metalic sound with my voice convertions

[yosi666]

here miguel from spain. first i must say that i love this program but i have one problem i just cant solve.
i convert everything perfectly but i have some voice records in wav format that i want to convert to mp3 but when i do it (ive tryed thousand of settings) i just get that record with a kind of metallic sound.
should i download any extra codec for the program , or maybe use other program for these archives? can anyone help me , im desperate.
u can write an email or answer through here , thank u

[ChristinaS]

Re: metalic sound with my voice convertions

here miguel from spain. first i must say that i love this program but i have one problem i just cant solve.
i convert everything perfectly but i have some voice records in wav format that i want to convert to mp3 but when i do it (ive tryed thousand of settings) i just get that record with a kind of metallic sound.
should i download any extra codec for the program , or maybe use other program for these archives? can anyone help me , im desperate.
u can write an email or answer through here , thank u

What specificatioons does your original wav file have? If it's not 16-bit 44100Hz 2-channel stereo to start with (i.e. CD quality), you may try first to convert it to CD quality wav and after that to mp3. Don't compress too much or you will get very poor results. If you have tried the Voice preset (Advanced > Presets) and this is what gave poor results, then try the Normal preset and Constant Bit Rate.

Test the resulting output every time so you know what is the best audio quality you can hope for.

I'm afraid there's no solution other than experimenting with all the different options until the desired results are obtained. Voice recordings seem to be tricky to start with.

[xoas]

Re: metalic sound with my voice convertions

should i download any extra codec for the program...?

First, you should consider the advice Christina gave regarding your wav files. I would add that you might want to consider tailoring the specifications of your mp3 file to match the specifications of your wav file (so if your wav files are mono convert to mp3 mono, for example).

I would also urge you to make sure that the metallic quality of your converted files is actually due to the conversion. Example, if you play these voice records (are they lp albums?) on your stereo you but listening to the converted files on your computer's sound system, the difference could be in the sound systems (decent stereo systems usually beat out computer sound systems handily). You could ascertain this difference by feeding your stereo's line-out to your computer's line-in (so you can listen to the voice recordings on the computer's speaker's) and/or by feeding your computer's line-out to your stereo's line-in (so you can hear the converted mp3 files on your stereo).
Short of that you could try listening to the lp and the mp3 files through the same set of headphones.

Another possibility is that the metallic sound may be caused by your recording settings (your stereo's output gain fed through your line-input gain and affected by your recording level). Also, if you record through your line input but your soundcard has other input sources open you may be getting some unwanted artifact through this set-up. You can correct that by shutting off other inputs for your soundcard while you are recording.

Finally, if you are sure the problem is not related to your playback system and if you are sure you are not happy with any of the mp3 settings (and you say you have tried many), then you might want to consider a different codec. If space is not an problem for you, you might want to consider one of the lossless codecs (which would exactly duplicate the files as initially recorded through auxilary input-metallic sounding results with a lossless codec would confirm that the issue is either in recording or in playback but not through your mp3 settings) or you might consider the Speex codec (space-saving codec that specializes in voice recording).

Hoope these considerations are of some help to you. Let us know how you make out.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen