target/average bit rates is another matter, and really requires that you encode and properly test output files before deciding on anything but "recommended" settings.
At maximum lossy bit rates of 320 kbps, it doesn't make sense to use VBR. If I recall, the LAME MP3 encoder presets actually preclude VBR encoding for the highest quality files, and the same may be true for iTunes AAC.
I have to admit that to speak with any certainty or confidence about the issues surrounding your various questions, one would really need to encode a bunch of files with iTunes from lossless sources and test them in software such as foobar2000. I could investigate this easily on my own PC, but I don't encode music at 320 kbps AAC, since I have enough disk space to just listen to lossless files. iTunes doesn't display dynamic bit rate changes as foobar2000 does, and I haven't come across any Mac software that does as good a job of allowing for proper testing as foobar2000 for Windows does.
If you really need definitive answers to these three questions, then I think your best bet would be to do as I've hinted and use iTunes and foobar2000 if you've got access to a Windows computer to do this testing and evaluation for yourself, or sign up for a user account at Hydrogenaudio and post the same message there.

How Do I Improve Audio Quality on Face Time

Can anyone advise how I can improve the audio quality on Face Time?
Video is acceptable, but audio sounds like a long distance phone call back in the bad old days, lots of background noise and voices barely audible.
I don't think its my internet connection, currently ADSL2+, Line speed 4.9Mbps, download speed 617KB/s

Little Eddy wrote:
Can anyone advise how I can improve the audio quality on Face Time?
Video is acceptable, but audio sounds like a long distance phone call back in the bad old days, lots of background noise and voices barely audible.
I don't think its my internet connection, currently ADSL2+, Line speed 4.9Mbps, download speed 617KB/s
Welcome to Discussions, Little Eddy
Depending on whether you mean sound you hear or how you sound to others, here are some ideas for your consideration:
(1) Call from an area with less background noise.
(2) Use an iPhone. Its sound quality is superior to iPod touch.
(3) Try http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB770G/B It sounds better in my tests than internal mic.
(4) For FaceTime on your iMac, sit closer to the Mac's mic. Also test speaking louder.
(5) For FaceTime on your Mac, try a USB mic like http://store.apple.com/us/product/T6831LL/A
(6) Both you and your connection should test with other users to determine who has the problem.
(7) If sound you hear from other end, ask your contact to double check that his mic is not obstructed by a case, fingers, etc.
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.5); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.5)
LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod4touch4.2.1

How do I improve audio quality in iMovie?

I have heard that you can strip out the audio track in a video clip, improve it in GarageBand and then put it back into iMovie. Is this true? I'd like to improve the audio quality on a series of video talks.

Publish your movie first by going to Share and then select Media Browser.
After it is "published" open up Garageband.
Click "New Project"
Select "Movie"
Choose a name for your project.
Select your movie from the browser on the right.
Adjust your audio.
When done, you can export your movie with new audio from Garageband

How to improve th quality of photos in iphone 4s

How can i improve the quality of the photos clicked by iphone-4s???

Hi there,
Good focus and good lighting will help you to take good quality photos. (Hold your camera still, and possibly use flash?) Also, there are great photo editing apps out at the moment, for example Instagram which can increase the quality of your photos by applying filters and effects to your photos, enhancing the look of them.
Hope this helps,
Samah

Improving audio quality from a subscriber point of view

Hi,
I am building an application that requires audio chat. When the chat is happening between an Android user and a PC user, the PC user can hear clearly when the Android user speaks. However, when it is the other way around, the Android user hear distorted sound,with noises. Is there any way to improve audio received from a subscriber point of view?
Please advice, thanks!
Regards

Hi Raff,
The Android device is a Samsung Galaxy S i9000 and it is running AIR 2.6, attached below is a snippet of the code related to the audio i am using
<mx:Button x="121" y="700" height="34" width="117" label="Audio" toggle="true" id="audioButt"
click="(audioButt.selected) ? audioPub.publish(): audioPub.stop()" includeIn="LoggedIn"/>
<mx:Button x="242" y="700" height="34" width="117" label="Quality" toggle="true" id="audioButt1" includeIn="LoggedIn"
click="(audioButt.selected) ? audioPub.microphoneManager.encodeQuality = 3 : audioPub.microphoneManager.encodeQuality = 4"/>
<rtc:AudioPublisher id="audioPub" codec="{SoundCodec.SPEEX}" useEchoSuppression="true" silenceLevel="0" />
<rtc:AudioSubscriber/>
I think the problem is related to the script I am writing,I created a button called Quality to reduce the encodeQuality of my PC microphone, will it helps to improve the audio recieved from my Android device?Please advice, thanks!
Regards

How to improve the quality of the quick time movie file

When I press command + option + enter, the graphics looks very good but when I look at the quick time mov I saved, its so bad. It's fine if I 'drag' the quick time window to the smallest but when I look at it in full screen mode, the picture is so bad... What can I do to improve the quality?
Please give me step by step instrustion
Flash CS4 I am using, action script 3.0

The text in your original Flash movie is a vector representation. The text is drawn to the screen using a mathematical structure that is resolution independent and so the text will look crisp and sharp regardless of the enlargement or reduction of the image. When you take this Flash movie and export it as a compressed video file using the Quicktime file format, you are turning that vector image into a raster image. The compressor that you choose when exporting the file to Quicktime takes the text as it sits on the stage, at whatever that stage size is, and records the pixels. These pixels are then compressed by one means or another to produce a manageable file that can be played back in a linear method using the Quicktime player.
In other words, there's a lot going on in that export. Flash works best when it can work with just vector artwork. Flash is a runtime playback tool. The Flash file is stored as a set of instructions for the Flash player to execute when the user plays the file. Quicktime is a file format. The Quicktime player reads the comressed file and decompresses that file as it plays. It is a linear process. It starts at the beginning and goes until it stops. Quicktime's compressors take the original content and compress that content by storing the information about the pixels that make up the file. Quicktime, and all of the other video file wrappers, play back best when the final file is played at the same size and frame rate as the original. Like any pixel based image, the quality of the image degrades as it is enlarged.
Some compressors can provide a better quality image when enlarged, some don't. There is no 1,2,3 for creating great QT from Flash. You'll need to work through the compromises of original stage size, video compressor, audio compressor, output size, frame rate, color depth, video keyframing, etc. What works very well for one file will work less well for another file.

Improving audio quality of existing recording to better understand speaker

I recorded about a 1 hour recording using imovie's "capture" mode with the built-in internal microphone. On the recording there are 4 speakers talking and background noises (music). The music is making it such that it's hard to understand the 4 speakers at times. Inside of movie it seems the only thing I'm able to do is increase the volume of the overall track.
Using this or other software, is there a way for me to improve the audio quality such that the speakers are more clear?
Thanks.

I think voices tend to be in the midrange frequencies, something like 1 kHz. Maybe if you filtered out high and low and boost the midrange, you might get an improvement. Of course a lot of music is in the midrange too.
I know you can filter audio in Final Cut products. I've never done it in iMovie.

1.1.4 firmware update - does it improve audio quality?

I'm really confused here as I've read different opinions on various Apple ipod touch forum sites that some people swear after updating the firmware the audio quality has improved greatly (e.g. better bass/mid-range responses, louder volume). I called Apple retail store and was told no, that the only thing the firmware update fixes are bugs. Well, I still have the 1.1.3 version (mine came with the January updates) and so am debating whether to update or not. Anyone who has on this forum, have you noticed any improvement made to the audio quality?

To all: so do you guys recommend I still upgrade to the 1.1.4? FWIW, I haven't experienced any bug issue with my touch (I have yet to test the internet access of the touch, and from what I've heard some people have reported that their safari crashed with the 1.1.3 version; when they upgraded to 1.1.4 all was said to be fine).
Message was edited by: iBLUE

How to improve image quality

I've been using Motion for a couple of years now and although I'm no expert, I'm really pleased with the possibilities. I mainly use it to create animations that are then watched on a computer - either on a CD or on the web. I've also done a few animations that were later exported to a DVD. I must say, the quality of the image on a TV is terrible. It really looks like an amateur animation. I was just wondering if there was a way to improve the quality of the animation shown on a TV screen. Is it just a question of settings, compression or codec?

