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Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro

1. A 16 or 24 bit master has been finalised and possibly rendered to a WAV file What is now required is to take that finalised master and produce an encoded data compressed version or versions for end user playback In other words the mix would normally be fed via a limiter to control peaks and then dither would be applied before the data is truncated and written to the 16 or 24 bit WAV master Again under normal circumstances this WAV file would be passed via an encoder to derive a final MP3 or AAC file for end user distribution However please note that this final step is not necessarily carried out currently by the mastering engineer Frequently only the WAV file or AIFF or lossless encoded file is sent to the distributor or aggregator This means that the mastering engineer has no control over which encoders are used which encoder parameters are used or whether the final encoded file will clip and or distort when played back on a consumer device Also there is little point in producing a mix optimised for a particular codec or bit rate The mastering engineer can now achieve this control by using the Pro Codec plug in Each mix can be auditioned exactly as the end user will hear it and consequently the mix can be tuned appropriately by the mastering engineer for a selected codec It is important to note that the Pro Codec plug in should be used after the limiter dither truncate process If a dithered master WAV file is requ
2. 96 128 64 69 70 159 160 319 ww sonnox com 32 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 48 96 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 N N N 5 5 1 5 9 1 Sonnox 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS HE AAC v2 Bit Rate Range kbps Supported Sample Rates Preferred Sample Rate Channel Count 12 17 18 39 40 56 32 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 AAC LC MPS MPEG Surround Bit Rate Range kbps Supported Sample Rates 32 44 1 48 Preferred Sample Rate Channel Count 192 256 320 44 1 48 44 1 48 44 1 48 HE AAC MPS MPEG Surround Bit Rate Range kbps Supported Sample Rates 44 1 44 1 44 1 Preferred Sample Rate 5 1 5 1 5 1 Channel Count 48 64 96 128 ww sonnox com 44 1 48 44 1 48 44 1 48 44 1 48 44 1 44 1 44 1 44 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 10 COMMERCIAL USE OF MP3 CONTENT 10 Commercial use of MP3 Content It is important to distinguish between the use of codecs and the use of content produced by the codecs Therefore it is important to note that any MP3 royalty fees are independent of which encoder is used to produce the MP3 file content If royalty fees are due for a particular project or enterprise they will be due irrespective of whether the Pro Codec is used or some alternative encoder is used There is no circumstance where using the Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec will increase licence fees o
3. Rate column matching the session sample rate if this option is available In all other cases of quality setting a codec uses the same sample rate as the session except at higher sample rate sessions when the codec will use the highest simple division of the session sample rate that the codec supports ww sonnox com Kd Sonnox 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS MP3 stereo session 44 1 kHz or 88 2 kHz Bit Rate Supported Preferred Quality Setting Actual kbps Sample Rates Sample Rate Sample Rate kHz kHz Used kHz 96 32 44 1 32 Fast 44 1 96 32 44 1 32 Highest 32 128 32 44 1 48 44 1 Fast 44 1 128 32 44 1 48 44 1 Highest 44 1 320 32 44 1 48 44 1 48 Fast 44 1 320 32 44 1 48 44 1 48 Highest 44 1 MP3 stereo session 48 kHz or 96 kHz 96 kbps not supported at this sample rate Bit Rate kbps 96 96 128 128 320 320 ww sonnox com Supported Sample Rates kHz 32 44 1 32 44 1 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 Preferred Sample Rate kHz 32 32 44 1 44 1 44 1 48 44 1 48 Quality Setting Fast Highest Fast Highest Fast Highest Actual Sample Rate Used kHz n a n a 48 44 1 48 48 Go to contents Sonnox 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS 9 3 4 Preferred Sample Rates The supported session sample rates of the plug in are from 32 kHz minimum to 192 kHz maximum where the host DAW allows The supported codec sample rates are f
4. against increased audibility of artefacts and codec induced noise Theory states that this codec induced noise should be inaudible when the NMR indicator is green Under some circumstances codec frequency and input signal dependent this NMR can turn red indicating that the induced artefacts are potentially audible There are potentially audible artefacts in these frequency bands The listening environment and the training and sensitivity of the listener s ears are obvious and variable factors to take into account regarding the audibility of these artefacts The NMR display is a useful indication when auditioning the MP3 or AAC codec families If there are areas where the NMR line is above O dB those are the frequency areas of interest The display will highlight these frequency areas in red It is possible for example to make very quick comparisons of a selection of different bit rates while auditioning music The NMR calculation is less accurate for parametric codecs these use enhancements such as Parametric Stereo or Spectral Band Replication HE AAC and HE AACv2 use parametric enhancements to achieve very high compression ratios The NMR indicator is enabled for these codecs by default because it can still give an indication to the engineer ww sonnox com bd o to content 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN of frequency areas that might require examination The NMR indicator is not pr
5. and Session Sample Rate The Plug In and many of the codecs are sensitive to the session sample rate and channel configuration The Plug In supports a wide variety of host DAW applications and understandably many of these applications provide differing amounts of session configuration settings to a plug in Some applications only present session configuration information to a plug in when there is an active audio data stream i e the transport is set to play As a result of this care must be taken when selecting codec settings after switching a session sample rate or channel configuration when loading a Preset that was saved from a session that used a different configuration Session loads restores in Pro Tools Logic Cubase and Nuendo are immune from this problem It is possible in some applications that a newly instantiated Pro Codec has not been provided with current session data If this is the case when a codec configuration is selected manually or via a preset load that is incompatible with the real session configuration then the Plug In could receive incompatible data when playback starts In all cases the Plug In will endeavour to match the requested codec settings and where possible will select the closest compatible settings By preference the substitute codec will be of the same type but using the closest compatible bit rate Where the codec ww sonnox com zg o to content 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICAT
6. bit with 16 bit input signal overload at the Plug In input HD AAC 16 bit internal dither is DISABLED Note the very high DIFF signal the overload condition is clearly audible in the DIFF signal 5 9 6 Reasons to Audition HD AAC Finally a few observations on the reasons why you should audition a lossless codec because a hasty person might initially think that it can serve no purpose If you have carefully read this manual this far you will have realised there are several good reasons to audition lossless codecs Overloading the Input See sections 5 3 3 and The input meters will indicate an overloading input but the Bitstream Level meters will not show clipping for HD AAC because they have no internal headroom During audition the DIFF signal clearly snows the effect of overloading the input to the lossless codecs and the effect will be very audible Lossy Core If it is intended to make use of the lossy core it is wise to audition the lossy channel ww sonnox com o to content 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN that is buried in the lossless codec To do this select AAC LC CBR with the appropriate bit rate Level Change If a level change is required in the plug in and implemented using the TRIM tab again it is wise to verify the audition signal Dither and Truncation It is necessary to correctly dither and truncate the input to the HD AAC codec lossless The audition DIFF signal quickly indicates if correct dither and
7. encoding the Pro Codec Plug In might be inserted into an aux channel for this When online encoding the plug in outputs the unprocessed input signal so there is no need to bypass it If the targets are both a compensated WAV AIFF and a bit stream for a single codec then it s best to trim the input level not the bit stream trim level and use online encode while bouncing down to WAV AIFF An alternative here would be to additionally encode to HD AAC If many different codec files are required with no optimisation for any given codec bit rate quality combination then batch encoding of a bounced WAV AIFF with the Manager application is appropriate To ensure the bit streams are perfectly encoded to avoid decoded bitstream overloads use the Clip Safe option and perhaps also the Normalise option in the Manager application Online encoding should be avoided if many processor intensive codecs are selected ww sonnox com 73 o to content Sonnox 9 SPECIFICATIONS 9 Specifications 9 1 Plug in 9 1 1 Delays and CPU Usage The sample delay latency of the plug in depends upon the particular codecs selected The monitor outputs are delay compensated so if more than one codec is selected in the Codec List then the reported delay is the maximum of the individual codec delays This field is updated in the GUI immediately a new codec or other setting is selected Depending on the host behaviour the new value might not be available f
8. insert notably the Custom String is defaulted to MyTrack 6 2 Plug In Signal and Control Flow Diagram ww sonnox com b5 o to content 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 The Pro Codec Manager Application The Pro Codec Toolbox Manager is a standalone application primarily intended for encoding files using the latest codec technology from Fraunhofer IIS In addition the Manager provides the ability to decode files and features a metadata editor for adding metadata to your encoded files The user interface of the Manager is separated into five main sections 2 File List 5 Metadata Editor 1 Folder Browser 3 Encode Decode Section 4 Audition Section 1 The is used to navigate folders on your file system containing supported media Selecting a folder containing files supported by the manager will load them into the File List The selected folder is denoted by an orange highlight 2 To the right of the Folder Browser is the File List It provides a detailed view of all supported files in the folder currently selected by the Folder Browser 3 Below the File List is the Encode Decode Section This is where settings pertaining to encoding and decoding can be adjusted as well as output file name and location options 4 The Audition Section is situated at the bottom of the window It contains controls for playing back audio files selected for audition in the File List 5 Occupying the top right ha
9. monitor this potential for overload The post decoder level of each selected codec is continually monitored and a small meter indicates levels greater than 0 dBFS There is a peak hold text display MAX dB to show the maximum post decoder level achieved This text is white if below 0 dBFS and turns red on overload Clicking on this display resets the overload condition The TRIM dB control allows you to trim the input level to the codec to prevent these overloads The gain reduction is applied pre encoding and if non zero the trim value is displayed darker In order to allow equal loudness listening comparison and difference signal generation the trim is applied before encoding and inversely applied after the decoder output This way the encoded bitstream is reduced in level but the auditioned signal remains at the same level as the input signal The TRIM dB controls can be automated for use with online encoding For convenient trimming the value in the MAX dB window can be dragged and dropped onto the TRIM dB cell The MAX dB value can be repeatedly dropped onto the TRIM cell each time the value is subtracted from the current TRIM value In the screenshot above codec 1 is overloading by 0 73 dB Selecting and dragging the value from MAX dB to TRIM dB will set the latter to 0 73 dB This post decoder level overload monitoring is present even if the TRIM tab is deselected via permanently visible overload LEDs to the
10. new test The display window beneath the RESET button displays the number of completed test cycles X is randomly set to either A or B Listen critically switching between A B and X When you think you have identified X as either A or B leave the selection on the identified A or B and press CHOOSE This will increment the number of test cycles but not display whether your choice was correct The act of pressing CHOOSE also randomly re allocates either A or B to X For a thorough and statistically significant test repeat this audition and CHOOSE cycle up to 20 or 25 times When you have completed a satisfactory number of cycles press REVEAL which will show the percentage number of correct guesses A 95 confidence level is regarded as statistically significant anything less than this means you have not reliably been able to distinguish between A and B Note A 95 confidence level is not the same as a 95 correct score Think of a single cycle you might by chance guess correctly and obtain a score of 100 but with a confidence level of only 50 As a quick guide for a 95 confidence level you need a minimum of 8 correct guesses from 10 cycles 80 11 from 15 73 14 from 20 70 or 17 from 25 68 ww sonnox com pa o to content 5 7 Processing Sequence 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 7 Processing Sequence The concept underlying the development of this plug in was that it should be the very last item in the mastering chain
11. output and the input signal The signal you are monitoring is indicated by two LEDs at the top of the panel designated INPUT yellow and CODEC green A field below the MONITOR LEDs displays the TOTAL DELAY through the plug in which is determined by the maximum of each individual codec delay Click the value field to toggle between milliseconds and samples The delay value is immediately updated in the GUI when a new codec or other setting is selected Depending on the host behaviour a new value may not be available for delay compensation until the plug in is removed and re instantiated The listen section of the output panel defaults to the CODEC monitor output but also contains an option to listen to the difference between the input and the processed output by selecting the DIFF button This is particularly useful for monitoring the audio that is www sonnox com o to content 5 2 Input and Output Panels 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN removed by the encoding process Enable the RECORD button to begin real time encoding to disk for all ARMed codecs Click the FILENAME button to specify where encoded files are written to when recording and how they are named 5 2 1 Surround Channel Mapping When the Pro Codec Plug In is inserted on a 6 channel track the surround channel order menu button appears at the bottom of the INPUT panel CH MAP SMPTENTU SMPTEMTU L RC Lfe Ls Rs Film LCRLs Rs Lfe ITU 775 LR Ls Rs C Lfe Use
12. process to choose a desired encoded file sample rate For more details see section 9 3 3 ww sonnox com 18 o to content Sonnox 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN The codec settings selector also provides additional options for HD AAC and for auditioning down mixing modes for the 5 1 MPS codecs ww sonnox com MP3 36 AAC LC 112 HE AAC 128 HE AAC V2 160 192 iTunes 224 Bit Depth 16 Dither Codec is functioning normally HD AAC AAC LC Low HE AAC E Medium HD AAG High HE AAC MPS Codec is functioning Stereo Core Binaural Dry room Binaural Living room Binaural Cinema AAC LC MPS 5 1 down mixing modes Sonnox 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 3 1 The NMR Indicator Also featured in the FFT display is the NMR Noise to Mask Ratio indicator line This provides an indication of the frequency areas where the difference between the codec output and the original input might be audible The NMR indicator can be disabled by clicking on the NMR button above the display All lossy codecs will produce a very slightly different output from their input Sometimes if you listen to the difference signal it can sound significant however the very nature of a perceptual coder is that this difference signal should be inaudible i e masked by the output signal You can choose to trade off more data compression and smaller files
