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Export Audio Mixdown
MPEG 1 Layer 3 files
MPEG 1 Layer 3 files have the extension “.mp3”. By use of
advanced audio compression algorithms, mp3 files can be
made very small, yet maintaining good audio quality.
Apart from the Sample Rate and Bit Depth options, MPEG
1 Layer 3 files support the same settings as AIFF files in the
sections File Location, Audio Engine Output and Import into
project. The File Format settings are different, though.
For MPEG 1 Layer 3 files the following options are avail-
able in the File Format section:
Windows Media Audio files (Windows only)
This is a format developed by Microsoft Inc. Due to the ad-
vanced audio codecs and lossless compression used,
WMA files can be decreased in size with no loss of audio
quality. The files have the extension “.wma”.
When you select “Windows Media Audio File” as the file
format, you can click the “Codec Settings…” button to
open the “Windows Media Audio File Settings” window.
Windows Media Audio File Settings
Note that the configuration options may vary, depending
on the chosen output.
General tab
In the Input Stream section, you set the sample rate (44.1,
48 or 96kHz) and the bit resolution (16bit or 24bit) of the
encoded file. These should be set to match the sample rate
and bit resolution of the source material. If no value matches
that of your source material, use the closest available value
that is higher than the actual value. For example, if you’re
using 20bit source material, set the bit resolution to 24bit
rather than 16bit.
Ö The setting in the Channels field depends on the cho-
sen output and cannot be changed manually.
The settings in the Encoding Scheme section are used for
defining the desired output from the encoder. Make set-
tings appropriate for the intended use of the file. If the file
will be downloaded or streamed on the Internet, you might
not want too high bit rates, for example. See below for de-
scriptions of the options.
Option Description
Bit Rate fader By moving this fader, you can select a bit rate for the
mp3 file. As a rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the
audio quality and the larger the file. For stereo audio,
128kBit/s is often considered to result in “good” audio
quality.
Sample Rate
pop-up
On this pop-up menu you can select a Sample Rate for
the mp3 file.
High Quality
Mode option
When this is activated, the encoder will use a different
resampling mode, which can give better results depend-
ing on your settings. In this mode, you cannot specify the
Sample Rate, but only the Bit Rate for the mp3 file.
Insert ID3 Tag
option
This allows you to include ID3 Tag information in the
exported file.
Edit ID3 Tag
button
When you click this, the ID3 Tag dialog opens, in which
you can enter information about the file. This additional
information will be embedded as text strings in the file,
and can be displayed by most mp3 playback applica-
tions.