Tag and bitrate help needed - Maybe I don't understand Lame?

[geekcoach]

Hey there -

I'm pretty new to some of the technical aspects of this work and could use your help getting things straightened out.

It seems I've managed to turn in a couple of files with the wrong bitrate and without some of the tags (thanks gypsygirl for pointing that out!) so obviously I want to correct that. Since all these elements appeared to be in order when I was creating the file, I'm thinking I somehow introduced a problem at some point in the process. Hopefully you can help me identify what happened and what to do about it.

First (mostly because once a tech support person, always a tech support person), a few words about my setup and process...

For now, anyway, I'm making the recordings using a DV camera.

Next, I import the recorded material to my (Windows-based) computer and edit it in Pinnacle Systems Studio (hey, it's handy & I'm familiar with it).

Studio lets me save the file as an audio-only .wav file, so that's the option I use, since I don't readily see an option to save it in .mp3 format. (Perhaps an opportunity to shortcut my process here if someone else uses Studio and knows how to save/export as .mp3?) - NOTE - at this point, the file IS 128kbps bitrate and 44.1kHz sample rate.

So - I noticed somewhere that dragging and dropping a .wav file onto lame.exe will convert it to .mp3 format so that's what I do - and I thought that was working pretty well. Do I need to do something special to preserve the original bitrate and sample rate?

Next, I set all the requested tags from within iTunes - I thought I saw this as a suggested method for doing this but please do educate me if there's a better way.

Lastly - and perhaps this is an unnecessary step that caused the disappearing tags, or maybe what occurred here was just symptomatic of a bigger problem created earlier - I happened to notice that if I right-click on the resulting .mp3 file, there's a Properties option that seemed to let me set tags, so I set the Title and the Comments field tags there.

Not knowing any better and seeing the tag field(s) empty, I went and set those, thinking that maybe this was something different than what I'd already set from within iTunes. Not suspecting any issue(s), I did not go re-check the tags from within iTunes. One reason I'm thinking now that this is relevant (and part of the reason I thought I was looking at something different entirely), is that there was only a Title field and a Comment field - the other tags that I'd accessed in iTunes weren't there.

So... anyone have any suggestions? Am I doing something wrong with Lame.exe, or in iTunes? Am I perhaps taking the wrong approach here altogether?

I'll obviously go read up about Lame - I seem to recall reading something somewhere about it setting a different version of tags so I'll check that for sure at least but I'm also confused and concerned about the bitrate and the sample rate. Anything you can share or point me toward that will shortcut my learning curve, will obviously help me get this worked out that much faster!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

[knotyouraveragejo]

Kimm,

Here are a few suggestions. If Studio will let you, check to make sure you are saving your audio-only .wav file as WAV(Microsoft 16bit PCM) since there are several options for saving wav files. The bitrate (kbps) in a wav file is controlled by the audio sample size which should be set at 16 bit. I have never used Studio, but some of the video based programs (like Windows MovieMaker) default to a lower quality wav format. When you convert to mp3, the bitrate you select then controls how much compression is used and thus the size of the resulting file. So as a rule if you compare the size of your wav file to the final mp3, the wav should be ~5-6 times larger than the mp3.

I don't use lame.exe so I don't know exactly where in the process you select the bitrate for your final mp3 file. If the bitrate of your final mp3 is incorrect then you must need to change the default lame settings before you start. While I don't record with it, I do use Audacity with the lame encoder installed to convert my edited files to mp3 - which allows me to set the ID3 tags all in one step. In your workflow, you can eliminate the iTunes step and set (or correct) the tags simply by right clicking on your mp3 file and selecting Properties. Go to the Summary tab and click on the Advanced button. This will open a window where you can enter all the tags simply by clicking to the right of each category to open a text entry box. You can also scroll to the bottom of this window to confirm that the bitrate and audio sample rate are correct. When you are done simply apply or hit OK to save your changes.

I hope some of the above is helpful and that I am not just pointing out what is already obvious to you!

Jo

[geekcoach]

I hope some of the above is helpful and that I am not just pointing out what is already obvious to you!

Jo

Very helpful indeed as it definitely gives me some clues for where to start looking. That's important becasue while I'm plenty technically savvy, I'm not too familiar with some of the finer points of this particular process yet and I've got a few other things going on at the moment so I anticipate this will really shortcut my troubleshooting process.

After all, I'd far rather be spending the time I have recording than troubleshooting!

Thanks very much for the suggestions!