13. revision but many players including Windows 7 utilities only support up to ID3v2 3 The Manager can read and write metadata in all versions 2 2 2 3 and 2 4 iTunes Metadata This is the standard developed and popularised by Apple and found in m4a files These two tag formats are widely supported and can be parsed by most commercially available music player applications Note M4A files can contain metadata in the ID3 format but MP3 files cannot contain metadata in the iTunes format ww sonnox com bd o to content Sonnox 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 5 3 Supported Tags The list of available tags varies between MP3 and AAC files due to the different metadata specifications of each format Tags that are not supported for the selected file type will be disabled and appear in italics TAG MP3 Files AAC Files More Info Title Artist Album Artist Album Composer Genre Standard or nonstandard Comments Multi line text NAS AS Grouping Lyrics Multi line text Webpage Publisher not supported not supported Original Artist not supported Remixer not supported Compilation Toggle BPM Numeric three digits Track Number Numeric e g 1 12 Disc Number Numeric e g 1 12 ISRC Gapless Date Ae SAR AR RRR ARR AS AK AR A a o 4 Ao 8 A Cover Art ww sonnox com b7 o to content 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 5 4 Editing Text
14. session configuration information to a plug in when there is an active audio data stream i e the transport is set to play Using WaveLab 7 make three mono 24 bit wav files available via the tabbed windows in the audio file workspace One is 32 kHz and is currently selected and playing The unselected tabs have a 44 1 kHz wav file and a 22 05 kHz wav file available ww sonnox com BO o to content 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS A Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec is instantiated and shows the default codec as AAC LC 192 kpbs Note the usual default of 256 kbps is not valid for a mono WAV file see section 9 3 4 for the full table of codec supported sample rates If the 22 05 kHz file is selected and play stopped and re started the codec will automatically select 28 kbps which is the closest to 192 kbps that the codec supports at 22 05 kHz If the 44 1 kHz file is now selected and play stopped and re started the codec will automatically select 56 kbps the closest to 28 kbps that the codec supports at 44 1 kHz Example 2 Different session sample rates and incompatible codec bit rates Using WaveLab 7 set up two wav files in the tabbed windows in the audio file workspace One is stereo 24 bit 32 kHz and is currently selected and playing The unselected tab has a stereo 24 bit 48 kHz WAV file associated with it A Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec is instantiated As the HD AAC codec does not support 32 kHz the HD AAC opti
15. specify the destination folder for the recorded files and the output filename elements Path Users Sonnox Music Sonnox Encoded Files CEH Custom Codec Bitrate Date Bor Custom string MyTrack Codec Bitrate C Mode CI Quality C Index Date Time The filename can be composed of elements including codec type bit rate and date of recording It is possible to re order these elements to form a flexible and informative filename This can be done by clicking on any element within the complete string and www sonnox com bg Go to contents Sonnox 5 8 Online Encoding 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN dragging it either to the left or the right to a suitable position Should you want to add or remove any of these simply toggle its check box Note Care should be taken to make filenames distinct to avoid confusion for files written concurrently For example if five mp3 codecs were selected with different bit rates it would be wise to enable the BIT RATE option for the resultant filenames The INDEX option is useful to make filenames unique INDEX indicates the row window number Furthermore if repeated renders are likely the DATE TIME can be used to distinguish subsequent actions DATE TIME includes a field for seconds The Custom String is restored on a project session load When loading Presets and if you delete the plug in and re insert it the Custom String will default to My Track The Output Path is restored on a proje
16. these options to match the input output channel mapping of the plug in to the channel mapping used in your host DAW If you use SMPTE ITU or Film channel order simply select the appropriate option ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs The Pro Codec Plug In enables Fraunhofer codecs to be auditioned compared and the encoded audio written to disk all while the host workstation is operating To add a codec or change it settings just click on the codec row in the codec list MP3 CBR 112kbps Highest lo AAC LC CBR 256kbps o HE AAC CBR 56kbps High e HEAACV2 CBR 28kbps High Tunes VBR 256 kbps Highest e This will open the codec settings selector When a codec bit rate or mode setting is changed the real time output of the plug in immediately reflects this change To close the selector simply move your mouse cursor MP3 Low Medium HE AAC HE AAC V2 Highest HD AAC iTunes 320 Codec is functioning normally elsewhere or press the ESCAPE key ww sonnox com o to content 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Sonnox 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Some items may be marked with an asterisk to indicate that the setting will require some form of resampling Details will be shown in the lines at the bottom of the selector panel Some combinations of bit rate quality se
17. to avoid post decoder clipping in the audition chain Up to five codecs can be selected for audition and each could require a different trim setting To keep the audition process palatable the trim is reversed on each channel before the audition point so that switching between codecs does not introduce audition level changes Note However this means that you are not auditioning the true level at the input of the encoder If there are significant trim values involved it is possible that the encoded files will demonstrate differing average levels when played back and this may be undesirable The Pro Codec plug in provides the ability to observe and monitor bitstream level behaviour and tools for the user to mitigate this behaviour It is convenient to monitor many codecs simultaneously for comparison but it might be best practice to treat each codec individually when producing a final master In this way any level change can be kept in the master mix rather than in the plug in ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 5 4 Bitstream Level TRIM Tab 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 4 Bitstream Level TRIM Tab Any form of filtering can under certain circumstances increase the peak level of the signal Therefore if your input is hot the encoding process can produce overloads that are not seen until the signal is decoded This effect can be very easily demonstrated with the Pro Codec Plug In The Bitstream Level TRIM tab can be used to
18. truncation is being applied Simply put if any noise is seen in the DIFF signal you have not dithered truncated the input to the plug in properly Note that you might not need to dither truncate if the input files are playing without any processing again the DIFF signal indicates quickly whether this is true or not Hearing a Difference Some people might think they can hear a difference between an input and the output of a lossless codec Using A B mode or the A B X test this plug in allows a user to make up their own mind if they can hear the difference ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 10 Description of Controls Touch Pad Controls Several controls in this plug in use a touch pad associated with a knob or slider These controls MAX da TRIM dB e g TRIM dB give a clear display of the value of a control and respond to these actions Left Click and drag up down Increase decrease the value Right Click and drag up down Fine adjustment of value Double Click Directly edit value Shift Left Click and drag up down Fine adjustment of value Control Left Click Set to default ww sonnox com kg o to content PR TVA 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Sonnox Menu Button This provides access to a number of useful items Clip Hold input meter clip LEDs These can be set to hold until clicked or for only 2
