Autodesk 64006-051108-9001 User Guide - Page 92

84 Chapter 6: Pre-processing Experimenting with Audio Filters When applying audio filters to your material, it is often necessary to experiment to find the right mix of filters and settings. In order to really hear subtle noise and compression artifacts in the audio, you should invest in a pair of high-quality headphones or audio monitors. It is often difficult to determine the best audio-processing parameters if the only reference you have is low-fidelity speakers, which often mask audio flaws. Listen to your final audio on your target computer speakers to understand how it sounds to your listeners. First, test your settings without audio compression, so that you hear only the actual results of the filters without compression artifacts masking the changes. An easy way to do this is to create an audio setting that creates the same kHz and bit-depth audio as the final piece but has the codec set to None. Experiment on a short section of the audio, instead of on the entire file. This speeds up processing while you try different filters and parameters. To experiment on a short section of audio: 1. Set your In and Out points to a representative short section of material (5 to 10 seconds is usually a good length). 2. Select an audio codec and compression parameters for the file. 3. Click Start to make a short test segment. 4. Play the segment in the Output window to hear how the selected filters affect the audio quality. 5. For comparison, play the audio in the Project window to hear the original audio quality. 6. In the Preferences dialog, click the check box to activate the Only play selection between in & out option. This plays the same portion of the movie displayed in the Output window. 7. Adjust the compression parameters until you are satisfied with the sound quality and click Apply. 8. In the Project window, choose Edit > Clear In/Out Points to encode the entire file. Controlclick the Project window to choose Clear In/Out Points from the context menus. 9. Process the file. 10.Double-check the same short section of the material to make sure it still sounds acceptable after compression. If you hear any objectionable artifacts, you may want to modify your filters to try to help mask or reduce these artifacts.