WaveConvert Pro 2.3 and BarbaBatch 2.1

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

I did a number of conversions on my older yet still functional PowerMac 7100/66 with a Digidesign ProTools II audio card installed (with the 442 interface) to test the products' performance. In general, WaveConvert Pro was somewhat faster than BarbaBatch in most circumstances. For example, one minute of stereo, 44.1KHz, 16-bit digital audio converted to 8-bit and a slightly nonstandard rate of 110,029Hz with normalization and peak limiting took WaveConvert Pro one minute and forty seconds to process; BarbaBatch performed the same conversion in two minutes and thirty seconds.

Perhaps the most important metric of all is how the results sound. Again, I did many listening tests on a variety of files converted in many different ways. I won't present the full details, but I'll instead give my overall conclusions. To do my listening test, I chose to forgo the rarefied environment of the recording studio and opted instead for a typical high-end multimedia PC listening environment. Using a Creative Labs AWE64 Gold card and a Cambridge SoundWorks PCWorks subwoofer/ satellite-amplified speaker system, I turned the volume up fairly loud to compensate for the ambient noise of the machine. The files I processed were 16-bit, 44.1KHz music and voice-over files from the last game I worked on. All of the files were produced on mid-level professional equipment, such as a Mackie 8*Bus board, AT 4033 microphones, Tascam DAT machines, and K2500 and Samplecell samplers, and were reasonably free from noise and distortion. I also tested some really poor-quality files from an outside contractor just to see what kind of repair work was possible.

BarbaBatch presents a very nice, natural, open sound for all of its conversions. The BarbaBatch sample-rate conversion algorithm is very effective. Music files converted with BarbaBatch retain the most natural, least processed sound. WaveConvert Pro music files tend to have a more processed, filtered sound, even with minimal conversions (such as 44.1KHz to 22KHz only). WaveConvert Pro, on the other hand, did the best job with 8-bit conversions. Its wider variety of signal processing options and excellent set-up libraries yielded much cleaner, quieter lowÐbit-rate files. WaveConvert Pro was also much more useful in cleaning up my poor-quality audio files.

I also tested the files on an inexpensive set of Labtec speakers. In this case, the WaveConvert Pro-processed files sounded clearer, and artifacts from the sound processing were much less noticeable than on the higher-end consumer audio hardware.