19. 78 78 79 82 84 87 88 88 89 Sonnox 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction In the past it has not been possible to critically audition and then encode multiple formats in real time within a host DAW environment The revolutionary Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec Plug In now makes this possible The Pro Codec Plug In is designed for the real time auditioning of audio signals by the Fraunhofer codecs The Plug In also provides the ability to record the real time encoded data to disk in the form of MP3 and MAA files This enables mixing engineers to produce compensated mixes optimised towards specific target codecs thereby ensuring maximum fidelity Similarly mastering engineers may audition material in the final format and produce compensated optimised masters for final encoding and distribution The included Pro Codec Manager is a powerful desktop application designed for offline batch encoding decoding and metadata editing of your encoded files SONNOX FRAUNHOFER PRO CODEG Sonnox Fraunhofer BIT DEPTH OUTPUT Mm ww sonnox com Bl o to content 2 TERMINOLOGY 2 Terminology Bit rate This is the number of bits transmitted or processed per unit of time expressed here in kilobits per second kbps CBR Constant Bit Rate bit rate remains the same for the duration of the audio signal VBR Variable Bit Rate bit rate changes over time based on the complexity of the signal In this case the V
20. BR value expressed is an average over the length of the file Encoder In this context an encoder converts an uncompressed LPCM audio stream into a smaller compressed format through the use of lossy compression For HD AAC the encoding process is lossless to the target bit depth Decoder In this context a decoder converts a compressed audio stream back into an uncompressed LPCM audio stream Metadata This is categorical information about a file such as the song Title Artist and Album Tag A tag is one specific piece of metadata such as the song Title ww sonnox com Bl o to content Sonnox 3 SUPPORTED CODECS AND FORMATS 3 Supported Codecs and Formats Major Codecs Supported MP3 e AAC LC HE AAC HE AAC v2 MPEG Surround Apple AAC iTunes Plus Mastered for iTunes Mac only Lossless Codecs Supported HD AAC 16 24 bits up to 192 kHz Formats Supported Mono MP3 AAC LC HE AAC and HD AAC Stereo MP3 AAC LC HE AAC HE AACv2 and HD AAC Apple AAC iTunes Plus Mastered for iTunes Mac only 5 1 AAC LC HE AAC and HD AAC MPEG Surround ww sonnox com F o to content 4 SUMMARY OF CODEC FEATURES AND APPLICATIONS 4 Summary of Codec Features and Applications MP3 General purpose audio codec compatible with most players Typical bit rate 128 kbps stereo AAC LC AAC Low Complexity High performance audio codec for excellent audio quality at low bit rates Used for ISDB televisio
21. C When selected will route the encoded decoded signal to the output DIFF When selected will route the difference signal to the output The difference signal is the encoded decoded signal subtracted from the unprocessed input signal MASTER IN With the IN button selected all processing is active If not selected the outputs are disabled However much of the processing remains active for example the FFT display and the overload detection The MASTER IN control is automatable The five MON buttons and the MASTER IN CODEC and DIFF buttons all provide smoothly interpolated and glitch free audio switching It is advisable to use these for auditioning rather than using the host application s bypass function which is commonly not interpolated Bitstream Levels Trim Tab METERS x5 Indicate when a decoded signal is above O dB Includes peak hold MAX dB x5 Indicates the maximum level detected by the decoder This value is white if negative and red if positive Clicking in this window resets the peak hold value TRIM x5 Indicates the input trim to the individual codecs This is a Touch Pad control allowing a fader style movement to determine an attenuation of up to a maximum of 12 dB If this value is non zero the trim value is displayed darker The TRIM dB controls can be automated ww sonnox com bd o to content Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN COMP compression Tab COMPR
22. Drag and drop a folder onto the section This folder will become the Root Drag and drop a supported audio file onto the section This file s parent folder will become the Root ww sonnox com 57 o to content Sonnox 7 1 Folder Browser 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 1 2 Finding Audio Files on your System The Folder Browser includes a feature designed to help locate audio files on your system Thus using the built in Folder Browser may be more efficient than browsing to folders using the operating system pop up browser accessible via the Browse button at the top of the section This feature works as follows Folders that contain audio files in any of their sub folders are displayed with a full colour blue folder icon Folders that contain audio files in their top level are displayed in full colour along with the number of audio files that they contain Folders that do not contain audio files in their top level or any of their sub folders are displayed with an empty folder icon Users Sonnox Music E 7 Contains folders that contain audio a Contains audio files Contains no audio files This feature can be CPU intensive If the root of the Folder Browser contains a significant number of sub folders or is located on a slow external storage device the background scanning of all folders in the Folder Browser s tree can be correspondingly slow If this becomes a hindrance on your system the background
23. ESSION RATIOS x5 Shows an indication of the amount COMPRESSION RATIOS of data compression in the output data stream or file The compression is expressed as aratio from 1 1 down to around 128 1 A yellow asterisk denotes an estimated value A B Auditioning Tabl A x5 Selects the codec to be routed through A B x5 Selects the codec or input to be routed through B A B Glitchlessly switches output routing between active codecs selected in A or B HIDE Cloaks the AB matrix state and FFT scope BOTH Displays both A and B difference signals ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN A B X Test Tabl A x5 Selects the codec to be routed through A B x5 Selects the codec or input to be routed through B A B X Glitchlessly switches output routing between active codecs selected in A or B or the anonymous codec in X RESET Sets the ABX machine back to a start condition Resets counters to zero and sets X to either A or B CHOOSE Increments cycle counter Examines whether choice of A or B correctly matches X If correct guess increments the success counter Randomly re allocates A or B to X REVEAL Calculates the success counter divided by the cycle counter and displays the result DISPLAY Shows number of cycles completed during test when REVEAL is pressed it will show the success ratio Note M Select the A B Auditioning T
