So I have this problem for a while. Say there is a song, and 5 different people upload it to each of their own youtube chnl. AND say the quality is not the same among these youtube chnl.
When I record a song off from youtube, sometimes I get some really good 1.5Mbps recording, and sometimes, 700kbps recording.
So say when there is the choice of 5 different person upload the same song in ea. of their youtube chnl, I want to be able to tell what Mbps it’s recording at. So if it’s too low, I’ll stop the recording and select another youtube chnl.
Does the software has the means to show what Mbps I am recording from?
And of course, there are other factors that affect audio quality and the person who uploaded it may have used a low-bitrate MP3 (etc.) in their original audio/video file. When in doubt, trust your ears.
Audacity doesn’t know… The audio is decompressed when you open it (without Audacity seeing the original uncompressed audio data). It does (usually) keep the sample rate (KHz).
the other software works. So I am happy w/ mediainfo. Thank for the tips. I am happy using audacity to record a song, so Audacity + mediainfo will do it for me
I think the creator of audacity should embed bit rate display in the next major version update. IT’s a useful function. What do you think
I suspect they won’t share your point of view but I understand your reasons for wanting that facility.
I hope you find a workflow that works well for you.
Mark B
Recording with Audacity or another recording program is pretty-much foolproof. It just takes more time, and you don’t get the video.
There are other tools for “downloading” from YouTube but many of them are adware or spyware, etc. And the content is copyrighted (if they wanted you to download it, they’d give you a “download” button) and from what I understand, YouTube changes things or otherwise tries to block it.
but if I save say 10 sec. of that audio, can Audacity shows the bit rate on a playback of my saved audio?
When you get to the export screen you can choose/adjust the format.
FYI - With uncompressed formats (like WAV) we usually don’t “talk about” bitrate. We talk about the bit depth and sample rate. For example, "CD quality audio is 16-bits, 44.1kHz, 2-channel stereo. From that we can calculate the bitrate as 16 x 44.1K x 2 = 1411kbps.
Oh crap!!! I just clicked the wrong button and deleted, rather than approving your reply. Sorry!!! I REALLY hope you didn’t get blocked…
There was nothing wrong but the dumb forum software (almost as dumb as me) flagged the word “cheap” like you’re tying to advertise something.
But I did copy before attempting to approve.
You can export (save) in any format you want so that doesn’t tell you much about what came-in. It’s decompressed before Audacity sees it.
770kbps doesn’t tell you much either. 770kbps is about CD quality for an uncompressed mono file. Or if you compress regular stereo CD audio to FLAC (lossless compression) you can get about 700kbps.
MP3 only goes to 320kbps and that can be excellent quality, although MP3 is lossy compression.
5.1 channel Dolby digital on DVDs is often 448kbps and it usually sounds great!
I was wondering why the software block me from posting that reply. But no biggie. WIth this new software, I 'm in the midst of re-recording those FLAC file that is only 17MB or so, as those are the bad recording at 600 to 700 kbps. The truth is, for songs, youtube could have make some improvement and inform us what the kbps upload was. Since youtube doesn’t charge for storage, I don’t know why these uploader choose to upload at such low kbps
I’m very glad to know I didn’t permanently block you! But that requires two clicks and it only takes one to accept or reject a post. And I don’t have the power to un-block you. I guess that has to be done by an administrator and I’m a moderator.
I probably permanently block 20 spammers every day, and I’m not the only moderator. MOST new forum members are spammers and the software usually flags them before their post shows-up. Somehow today, a spam post got past the software before I killed 'em.
Yeah… You can’t complain when it’s free or when you are stealing content. . But even with paid streaming services you have no control of what they are sending. Only a few streaming services offer lossless or lossless high-resolution.
There’s more to sound quality than bitrate so you really have to listen. The YouTube “low” bitrate settings are actually pretty good if the uploaded audio is good. With commercial songs there are often different masters or different mixes, and sometimes even different recordings. And you don’t know what it’s been through before somebody uploads it.
And if somebody uploads an MP3, YouTube will convert it to Opus or whatever they use and that’s a lossy-to-lossy conversion which (theoretically) degrades the quality. Then of course if you record it and export it to ANY lossless format, that’s another generation of lossy compression.
I wish I know about this MediaInfo software a few yr. earlier. I wonder if I can tell the song quality difference from 770 kbps vs. 1.5Mbps when I’m listening to it. But psychologically, I think there is a difference. So I am digging out those poor recording and re-do w/ other youtube chnl. w/ higher Mbps as we speak
to all these software suggestion, thank you once again
No. You cannot see the technical audio parameters of a video uploaded to YouTube. There are no tools that allow you to download a video from YouTube to your computer without recompressing the audio. Therefore, the MediaInfo program and similar ones will not help you in this case, since the sound will be compressed again in the video downloaded to your computer. If you want to grab the compressed sound on YouTube in maximum quality, record it using Audacity (or any other audio editor) in realtime, and then save it in the highest possible lossless quality (e.g. FLAC) or in a lossy compressed format (e.g. mp3 with a bitrate of 320). In any case, you will have to listen to the video with your own ears and determine for yourself what sound quality suits you.
I just did it w/ 1 song. There is this singer at youtube. She release her own song, and next time you know, there are at least 8 to 10 different chnl. airing that same song. So just now, I do a file size sort on my Total commander, and I pick 1 song sitting at 14MB. Turns out Media Info show me it’s only 500kbps.
So I do the above, play the first 5 sec. per chnl. and save it and use mediainfo to show the results, found the highest MBps, and record it. Now the same song, the file size is 36.5MB. More than double the size. What a difference
There is no point in your actions. The difference is that you are saving a previously compressed file in an uncompressed form. This action will not restore the quality, but only preserve the quality that already exists in the video clip. That is, it doesn’t matter what the sound quality was on the video (128, 320, etc.), when you save the recorded file, you will keep the quality as it is on the video. In both cases (whether 128 or 320) for the final uncompressed file you will get the same (larger) file size, regardless of the sound quality of the video clip. Although the files will sound different. In your case, the most important thing is to decide which YouTube channel to grab the audio from. This can be done by ear, or by recording sound from different sources and comparing the frequency response of these signals. Usually, where there is a larger frequency range, there is better sound quality.
. But even with paid streaming services you have no control of what they are sending. Only a few streaming services offer lossless or lossless high-resolution.