The color space on a TV is completely different, and much, much more restrictive, than that of a computer monitor. If you work is destined for NTSC or PAL TV, you really should use a calibrated monitor to view your project as it will be seen so you can make the right choices of color, title and action safe, and watch for interlace issues. You need to make sure your luma and chroma levels are broadcast safe as well.
Under the File menu is the new Share feature for exporting movies to different devices (in Motion 4, FCP 7)

How's the audio quality for the touch?

Topic. Also, can the Touch handle high bitrate files; eg. 192 - 320 kbps? With my nano, I've noticed that songs with high bitrates sounds abit distorted. Examples would be Forever by Chris Brown and Don't Stop the Music by Rihanna.
I should also mention that I didn't notice this "distortion" with my Creative ZEN. So, is the audio quality the same or better than the Creative ZEN/Zen X-Fi?
Need these questions answered before I decide to buy a Touch. Thanks guys!

Hi,
Yes, I have a lot of CD's ripped at 320Kbps (160 per channel stereo) through iTunes and they work fine.
Very difficult to compare "sound quality" with other devices I have not heard, even then it is down to personal taste and ear phones etc.
All I can say is using my Touch with Sennheiser CX300's and a Creative X Dock, I have no complaints, to me it sounds great.
Maybe go to an Apple store and test one out, there is also a 14 day return period.
Good luck,
Dud.

How to improve render quality of FXG graphics (gradients, paths, alpha)

Hi
I created a FXG graphical asset in Illustrator. Basically, it has some radial gradients along paths in it. Overlapping gradients have alpha values and blend over. I would assume this is a pretty common use case if you create glassy/half 3D designs.
After importing this FXG into flex i can see that the code is clean, e.g.
            <s:Group x="0" y="0">
                <s:Group x="0" y="0">
                    <s:Path data="<.. some coordinates... >" winding="nonZero" x="0.5" y="0.5">
                        <s:fill>
                            <s:RadialGradient scaleX="213" scaleY="213" x="106.5" y="106.5">
                                <s:GradientEntry alpha="0.15" color="0xffffff" ratio="0.913963"/>
                                <s:GradientEntry alpha="0" color="0xffffff" ratio="0.932299"/>
                                <s:GradientEntry alpha="0" color="0xffffff" ratio="0.976023"/>
                                <s:GradientEntry alpha="0.15" color="0xffffff" ratio="1"/>
                            </s:RadialGradient>
                        </s:fill>
                    </s:Path>
                </s:Group>
            </s:Group>
There are several groups with the gradients in my application and they overlap.
In Illustrator it looks all very nice blended. In Flash 10/Flex 4 beta 2 the render quality seems to be not that nice, is there a way to improve that with some sort of setting maybe?
The left one is the Illustrator rendering, the right one is the flash one.
I tried:
stage.quality = StageQuality.BEST;
and added those lines to the addedToStage Handler of an AIR 2.0 application. It does not seem to make any difference.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Philipp

I can't reproduce the path in the screenshot with the code you provided so I'm just blindly guessing, but can you try this on the latest nightly build: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4
We recently made changes to how blendMode works on a Group that might affect this.

How to improve audio recording?

I currently use a SHURE 8900 mic with a Griffin USB connection to make my audio recordings on GarageBand.
I would like to improve the sound quality of the recordings, spoken words only.
I don't know where to begin, what other equitpment might help, etc.
Any advise appreciated.

>0db on FCP's digital peak meter. Trust me, the audio is peaking
Peaking is one thing; clipping is another. Like Nick said, if the audio is clipped there's not a lot you can do other than reshoot, unless the clipping is just a for a brief moment or so. Zoom in on the audio waveform in the Viewer and see if the tops are flat for more than a fraction of a second. If they aren't, a compressor/limiter could possibly help minimize the harshness. If it is clipped for longer periods, you could try this: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/ ... but nothing is guaranteed to fix clipped audio. A reshoot would be the best fix.
-DH

How to improve Slideshow quality?

