Preparing Audio for Youtube

[wirez]

Hello all,
this is an on-going problem I've been having with posting my tracks to Youtube and I just can't seem to hammer what is causing the issue. The issue is that when I post my tracks to Youtube (now even in HD), Youtube produces a rustling sound over the lower frequencies of my tracks and it really affects the perceived quality.

I have sent various people a 320 of my recent bootleg, so they have the ability to listen to the quality of the track in comparison to this (if you don't have the 320 you should still hear what I'm talking about) -



(You will need to watch it on youtube to see it in HD!)

The rustling sound is most noticeable at around 3:20 when the sub bass and drums are playing, the rustling is not present in the 320 or the video I have encoded using iMovie 09.

Here is an example of a high quality HD track which doesn't have the rustling sound (to prove that it doesn't happen to all tracks uploaded to Youtube).



What I want to know is what I'm doing wrong that they're doing right when uploading their tracks to Youtube (I have messaged them but have had no response as of yet).

For those who are educated in terms of video creation these are the settings I have been using to create my HD movies -

Video
File Format - MP4
Video Format - MPEG-4 Improved
Data Rate - 1024 kbps
Image Size - 1280x720 HD
Preserve Aspect Ratio Using Letterbox
Frame Rate: Current
Automatic Key Frame

Audio
AAC-LC (music)
Data Rate: 320 kbps
Channels: Stereo
Output Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
Encoding Quality: Best

I'm pretty sure they're the best possible settings to use, but I may be wrong.

I have read so many places for advice on processing audio to be compatible with Youtube... The only thing I've noticed some advise that I don't do is normalising audio, because I've already limited etc. when mastering the tracks!

Argh, annoooooying!!

[theprjctmyhm]

I've had the same problem, would love to know how to sort this out, check the difference in quality between these two-

Soundcloud



miost obvious at the start and 2.40 to 2.50 secs

[Basic A]

I get this on soundcloud too...

I find that compressing n limiting the track like a complete madman actually does help, as crazy as it sounds... I end updoing multiple mixdowns per site sometimes, lol, with different balances of sub too mid and different compression levels on the masters... Noone cares with the quality drop on the web anyway.

[wirez]

I've had the same problem, would love to know how to sort this out, check the difference in quality between these two-

Soundcloud



miost obvious at the start and 2.40 to 2.50 secs

I couldn't really tell the different too much man lol other than the Youtube one as perceiving as being a little quieter. Fucking sick tune though man!

[wirez]

I get this on soundcloud too...

I find that compressing n limiting the track like a complete madman actually does help, as crazy as it sounds... I end updoing multiple mixdowns per site sometimes, lol, with different balances of sub too mid and different compression levels on the masters... Noone cares with the quality drop on the web anyway.

I think I'm going to create a 'normalised' version of my next 320 for web use to see if that makes any difference! That means I have to bounce 5 different versions of every track now lol

[regend]

what about changing the Audio from AAC to AIFF or WAV? just a thought. AAC is technically compressed data that is then decoded on playback. sending an uncompressed format may work better for you since youtube re-compresses everything on upload and playback.

[wirez]

what about changing the Audio from AAC to AIFF or WAV? just a thought. AAC is technically compressed data that is then decoded on playback. sending an uncompressed format may work better for you since youtube re-compresses everything on upload and playback.

I don't believe that iMovies will accept the higher quality formats on their videos for some reason, plus Youtube recommends AAC audio

[mickledan]

thats a fairly high res, try halfing it, see if that gives you more 'bandwith' to play with, as obv the aud and vid will be compressed together..

[wirez]

thats a fairly high res, try halfing it, see if that gives you more 'bandwith' to play with, as obv the aud and vid will be compressed together..

It's a high res because I'm creating a high res video so that youtube will process it as one if that makes sense. Next time I upload I will be using a high res image (and eventually plan to make high res videos) so the high res thing is quite essential (soz for saying high res so much haha). But yeh man, I had these issues long before using High resolutions because I've only just got iMovies HD!

[grooki]

I have the same problem. When I play the video file myself sound quality is great. wtf?

[wirez]

I have the same problem. When I play the video file myself sound quality is great. wtf?

I used a wav file and let iMovies convert it into a 320 instead of just putting a 320 in there last time and it seemed to help..