Bouncing out AAC or OGG

[Glo123]

What are you folks doing to create lossy files? Are there any addons for PT that llow you to do this natively? If not, is there any industry preferred software?

[Top Jimmy]

Sonnox Codec Toolbox or Pro Codec are the only 3rd party plugins that I'm aware of that do such a thing. Those are limited to MP3 and AAC. There are too many other ways to transcode files so I really don't care to see support for other media file types ever added to Pro Tools.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[originalscottyg]

Not native in Pro Tools, but Pro Audio Converter works great on macOS.

[The Weed]

VLC will do FLAC and OGG. It's cross platform and free.

[Glo123]

Thanks for the replies!

Didn't know VLC can convert files. That is very cool! That will be perfect to create OGG files.

On a side note, should I be converting the non-dithered 24-bit / 48 kHz file directly? Or should I be converting the dithered 16-bit / 44.1 kHz file? Or, alternatively, a dithered 24-bit / 48 kHz file?

Thanks again!

[BScout]

If you are doing lossless compression, then your dithering question needs some kind of background info. You dither when you truncate bit depth. If you work in Pro Tools at higher bit depth but output a lower bit depth file, you dither as the last thing before bit depth change within Pro Tools. That is independent of any lossless compression you could do later with the resultant file.

Going from full resolution files to lossless compression does not call for dithering. They are the same file.

[Glo123]

Originally Posted by BScout

If you are doing lossless compression, then your dithering question needs some kind of background info. You dither when you truncate bit depth. If you work in Pro Tools at higher bit depth but output a lower bit depth file, you dither as the last thing before bit depth change within Pro Tools. That is independent of any lossless compression you could do later with the resultant file.

Going from full resolution files to lossless compression does not call for dithering. They are the same file.

Makes sense. Thank you.

Just to add, can I convert directly from a 48 kHz file, or should I convert down to 44.1 kHz first?

Thanks for the help :)

[BScout]

Originally Posted by Glo123

Just to add, can I convert directly from a 48 kHz file, or should I convert down to 44.1 kHz first?

"should"?

Do you want a 48k file or 44.1k file in the end? No one but you knows what this file is for or what it is being played back on. That's all that matters. If you work in a pro tools session that is 48k, 24bit and bounce out a file 48k, 24 bit and whatever you plan to play it on can play 48k, 24bit, then don't change anything.

If you want a 44.1k, 16 bit file at the end of mixing at 48k, 24bit pro tools session, put a dither plugin on the master output set to 16 bit and bounce out directly to 44.1k, 16 bit out of pro tools.

[jeam25]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Sonnox Codec Toolbox

I use Sonnox Codec Toolbox everyday . It worth the money if you have to do this process a lot . I love the bacth processing and the metadata input . This app is great for converting to mp3 .

[Glo123]

Originally Posted by BScout

"should"?

Do you want a 48k file or 44.1k file in the end? No one but you knows what this file is for or what it is being played back on. That's all that matters. If you work in a pro tools session that is 48k, 24bit and bounce out a file 48k, 24 bit and whatever you plan to play it on can play 48k, 24bit, then don't change anything.

If you want a 44.1k, 16 bit file at the end of mixing at 48k, 24bit pro tools session, put a dither plugin on the master output set to 16 bit and bounce out directly to 44.1k, 16 bit out of pro tools.

Sorry for being unclear. So basically, I have a 24-bit / 48 kHz session, and a corresponding .wav file (the master file). I want two versions for distribution:

1. A 16-bit / 44.1 kHz .wav file for CD. This is easy enough to make with PT and I follow this process:

https://www.izotope.com/en/support/k...dithering.html

2. An OGG or AAC file for online distribution.

My knowledge of lossy files is limited, and I am not sure if 44.1 kHz vs. 48 kHz is even relevant in such formats. Of course, I want whatever "industry standard" is. As such, I was wondering if I can directly convert my aforementioned master file (24-bit / 48 kHz) into OGG or AAC, or if there should be an additional step of down converting the master file to 24-bit / 44.1 kHz.

Thanks again.