Hi,
I've 'shared' an iPhoto slideshow into iDVD to create the main part of a DVD. But the quality is poor / low res. I've got the DVD set to 'Professional Quality' and also to widescreen, but even on a 13" MacBook it presents quite low res and hence soft.
How do i extract the slideshow from iPhoto into iDVD at the same res / 1080p res?
TIA
Bill

Hi Bill
How do i extract the slideshow from iPhoto into iDVD at the same res / 1080p res?
You don't - and there are several reasons to this. But one can get better result than what You've got now.
a. DVD is as standard only SD-Video - no matter what program used. iDVD, DVD-Studio Pro or Roxio Toast™
b. Share to iDVD - give a less quality than "Share to Media Browser" and as Large (Not HD or other res.)
c. iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - are not tools of choice. iMovie HD6 or FinalCut or FotoMagico™ are.
(they iM'08-11 - discard every second line = less resolution)
My notes on DVD-Quality
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1)
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality (movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST
• Best Performances (movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
8. Don’t burn more than three DVD at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-layer.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround eg Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
Yours Bengt W

How to improve print quality from PSE9 on Mac?

Is there a combination of various options in the Photoshop Elements 9’ and the HP Photosmart (C7180) printer’s dialogue boxes (on a Mac, OS 16) that would result in acceptable photo prints? I’ve browsed around in both the corresponding HP and the Adobe forums and found numerous inquiries with similar problems. Thus, this issue may impact larger audience. Therefore, I am describing my problem in more details below with the hope that someone will offer a satisfactory resolution:
I’ve used earlier versions of Photoshop Elements in a Windows environment to print photos on my HP printer – with quite good results. I wanted to improve quality, so I bought a Mac (after all, “Mac’s forte is graphics, photos, etc.”, isn’t it?) and also upgraded to Photoshop Element 9. Well, to say that the result is a disappointment would be a great understatement. I’ve wasted countless hours, ink and paper in trying different PSE - printer options combinations. The prints are not even close to the quality that I used to get with my earlier setup. Is it possible that a conflict exists between the PSE’s and the printer’s Color Management?
In my earlier setup (under Windows), there was an explicit option to turn Color Management off if I wanted PSE to manage colors (which I still want). In the Mac version of the printer menu I do not find this option (although PSE 9 still gives a warning: "Did you remember to disable color management in the printer preference dialog?"). In the PSE 9 print dialogue box (under “Color Management” – “Color Handling” in “More Options…”), there are three options: “Printer Manages Color”, “Photoshop Elements Manages Colors” and “No Color Management”. In the printer’s dialogue box, there are only two options: “ColorSync” and “Vendor Matching”. There is no “Printer Color Management off” – as it was under Windows setup. Anyway, these options seem to be irrelevant, because they are predefined in accordance with selections in PSE. If either the second or third options is selected in PSE, the “ColorSync” button is preselected in the grayed out Printer dialogue box. If the first option (“Printer Manages Color”) selected, the “Vendor Matching” is preselected in the grayed out HP Printer dialogue box. Of course, I do NOT want the printer to manage color.
Thus, is there any way to turn of the printer’s color management if I want Photoshop Element to manage color? Is it necessary (or “ColorSync” automatically takes care of that)?
Anyway, this is all very confusing. The bottom line is: Is there a combination of various options in the PSE9’s and the HP Photosmart printer’s dialogue boxes (on a Mac OS 16) that would result in acceptable photo prints? What would be this combination?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hello
I wonder if you ever solved this problem.
I have a very similar problem with Photoshop CS5 on Mac OSX 10.6 + HP Photosmart C7180.
If I choose "Photoshop Manages Colors" the results are lousy.
If I choose "Printer Manages Colors" the results are OK. not necessarily great.
I believe I have all the correct settings after going through books and web advice (and wasted a lot of paper and ink).
As far as I can see, "ColorSync" is the internal Mac management which is the only option available with "Photoshop Manages Colors" and "Vendor Matching" appears to mean the printer vendor (ie HP) will provide the matching. Either can be selected if "Printer Manages Colors" is used. It seems the type of paper can be set in three different places. if That's all a bit academic as the results are poor regardless.
My wife suggests I buy a new printer - Epson's looking good.
Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

How to improve audio quality

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