WaveConvert Pro 2.3 and BarbaBatch 2.1

Introduction Audio File Input and Processing Sample Rate Conversion and Compression Dynamics, Bit-Rate Conversion, and Extensibility File Output Performance -- How Does It Sound? Picking A Winner

Introduction

How many times has your producer said something like this: "I know we said that you would have 50MB of space for audio on the CD. Well, we had some trouble compressing the models. Could you get everything to fit in 25MB?" How many times have your 2,500 voice-over files just not sounded right when you used some strange compression code? How many times have you had to make a couple of hundred sound effects a little louder and brighter?

If you work on audio for interactive media, then this is just your life, buster. Most of the time, you just don't have the budget to hire someone else to take care of these audio-processing tasks, which is especially painful when you have to run multiple DSP passes over each file, one at a time. If you're the person who gets stuck with these audio-processing chores, then thank your lucky stars for two Macintosh-based tools, WaveConvert Pro 2.3 and BarbaBatch 2.1 (Figures 1 and 2, respectively).

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Figure 1: WaveConvert Pro 2.3.

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Figure 2: BarbaBatch 2.1.

Tables 1 and 2 (below) summarize the file types and formats supported by both tools at the input and output stages. There are a number of important things to consider when reading this table. First, not all of the combinations in Tables 1 and 2 are possible. For example, certain file types contain restrictions as to the bit and sample rates that may be used. Furthermore, some complex files, though supported, are handled less than elegantly (QuickTime is one such format). Finally, while a tool may not directly handle some file types, it may be able to prepare files for conversion to that file type (for instance, WaveConvert Pro can prepare files for conversion to Shockwave and RealAudio formats).

Table 1 shows that both programs support most major formats to some degree. Note that BarbaBatch is missing support for the Raw and IMA-ADPCM file formats, but that it outputs MPEG1 Layer 1 and 2 files and RealAudio files directly. Version 2.2 of BarbaBatch, which will be available by the time you read this, will also support QuickTime, 24- and 32-bit Sound Designer, AIFF, WAVE and NeXT files. WaveConvert Pro is missing many of the less common file types, but has excellent support for QuickTime, Shockwave, RealAudio, and IMA and MS ADPCM files.

Table 1. File formats supported by WaveConvert Pro (WCP) and BarbaBatch (BBB).

File Format	WCP Input	WCP Output	BBB Input	BBB Output
AIFF	X	X	X	X
.WAV	X	X	X	X
QuickTime	X	X1
Mac Resource .snd	X	X
Sound Designer	X	X	X	X
Sound Designer II	X	X	X	X
Raw	X	X
IMA ADPCM	X	X
MS ADPCM	X	X	X	X
Dialogic Vox			X	X
NeXT/Sun a-law .snd			X	X
Headerless a-law .au			X	X
AIFC			X	X
MPEG1 Layer 1			X	X
MPEG1 Layer 2			X	X
Shockwave		via presets
RealAudio		via presets
Amiga IFF 8SVX			X	X
AVR			X	X
Waves NoLoss		X

1. WCP QuickTime support allows for the saving of interleaved (flattened) or not interleaved movies. In addition, WCP offers elegant handling of multiple audio tracks within a QuickTime movie. In a QuickTime movie with multiple audio tracks, each can be processed with its own setting or not at all, and the resultant movie will have all of the original tracks (processed if instructed to do so) in place when the movie is complete.

Table 2. Sample and Bit rates (sample and bit rate may be restricted by file format).

File Format	WCP Input	WCP Output	BBB Input	BBB Output
4 Bit		X	X	X
8 Bit	X	X	X	X
16 Bit	X	X	X	X
24 bit	X		X	X
Sample Rates	3Khz-48Khz	3Khz-48Khz	1Khz-100Khz	1Khz-100Khz