Short version: disk full of .cda files sounds fine when I play them on my computer, but if I put the disk in a boom-box, the sound is high and just a little chipmunky. (Not super-distorted, but a little distorted. To a rough guess, about 10% squeaky.)
Long version: From old audio-cassettes, home-recorded (my sister, reading Kipling stories.) I used the Ion cassette-USB player, and “Audacity,” to get .aud files. These sound fine. Then I used Audacity to export to .mp3 files. These sound fine. Then I used Nero to burn the .mp3 files to audio files, which it does by creating .cda files. Thse, on my computer, sound fine, but in a boom-box, or my car’s CD player, or on a DVD player attached to a tv, the sound is chipmunky.
Should I go from .aud files to .wav files instead? Or…???
I would start by going back through your importing chain, and make sure that any software that gives you a “sample rate” option is set to 44.1khz and not 48khz.
Just checked, and Audacity is, indeed, set to 44100 Hz. I’m not sure if Nero has a setting for this; I just looked and couldn’t find any.
I’m also starting to think that it may be the fault of the various players. I played the CD in my home DVD players (2) and it sounds okay. In a friend’s car, it sounds chipmunky, but distinctly less so; basically, so close to OK as no longer matters. I have two boom-boxes, and one sounds okay, while the other sounds chipmunky…
(Is there a better term than that I should be using?)
Thanks for your advice! I obviously know very little (bugger-all nothing!) about these things.
I assumed that by “chipmunky” you meant it sounded as if it were playing back faster than normal. Is this the case, or do you mean “lots of treble”?
Additionally, you should ideally skip the step where you convert them to mp3 files. From .aud to .wav (or .aif) would be preferred.
That’ll have to be my next experiment: to time a section and see if it’s actually faster. It sounds faster rather than simply higher (more treble.)
Audacity only (?) goes to .mp3 or .wav. I’ve been using .mp3, simply because it takes up so much less space. (I know I’m losing quality from compression, but, until this experience, I’ve never been able to hear the difference. Frankly, my hearing isn’t very good, and “high end audio” is anything with more signal than noise…)
But I will make the experiment of converting to .wav rather than .mp3.
(Your post is the first I’ve ever even heard of .aif…)
Again, thanks! I may be away from this thread for a couple weeks, but I’ll be experimenting.
Oh, another data point: I don’t have a good .mp3 player, but I have a Kindle that plays .mp3 files, and when I play these files on it, they sound just fine. I’m more and more coming to suspect that the problem is in some of the CD/DVD players I’ve been using.
My version of Audacity (1.3.12 beta) has 12 possible file types including AIFF, FLAC, GSM, M4A, OGG and WAV. Your version may be old, or I may have acquired additional plugins at the Audacity website.
Wow, that’s a lot of file types… (I thought “Og” was the Straight Dope’s primordial deity!) Is any one of them really much better than any other for my purposes? I’ve been using .mp3, but Tragically Dip recommends I use .wav. Should I hit the Audacity site and attach an .aif writing plug-in? Or are these high-end options for real experts, as, for instance, someone handling files for a radio broadcasting station?