Make sound files same quality?

[Rees303]

I have a bunch of sound files that have recorded voices on them, i'm using them in my flash animation.

The problem is some of them have a lower sound quality then others.
Is there anything I can use to change the quality so it all sounds even?

[BrokenDeck]

Unfortunately, if they are compressed, there isn't too much you can do to improve their sound quality. There are likely some filters and enhancers out there that can clean them up (help me out here guys by mentioning a few?), but once they are degraded, they will never be the same quality as the ones that were saved at a higher resolution.
There's the option of degrading the high quality samples to the same compressed sound as the lower quality ones though. But you're always trying to avoid degrading the quality of your saved audio as much as possible.
And last, there's the option of re-recording it.

Unless someone out there know of some really kick-ass software based audio enhancers out there that I don't know about..... ?

[dietsnapple135]

At 1/13/11 07:00 PM, brokendeck wrote:

Unless someone out there know of some really kick-ass software based audio enhancers out there that I don't know about..... ?

Nope. Truly improving the quality would require some magic or something.

[TimeBender]

well the great thing is that IF they are compressed you likely would have the uncompressed file you used to compress it. unless you saved directly to .mp3/.ogg or such. you might still have an uncompressed project file.

next time
+use the same mic everytime
+export to .wav/.flac
+keep uncompressed files incase the compressed files (which you might have to use for file size) are too low in quality so you can experiment with diff bitrate/quality

[baugusbryson]

At 1/13/11 07:51 PM, TimeBender wrote: well the great thing is that IF they are compressed you likely would have the uncompressed file you used to compress it. unless you saved directly to .mp3/.ogg or such. you might still have an uncompressed project file.

next time
+use the same mic everytime
+export to .wav/.flac
+keep uncompressed files incase the compressed files (which you might have to use for file size) are too low in quality so you can experiment with diff bitrate/quality

He can't really record with the same mic since he had other voice actors (such as myself) record for him, so the quality is always going to vary when you have more than one VA in your project.

and, reese, the only thing I think would help MIGHT be noise removal in audacity (but if you have them it'd be preferable to use goldwave or adobe audition) to clean up the lines. BUT do NOT use noise removal if you're not really familiar with it because it could permanently damage the audio quality for good.

overall, if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about all the sound qualities being equal as much as I would be worried about making sure they're all at a relatively equal volume level. you don't want some peoples' lines to be extremely loud while the other person's lines are extremely quiet. But you also don't want to mess up the quality of any of the lines by distorting it (a result of increasing the volume of audio without compressing it).
Online project always tend to have audio issues like this, so the only real alternative is to not exactly let the different qualities bug you too much. either that or find actors that all have high quality mics.

[Rees303]

At 1/13/11 08:15 PM, baugusbryson wrote:

He can't really record with the same mic since he had other voice actors (such as myself) record for him, so the quality is always going to vary when you have more than one VA in your project.

and, reese, the only thing I think would help MIGHT be noise removal in audacity (but if you have them it'd be preferable to use goldwave or adobe audition) to clean up the lines. BUT do NOT use noise removal if you're not really familiar with it because it could permanently damage the audio quality for good.

overall, if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about all the sound qualities being equal as much as I would be worried about making sure they're all at a relatively equal volume level. you don't want some peoples' lines to be extremely loud while the other person's lines are extremely quiet. But you also don't want to mess up the quality of any of the lines by distorting it (a result of increasing the volume of audio without compressing it).
Online project always tend to have audio issues like this, so the only real alternative is to not exactly let the different qualities bug you too much. either that or find actors that all have high quality mics.

Thats great Timebender, I experimented with the bitrate and its all exported fairly evenly. Thanks a lot!
I guess you could call me a bit of noob with these online projects baugusbryson lol, but it all seems to be ok now after that bitrate change. thanks for all the advice guys

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

Just to clarify, importing a sound file into a flash movie DOES NOT make it compressed. Its there as it was imported. You can edit the KBS rate of every sound individually, or simply open up the flash preferences and edit the entire sound KBS rate.

Also, in the future please post your flash related questions to the flash forums. Not many of us here in ahte audio forums know a flying fuck about flash. ;)

[TimeBender]

At 1/14/11 02:07 AM, FatKidWitAJetPak wrote: Just to clarify, importing a sound file into a flash movie DOES NOT

It was a pretty audio related question uhm.. fatty? i dont know how to shorthand your name.

[sugarsimon]

sound make good. always a better high quality sound

[GhostingFish]

Put it through an eq and turn the treble (15000Hz-18000Hz) up. Thats all i know.