24. IONS doesn t support the sample rate at any bit rate the codec will default to AAC LC at the closest bit rate To illustrate this behaviour consider a stereo session at 48 kHz with three codecs selected If the session configuration is changed to mono at 32 kHz the plug in will make the following codec selections Selected Codecs Substituted Codecs Reason Session Session Stereo 48 kHz Mono 32 kHz HE AAC 128 kbps not Codec 1 HE AAC 128 kbps HE AAC 56 kbps supported at 32 kHz HE AAC v2 is stereo Codec 2 HE AAC v2 56 kbps AAC LC 56 kbps only HD AAC not sup Codec 3 HD AAC 160 kbps AAC LC 96kbps ported at 32 kHz To avoid these problems after changing the session configuration it is advisable when using affected host applications to press PLAY then STOP before instantiating the plug in or loading a plug in Preset This will ensure that session sample rate and channel configuration data are flushed through the plug in correctly It is also advisable to save Presets for the plug in at a variety of session sample rates and channel configurations To illustrate this further consider the following examples WaveLab 7 is used in these examples because it has the powerful ability to easily select and play files with different sample rates Several other applications exhibit the same behaviour Example 1 Different session sample rates and compatible codec bit rates WaveLab 7 is an example of an application that only provides
25. LICATION decoded to WAV AIFF with the peaks intact and reduced to below 0 dBFS potentially restoring some fidelity to the programme material If the source audio file is very quiet NORMALISE can be enabled in addition to CLIP SAFE in order to ensure that the decoded level of the file is as close to O dBFS as possible Use the Output Path field to select where you would like the decoded files to be saved to By selecting the save to input folder option the source folder will be used When save to input folder is disabled a further output folder field is displayed Click the browser icon on the right to choose your output folder Click the output filename to rename the destination file 7 3 4 Batch Encoding Decoding It is possible to select multiple files in the File List for encoding decoding and metadata editing Each file in a selection will be processed in the same way When encoding and decoding each file will be encoded or decoded to the same output format When writing metadata via the Write to File button all tags in the Metadata Editor will be written to each selected file The only exception to this are the few tags that may not be supported by the filetype See section 7 5 3 Supported Tags for details Unsupported tags will simply be ignored for that file When batch encoding use the Filename Format attributes to avoid filename clashes OUTPUT KZ Filename W Custom String MyTrack W Codec W Bitrate Mod
26. M buttons to arm a codec for online real time recording to an MP3 or M4A file Highest 256 kbps 56 kbps Highest To the right of the codec list are three tabbed windows COMP A B MAX dE TRIM dB BITSTREAM Level TRIM These meters show the decoded sample level for each codec ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 5 1 User Interface and Workflow Overview 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN COMPRESSION RATIOS COMP These meters show the data compression ratio for each codec A B A B X This tab provides functions for A B comparison and A B X listening tests Click the down arrow to switch the tab between A B and A B X mode ww sonnox com 14 Go to contents Sonnox 5 2 Input and Output Panels 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 2 Input and Output Panels SONNOX FRAUNHOFER PRO CODEC MONITOR INPUT CODEC 11487 smp MP3 CBR 112kbps Highest e AAC LC CBR 256kbps High Lao HE AAC CBR 56kbps High Lue HE AAC V2 CBR 28kbps High Lao iTunes VBR 256kbps Highest Laje The left hand panel of the plug in features a large input signal meter and a button to launch the included Manager application for offline encoding and metadata editing See section T for details These meters show 2 dB per LED below 12 dBFs and 0 5dB per LED above 12 dBFs The output panel on the right of the GUI includes a MASTER IN button for glitch free switching between the monitor output of the plug in usually a codec
27. RRECT dither and truncation prior to the Plug In Internal Trim is ENABLED HD AAC 16 bit internal dither is DISABLED The image above shows a correctly dithered signal input to the plug in but the internal trim is non zero The bottom segment of the bit meter is flashing red to indicate an error condition If the internal dither is enabled the bit meter indicates that the signal is correctly treated the bottom segment of the meter is empty and the active dither is applied internally indicated by a green border around the segment ww sonnox com Bg o to content Sonnox 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN ARM CODEC MODE BITRATE QUALITY MON EEE AAC LC CBR 96kbps High JEI HD AAC 16 bit with CORRECT dither and truncation prior to the Plug In Internal Trim is ENABLED HD AAC 16 bit internal dither is ENABLED Note Again it is preferable to avoid using the internal trim by lowering the level into the plug in ww sonnox com ko o to content Sonnox 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 9 5 Overloading HD AAC The screenshot below illustrates the behaviour of HD AAC under overloading conditions A typical audio signal is shown with the display zoomed The input level is such that the input meters show clipping Since HD AAC does not have internal headroom the signal will clip Hz 600 ARM CODEC MODE BITRATE QUALITY MON HD AAC CBR 256kbps nia sje HD AAC 16
28. Sonnox A Fraunhofer IIS Pro Codec User Guide Introduction 5 R 3 Supported Codecs and Format 7 ontents 4 Summary of Codec Features and Application 8 re re re ee UE ee ee ee 9 E a ar eas we ee bee qdo ge ot ea a 9 Pk ee ee a aes AS See SS A DS SS ee eo ee 10 AA O a SAR E a a Oo a RD BI a a E 10 5 The Pro Codec Plug In 11 5 1 User Interface and Workflow Overview 2 052 224s 11 5 2 Input and Output Panels a noa noa oa a a a es 15 O EEE 16 aae nds 17 aA a oe a eee a 20 TETTETETT 21 ET 22 Boies ea De 22 Ce da ee eee ee O 23 5 5 Data Compression Factor COMP Tab 0 0 005 ee eee 24 ira ri eeu wees 25 Da eae es Be ee oe ee ee eee 25 Le ibd A dean RE Rn E 25 DA a Sea opis en DA nes 27 O Mane ad hae Ra Ca Aa a 28 bed Et E mo ja e IA weve She E RS eas cata ME are TRAD E 31 GER dcp a ee eels a Pe oe o E 31 SS SC ck eve eck ce Sy gh arc pe a 33 die Bs Gk eee renee a ease 34 Pe oe Boe ee ee ae ee 37 ek weds ok eek a ioe ee ee eee a 41 9 6 Reasons to Audition HD AAC 00008 2 eee 41 5 10 Description of Controls 6 Preset Manager Toolba 6 1 Presets and Project Session Data Handling 2 6 1 1 Internal Data Rules 6 2 Plug In Signal and Control Flow Diagram 2 5 The Pro Codec Manager Applicatio 1 Folder Browsen 1 1 Setting up a Root Folden 2022 02228 2 1 2 Finding Audio Files on your Syste
29. Tags In order to edit a text tag click on the tag row in the Metadata Editor This opens an inline text field type your changes into this field There are two kind of text tag Single line Multi line Lyrics and Comments To accept changes for a single line tag press the Enter key or press TAB or Shift TAB to accept and move to the next or previous tag In multi line tags pressing Enter will insert a new line into the tag text field To accept changes for a multi line tag press Command Enter Mac or Control Enter Windows Alternately press TAB or Shift TAB to accept and move to the next or previous tag The Enter key has one more behaviour in the Metadata Editor If there are no tags currently being edited press Enter to move back to and edit the most recently touched tag This can be useful if you have just accepted an incorrect edit Rather than clicking on the tag again or tabbing back forwards simply press the Enter key While editing a text tag press Escape to discard your edits Some fields have format restrictions and will only accept a certain type and or number of characters See the Supported Tags table for details 7 5 5 Adding Cover Art To add Cover Art to your encoded files first select a file by single clicking it in the File List There are two ways to load an image file into the Metadata Editor Click on the Image tag field in the lower right corner of the Metadata Editor and browse to an
