which one to choose between AIF, WAV & SD II ?

[Doume]

Hi evryone,
here's a little thing i'm wondering about : a sound engineer told a friend that the SD II audio format is better for protools so it can process audio suite plugs, convert & convert after bounce faster than the other ones. I once thought that SDII was good for old mac like G3.
What do you think of it & is there a better audio format between aif, wav & SDII for protools ?
(i'm using PT HD on a 2x1G MDD with Tiger+ 2G RAM)

[Ryan Young]

It all depends who you're working with. Are you receiving files from another machine or engineer? Are you sending your session to someone else to do the final mix? If you are doing the recording, mixing, mastering, etc... either of them, it'll be exactly the same.

AIFF: If you're sending to and/or from a Final Cut Pro editor, you'd want to use this file type.

SDII: Good if you're sending to and/or from an older Pro Tools machines.

WAV: Good if you're sending to and/or from a Windows based machine. If you are working with an AVID editor, you'd want to use this file type AND when you create a new session, use the +12db faders.

I think that's about it. Otherwise, either of the 3 file types will treat the software and you the same.

[Doume]

thanks,
in fact, all the work is done in the studio (recording,editing,mixing) to be send in mastering.
So, according to you, there is none of these 3 audio type that would be better for protools like we were told ?

[Frank Kruse]

since you can mix all those file-types in the same session it doesn´t matter. the only thing is that you can not use SD2 for high sample rates.

frank.

[Jim Roberts]

The NARAS Producers/Engineers wing wrote a document on standardizing our workflow.

They recommend Broadcast Wave as the format we should all be using to interact with each other.

However, the earlier posts in this thread make a lot of sense from a practical standpoint (i.e. FCP should be AIFF, old PT systems - SD2, etc.).

Hope this helps.

Jim

[Doume]

i noticed that when you first start PT, the default audio format is bwf, mostly as a mac user i use aif but in fact i did not really care of what ever aif or bwf i have sessions on both types anyways. But the point that we cannot use DSII for higth res sessions, that i did not know.
thanks guys & keep da groove aliive !
...of course if someone else has other comments : bienvenue !!

[N-G-NEER]

OK.... much of what I'm reading here is without foundation.
BWF = broadcast wav format is the current standard for audio It is used by FCP, Avid and Premiere the three dominant video NLE's used all over the world. SDII comes from a very old version of Protools in which there was a seperate application for all the DSP work and it was called Sound Designer. Apple had several proprietary formats AIF amongst them. However the current standard for video and audio applications is BWF whether on Mac or PC. The standard compressed format is still MP3 although the Mac camp would wish it to be AAC. There has been talk at this years Namm show about standardizing by using AAF or MXF as the standards but that doesn't make it so. If you're on a Mac and you really have your head in the sand I suppose SDII would be a good choice especially if you're using a version of Protools that has a seperate DSP application called Sound Designer. Come on folks we're halfway to 2006 get with the program we need to all standardize our formats and workflow. enough of folks with there heads up thier buts going I like analogue tape and such......GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!! If you want to compete in the real world you'll need to know what's really going on. There's only one way to look and that's ahead. I've been in this Biz for thirty years and I've seen it all I've seen the arguments about whether we should continue to use wire recorders as compared with acetate tape or nylon tape because that was made for women's stockings. C'mon' what's the deal doesn't anybody read anymore. There are generally new standards for reasons. In this case it's because BWF carries large amounts of metadata that can be used to protect the copyright owners and producers of media. or maybe there are those who'd like to see us go back to recording on wax cylinders. Think about it. Take the time to read and educate yourself....take the time to learn. Learn what we've done and why. Try not to repeat the same mistakes. If one acts without the knowledge of the past . He is sure to commit the same errors.

[jeremyroberts]

OK.... much of what I'm reading here is without foundation.
[snip]
Come on folks we're halfway to 2006 get with the program we need to all standardize our formats and workflow. enough of folks with there heads up thier buts going I like analogue tape and such......GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!
[snip]

I couldn't agree more. Well said. .BWF is the only file format that we need to be using - there is NO (zero) professional software on either platform, released within the past 5-10 years that can not read/write (and most prefer) .BWF

Is it that .wav (.bwf's father) was originally a windows file format and most mac guys didn't want to go there? It's not religion, boys and girls. It's a freaking file format.

We should use the most robust, forward looking file format available, and right now, that's .BWF. EVERYONE can read it. No reason to use anything else.

Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken -- what professional applications can't read/write .BWF?

hell, even iTunes will read 16-bit .wav files (which is a great application for filing mixes).

</off soapbox>

[soundthinker]

Be careful with BWave PT sessions and OMFs from Avid Media Composer. I've found that if the editor chooses to convert the audio file type to wav when Consolidating and Embeding the OMF, a BWave Protools session will quit when trying to import the audio files. This is with pt6.4 and an early (v1.2?) version of Media Composer, so this might be working now. YMMV

/jim

[Frank Kruse]

Guys, sorry to talk back.

One of the most annoying things in FCP when it comes to importing BWAV files from any of the modern NL location recorders is the fact that it neither supports the the pro bext chunk nor supports BWF-poly files with more than 2 tracks.

You have to use work-arounds like Sebsky tools to get around it. And so far apple has been imune to requests from pro-users that need BWAV support with timestamps and meta-data. iXML not even mentioned.

None of apple´s "pro" applications supports BWAV. They can play back stereo WAVs but that´s far away from supporting BWAV.

Of course this has nothing to do with ProTools. PT supports some of the BWAV secifications. Problem with BWAV is that each manufacturer uses the bext chunk differently. That´s why there is iXML but not AVID decided to go down the MXF route as a metadata wraper so we´ll see what the future will bring.

my 2 cents,

frank.