Podfic Export Options

[godoflaundrybaskets]

So quick caveat here: I am by no means an expert on this. But I made a bunch of sample files with different export options and wanted to put them somewhere other than discord. And also I just thought it was an interesting topic.

Exporting Your Podfic

In general there are several different file export options you'll see used. Both by audacity or whatever device you're using to record with (especially your phone). Some of them will be easier to control than others. What I'll mostly be focusing on is audacity because that's the one that provides by far the most number of options.

How you choose to export your podfic can have a big impact on quality (if done improperly) or the size of the file you're asking people to download. Ultimately though you're probably gonna be fine with whatever you're using. It's not the end of the world if you give the producer of a multivoice fic an mp3 or m4a. And a lot of the services that people typically use have pretty reasonable defaults.

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File Types

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• .wav and .aiff:
  
  
  
  • This is an uncompressed audio file. What that means is this is there will be no sound quality degradation caused by attempting to make the file smaller.
  
  
  • However, what this also means is that your file size might be HUGE in comparison to an mp3.
  
  
  • I'd recommend this format if you're looking to back your stuff up. Or if you're looking to transfer files for a multivoice.
  
  
  
  


• .mp3
  
  
  
  • This is an compressed audio file. Audacity lets you control the compression algorithm used. This will make the audio file smaller but at the expense of some quality.
  
  
  • I'd recommend this format for posting.
  
  
  
  


• .m4a
  
  
  
  • Similar to mp3 but it's specifically a format made by apple.
  
  
  • If you want to use this one it's not going to hurt? I've heard of some iphones having trouble playing mp3s but if they're going to be streaming it in the browser that'd probably be using the .mp3 format regardless.
  
  
  
  


• .m4b
  
  
  
  • This is a audiobook format. It allows you to place chapter book markers that certain apps can use to navigate the file.
  
  
  • Phones and podcast apps do a much better job then they used to at keeping your place in an .mp3 file. You probably don't need to provide this one if you don't want to.
  
  
  • (I say that because creating an audiobook format is kinda a huge pain if you don't have a mac. Don't stress if you don't feel like providing. But a tool if you're looking to create your own would b:e Chapter and Verse)
  
  
  • If you're doing longer stuff this can be a nice option? Like either super long chapters or multichaptered fics.
  
  
  • (I don't bother creating them myself if the fic is under 10 minutes.)
  
  
  
  

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Stereo vs Mono

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Stereo: this is where the left and right channel (i.e. like your left and right ear bud) can play different things at different volumes. Often needed in music to convey the complexity of the sound.

Mono: The same thing on both sides of your earbuds. This is generally what you should be using for your podfic. Your average podfic is (like an audiobook) just having the speaker read to you. There shouldn't be a difference between the two channels.

HOWEVER, recording in stereo will increase your file size! If you don't need to, try making sure to convert your track to mono before exporting. (Choosing the split to mono will create you two tracks. You should be safe to just delete one of them. Or as seen in the "Compression + Examples" section below, when exporting there's a checkbox you could use to "Force export to mono".

(This is all under the assumption your not deliberately doing something to manage having different things happening in the different earbuds or are using music.)

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✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* Compression + Examples *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

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Okay so here where the fun begins. When exporting as a .wav you don't get a ton of options because (as stated earlier) this is an uncompressed file. It's going to be as large as it needs to be to contain all the information.

HOWEVER, for .mp3s audacity has a lottttt of settings.

This isn't even showing the "Bit Rate Mode" options (which i'm not really going to cover here - I'm using constant which means there's no variance in the compression algorithm used. But there's three other options (Preset, Variable, and Average) and which you can read more about here).

The final file in the playlist below (titled "comparison of bitrates") was exported as a (1) wav, (2) 128kbs, (3) 96kbs, (4) 64kbs and then (5) 32kbs, and then spliced back together and exported as a wav. I've also included the .mp3s that were used to generate the comparison file.

I'll be honest, I can't hear a difference between anything at or above 96kbs. There's a lot lot of things that can affect this. From how good the audio quality was to begin with (i.e. did you record this outside on a windy day next to a highway? or in a soundbooth on a professional mic?) to how you're listening (blasting from car speakers or on your fancy™ headphones?). So some people can tell the difference! Honestly I wouldn't stress too much about it either way. This was mostly just informative.

I know I tend to export at 96kbs. I know people who go higher though! I also know people who go lower. (I also have heard of people who just post the wav but please don't do that unless you're also giving people another option to download, lmao). Figure out what sound works for you. But also keep in mind that someone else is going to be trying to download this file. If they're doing it on their phone then data can be pretty expensive indeed. Balancing quality and file size is a good line to be aware of and think about. But it's also one you can just set and forget once you have a balance you're happy with.

Here's also a link to vworpvworp's live tweets from the "You're File Size Is Too Damn Big!!!" panel where BessyBoo ran a panel at podfication and talked about some of the issues I go over here.