30. ab or the A B X Test Tab via the Sonnox menu button ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 6 PRESET MANAGER TOOLBAR 6 Preset Manager Toolbar The Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec Plug In comes equipped with its own onboard Preset Manager which is displayed at the top of the plug in window The reasoning behind this is to allow increased portability of your presets across all the host applications while also providing a consistent and versatile interface While most host platforms allow creation and loading of presets those host created preset files are not portable between different host applications With the Oxford plug ins Preset Manager you can create a named preset in one host application and load it when using an alternative application The Sonnox Preset Manager is fully described in a companion document Sonnox Toolbar and Preset Manager User Guide available for download at ww sonnox com doc ww sonnox com bg o to content Sonnox 6 1 Presets and Project Session Data Handling 6 PRESET MANAGER TOOLBAR 6 1 Presets and Project Session Data Handling The Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec plug in contains internal data not normally found in a plug in such as filenames and folder paths This has prompted the adoption of a slightly different preset model in order to allow the creation and utilization of independent libraries of data presets 6 1 1 Internal Data Rules The following special data have special rules app
31. and truncation prior to the Plug In HD AAC 24 bit internal dither is ENABLED ww sonnox com B7 Go to contents Sonnox 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN The bit meter indicates that there is no activity in bits greater than 24 The input to the codec is correctly dithered and truncated The border for the bottom segment is green to indicate that the dither truncation is provided internally The bit meter will also indicate when you are dithering unnecessarily Here a correctly dithered and truncated signal enters the plug in but the internal dither is also applied One of the operations is redundant and this is indicated by a red border around the bottom segment HD AAC 24 bit with CORRECT dither and truncation prior to the Plug In HD AAC 24 bit internal dither is ENABLED There is a situation when it is desirable to use the internal dither truncation even if the signal presented to the plug in input is correctly treated This case is when the lossy core has been observed to cause overloads on decode and the remedy has been to use the internal TRIM dB control The trim will be applied internally to the plug in and any external dithering is not helpful The signal should be dithered using the internal dither option ww sonnox com Bg o to content Sonnox 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN ARM CODEC MODE BITRATE QUALITY MON TEA AAC LC CBR 96kbps High HD AAC 16 bit with CO
32. b If a device is connected to the system while the Manager is open press the rescan button and the device will become available via the drop down list Note It is recommended to configure the plug in s host DAW to release the audio driver in the background This will prevent the device driver from attempting to change your session project sample rate which can cause problems with some host DAWs ww sonnox com 64 o to content 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 5 1 Overview The MP3 and M4A audio file formats can optionally contain information about a file This information is commonly known as METADATA Typical metadata tags could include the Title Artist Track Number and Cover Art The Title tag of a file is distinct from its file name Adding metadata to your audio files makes them easier to identify and allows other applications to categorise and sort them based on your needs It is also a sign of quality offering the information that you would normally find on an album CD case or vinyl sleeve The Pro Codec Manager provides the ability to add the most commonly used tags to your files during the encoding process and edit tags in existing MP3 and supported M4A files When an MP3 or MAA file is selected in the File List single click any supported metadata it contains is imported into the Metadata Editor Once a tag has been edited its row is displayed with a light g
33. ct session load Otherwise it remains unaltered even when loading Presets and even if you delete the plug in and re insert it The plug in always writes the following metadata to MP3 and MAA files Date Encoded by manufacturer message Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec Plug in Sl ww sonnox com 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 9 HD AAC Lossless Codec A lossless codec is one that produces an output data stream that is an exact duplicate of the input audio data stream In the simple case of a 24 bit wav file as input the output of the HD AAC lossless codec will be a wav file with identical audio data When HD AAC is used in a DAW via the Pro Codec Plug In the situation is slightly more complicated because usually the input is not a simple 16 or 24 bit data stream Most DAWS use floating point processing and so do most plug ins A floating point datum will have many more states than an audio integer as taken from a 24 bit WAV file this is another way of saying that the floating point format has higher resolution than the fixed point wav format Whenever processing is performed in a DAW or plug in the processing is performed at the higher resolution of the floating point system and the resulting audio data cannot be represented perfectly on a 24 bit scale any more The data stream will contain floating point values between the quantised values of the 24 bit scale and these in between values are called inters T
34. ds are consistent The original file length features of the files can be employed meaning consistent start and end points Batch processing simultaneously encoding a single file to multiple formats multiple files to a single format or multiple files to multiple formats is now possible Disadvantages of Offline encoding An extra step in the workflow is required compared to online encode where the encoded files are created during the bounce There is no automatic downsampling for offline encode so the higher sample rate master has to be bounced and downsampled first before working on codec specific enhancements With online encoding the mix is automatically downsampled and a codec file can be generated directly from this downsampled signal Note Online encoding does not necessarily add DSP processing as the encoders are already in action However additional data buffering and disc writing will add significant overhead and might cause CPU overloads ww sonnox com o to content 8 1 When to Use Online Encode 8 ONLINE VS OFFLINE ENCODING 8 1 When to Use Online Encode In general offline encoding with the Pro Codec Manager application should be used when a bounced WAV AIFF file exists If there is no WAV AIFF file perhaps instead there is a work in progress mix online mode will be quicker and easier hence more appropriate It is possible with some hosts to bounce the mix to wav at the same time as online
35. e Quality KZ Index Date Time Click the cog to open the Filename Format panel ww sonnox com bg o to content 7 4 Auditioning Files in the Manager 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 3 5 Dither When Clip Safe or Clip Safe Normalise are used the Manager may need to dither after applying the required gain trim When encoding dither is only applied if an HD AAC encode produces overs and requires some gain trim before the re encode process When decoding dither is applied when any encoded file HD AAC or otherwise requires gain trim before being written to 16 or 24 bit WAV AIFF 7 4 Auditioning Files in the Manager It is possible to listen to any supported audio file using the Pro Codec Manager Click in the audition column to the left of the file name to load a file into the internal playback section The file will begin to play immediately Press the spacebar to pause or resume playback Use the SETTINGS tab to select your audio output device This section provides familiar controls play pause volume and play position seeking Clicking the speaker icon toggles playback mute The loop button has three modes No looping Loop the currently selected file Loop all files in the list in sequence At the end of playback the next file in the list is selected and playback begins Playback will stop at the end of the last file in the list The audio output device used by the Manager can be selected from the SETTINGS ta
36. e Apple AAC codec Mac only which allows users to directly audition audio that has been produced according to the Mastered for iTunes specification also known as iTunes Plus ww sonnox com o to content 5 1 User Interface and Workflow Overview 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN FFT Fast Fourier Transform display INPUT Signal yellow NMR Indicator DIFF Signal red DIFF Signal Red trace This is the difference between the input and output signals NMR Green Red Trace Noise to Mask Ratio is an indication of the audibility of codec induced artefacts See section 5 3 1 for more information To ZOOM the display Alt drag Mac and Windows For a stereo signal you can use the buttons at the top left of the display to display only the LEFT or RIGHT or the SUM of both left and right or hide show the NMR indicator line LISS Lissajous display Click the LISS button at the top of the display area to switch to a lissajous display The left lissajous display shows the input and output envelopes while the right display shows the stereo spread of the codec and diff signals ALT drag in the right display to zoom ww sonnox com 12 Go to contents Sonnox 5 1 User Interface and Workflow Overview 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Beneath the FFT LISS display the CODEC LIST enables the selection of up to five different codecs Use the MON buttons to switch the real time monitor path between the loaded codes Use the AR
37. e right hand side of the row A pop up window will ask for confirmation before deleting the preset 7 5 9 The Metadata Lock Mechanism It is important to remember that the changes performed in the Metadata Editor are not written to the selected file until the Write to File button is pressed If a new file is selected for processing when the metadata of the previously selected file has been edited but not written to file those changes will be lost A pop up window will appear in this case to warn the user and allow the operation to be cancelled Each field in the Metadata Editor can be protected to ensure that it isn t modified during editing Clicking at the beginning of that field s row in the padlock column will toggle a small padlock on that row Click and drag in the padlock column to lock or unlock multiple tags Locked rows will retain the current tag content when clearing reverting or importing metadata from other files or presets Additionally wnen changing the selected for processing file that row will keep its state The Cover Art tag can also be locked by clicking on the padlock icon in the lower right corner When a non encoded file is selected for processing metadata info can also be added in the Metadata Editor The main difference with encoded files is that the Write to File button is disabled since this metadata cannot be written to an uncompressed PCM file Instead the metadata in the section will be written to
38. e the settings used for the iTunes catalogue For online audition the signal is then resampled back to the host DAW sample rate if necessary This option is available only for stereo configuration There are no options to change the Apple codec settings because this would not be representative of the iTunes Plus standard The Apple codecs and re samplers are components of the Mac OSX operating system so can be upgraded during an OSX update Note On Windows computers the closest approximation to the iTunes Plus codec is the Fraunhofer AAC LC codec set to highest quality VBR at 256 kbps 4 2 MPEG Surround Fraunhofer MPEG Surround is a feature rich open standard compression technique for multi channel audio signals Operating on top of any core audio codec including AAC HE AAC and MPEG Layer 2 the system provides a comprehensive feature set including highest surround and stereo audio quality multi channel support at stereo bit rates and virtualised binaural multi channel sound reproduction capability for stereo headphones ww sonnox com Ico 4 3 HD AAC 4 SUMMARY OF CODEC FEATURES AND APPLICATIONS 4 3 HD AAC Fraunhofer The HD AAC codec from Fraunhofer has a very clever feature the single compressed lossless file includes a lossy core channel It therefore acts as a lossless archival format a lossless distribution format for the masters and a final playback format for both lossless and lossy decoders and all of t
39. ec settings that you wish to use you can load this into the Manager application as above and vice versa By default any presets saved by the Plug In will appear in the Codec Presets tab in the Manager application and vice versa Note The Plug In has two separate banks of settings Only the codec settings from the active bank of a Plug In preset will be loaded into the Manager application The active bank can be either A or B whichever bank was visible in use when the preset was saved See section 6 Preset Manager Toolbar for details 7 3 3 Decoding The Manager can also decode compressed files for import into a host sequencer or for general purpose decoding To decode supported M4A or MP3 files simply select them in the File List choose WAV or AIFF and press the DECODE button The CLIP SAFE button enables a level correction feature which is essentially the same as CLIP SAFE when Encoding It works by decoding the compressed file calculating the maximum sample value in the PCM stream and if necessary applying the precise amount of gain trim required to ensure that the peak level is less than 0 dBFS before writing the output file to disk at your chosen bit depth Files that were previously encoded without correct attention to the post decoder peak level may have caused clipping in the DAC during playback These files can now be ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 7 3 Encode Decode Section 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APP
40. ed and truncated to either 16 or 24 bits Downmixing mode Only visible if the selected codec is AAC LC MPS or HE AAC MPS This allows you to audition the various Fraunhofer downmixing algorithms By default no downmixing takes place Note When auditioning a 2 channel downmixing mode the DIFF signal will contain content from the centre surround and LFE channels since the DIFF calculation is done using the input and encoded signals Output Section MONITOR Indicates the plug in s audio output either INPUT ie the plug in is bypassed or CODEC You can switch between input and codec output by clicking on the LEDs A special case for the mp3 HD codec whereby the MONITOR signal is synthesized is denoted by an INPUT 16 indication TOTAL DELAY This window shows the total delay through the plug in click to toggle between samples or milliseconds The figure given is the maximum of each individual codec delay This field is updated CODEC i DIFF be available for delay compensation until the plug in is removed MASTER IN in the GUI immediately a new codec or other setting is selected Depending on the host behaviour the new value may not and re instantiated RECORD Writes the active codecs pre selected for record arm to disk Filename Format This button calls up a pop up used to configure the encoded file data ww sonnox com kg o to content Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN CODE
41. esent when HD AAC is selected Also the NMR display is less accurate when SUM is selected it is most accurate with single audio streams Note The difference signal used in the NMR calculation is absolute For some low level signals the NMR might be relatively high but any difference will be inaudible due to the low signal level The NMR indicator is only valid for session sample rates 44 1 48 88 2 96 176 4 and 192kHz In particular it is not supported for a 32 kHz sample rate The NMR indicator is not valid and is not displayed for frequencies above 16kHz 5 3 2 Downsampling When Using Higher Sample Rates There are several circumstances when the plug in internally down samples One example is where the session sample rate is higher than the highest sample rate that the selected codec supports In this case the audio is down sampled for the codec and then up sampled for audition In this case a down sampled signal is available in the codec for writing to a file in online encode mode This is not the case in the Manager application The user cannot offline encode a WAV file whose channel configuration and sample rate is not a match for the codec settings This is because of possible indeterminate behaviour if the configurations are not compatible This is particularly important if you are working with higher sample rate files If you are working at higher sample rates the options are exemplified by 1 Master at high sample rate t
42. ext encoding formats are a way of describing the internal byte representation of individual characters The ID3 and iTunes metadata formats strictly define which text encodings are supported so that any text tags e g Title Artist can be read and written by different applications This section describes how the Manager handles metadata text encoding for the different metadata formats supported by the Manager There are 3 different types of text encoding defined in the ID3 and iTunes metadata standards Latin 1 This is an extension of ASCII It is very space efficient storing only 1 byte per character however it has very limited character support UTF 16 This standard was introduced in 1990 to address universal character support It is far more comprehensive than latin 1 but is also significantly less space efficient UTF 8 This is a later revision of UTF 16 It supports the same number of characters as UTF 16 but has the benefit of being far more space efficient UTF 8 is generally accepted as the de facto text encoding standard and is what the Manager uses to store metadata tags internally The Manager always writes iTunes metadata text tags using UTF 8 encoding The handling of ID3 text encoding however is more subtle as it supports Latin 1 UTF 16 and UTF 8 text encoding formats It is important to note that UTF 8 support is only available in ID3v2 4 To ensure maximum space efficiency all text tags less than or equal to ID3
43. ger click the Metadata Presets tab in the lower right hand area of the Manager In this presets manager a list of saved presets is displayed Hover the mouse cursor over a preset name to preview the saved tags in the Metadata Editor Previewed metadata tags are shown in green Click on a preset to load the saved tags into the Metadata Editor as changes for the selected file Since the presets are imported as changes to the existing content in the Metadata Editor ifa preset does not contain anything different nothing will be previewed or imported To undo metadata tag changes after importing a preset press the Undo button or use the keyboard shortcut Command Z Mac or Control Z Windows To save a new metadata preset press Command S Mac or Control S Windows or press the button that appears on mouse over in the upper left corner of the Preset Tab This will open a text field where the preset name can be typed Press Enter to save the preset or Escape to dismiss the text field and cancel the saving process ww sonnox com bg o to content 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION The list of presets is ordered alphabetically and is immediately re ordered when a new preset is saved Empty presets cannot be saved so the button is not displayed when the Metadata Editor is empty To delete or remove a preset hover your mouse cursor over the preset name and press the red X button that appears at th
44. his in a single file In the case of HD AAC playback if the decoder in your player has full HD AAC capability you will be able to listen to a perfect replication of the original WAV file However the same HD AAC file will still play through a decoder that does not have HD AAC capability and instead you will be listening to the embedded lossy AAC channel The HD AAC codec now supports 16 bit files in addition to 24 bit data 4 4 AAC LC Fraunhofer The AAC LC codec now supports a 96 kHz session sample rate and a VBR mode at 256 kbps ww sonnox com o to content Sonnox 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 The Pro Codec Plug In 5 1 User Interface and Workflow Overview SONNOX FRAUNHOFER PRO CODEC ARM CODEC MODE BITRATE QUALITY MON pia CODEC MP3 CBR 112 kbps Highest AAC LC CBR 256 kbps e OO i DIFF HE AAC CBR 56kbps HEAACV2 CBR 28kbps Hi e MASTER IN iTunes VBR 256 kbps Highest The primary purpose of the Pro Codec Plug In is to provide a way of monitoring your host session material using the highly regarded Fraunhofer encoders without the need for offline processing By auditioning and comparing codecs in real time the Pro Codec Plug In allows you to make executive decisions about the best codecs to use When this decision is made bounce your mix master to WAV AIFF and encode this file using the included Manager application The latest version of this plug in also includes th
45. his interactivity can be readily seen using the DIFF signal apparent up to 144 dB for HD AAC One of the main reasons the DIFF signal is included is to aid visibility of this situation HD AAC will not reproduce these inter values as it only uses a 16 or 24 bit scale and the correct terminology is lossless to 24 bits or lossless to 16 bits Therefore if the audio channel includes any processing even DAW fades or gain changes it is important to present correctly truncated data to the input of the lossless encoder When an audio data stream is truncated it must first be dithered at the correct level See section 6 9 3 Dither and Truncation for details 5 9 1 Auditioning HD AAC Fraunhofer s HD AAC has a very clever feature the single compressed lossless file includes a lossy core channel It therefore acts as a lossless archival format a lossless distribution format for the masters and a final playback format for both lossless and lossy decoders and all of this in a single file During HD AAC playback for example if the decoder in your player has full HD AAC capability you will be able to listen to perfect replication of the original wav file However the same HD AAC file will still play through a decoder that doesn t have HD AAC capability and instead you will be listening to the lossy embedded AAC channel It is possible to audition HD AAC in real time If the HD AAC is selected and its MON ww sonno
46. image file Drag an image file onto the Manager To remove an image file from the Metadata Editor hover your mouse cursor over the Image tag and click the red X button that appears If this image file exists in the Cover Art tag of the selected audio file press the Write to File button to overwrite the previous Cover Art tag with empty contents ww sonnox com bg o to content 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 5 6 Writing Tags to Multiple Files Metadata tags are written to all selected files Unsupported tags will simply be skipped For example if M4A and MP3 files are selected the Gapless tag will be skipped for all MP3 files but still written to the selected M4A files 7 5 7 Importing Tags from Another File Any audio files that contain metadata are listed in the File List with a small arrow button in the right most column Hover your mouse cursor over a button to preview the metadata from that file in the Metadata Editor Previewed metadata tags are shown in green Click a button to import the metadata from that file into the Metadata Editor Only non empty tags will be imported so existing edited tags cannot be overwritten with an empty tag from another file Importing metadata from another file in this way is compatible with the Undo Redo mechanism and the Revert feature 7 5 8 Metadata Presets Metadata tags can be saved into presets for later use To display the metadata presets mana
47. intensive codecs are active simultaneously Online recording will add to the CPU activity and file handling activity Offline encoding and decoding are CPU bound not real time bound The graphical area is not CPU intensive and should not cause performance problems even on older CPUs 9 1 2 Internal Buffer Sizes Additionally for most codecs the plug in uses internal buffer sizes of 1024 for up to 48 kHz operation 2048 for greater than 48 kHz up to 96 kHz operation and 4096 for sample rates higher than 96 kHz We recommend that the buffer sizes of the sound card and thus of the host application are set to match these figures Buffer sizes for the HE AAC and HE AACv2 codecs are twice these figures so 2048 for up to 48 kHz operation 4096 for greater than 48 kHz up to 96 kHz operation and 8192 for sample rates higher than 96 kHz If the buffer sizes are not matched there will be an inefficiency in the data transfer and in some applications this leads to uneven CPU behaviour 9 1 3 GUI Controls Input Meter O dB 63 dB ww sonnox com E o to content 9 1 Plug In 9 SPECIFICATIONS Graphical Display Frequency 20 Hz 20 kHz 44 1 and 48 kHz Graphical Display Gain 10 dB 120 dB to 180 dB with zoom Bitstream Level Trim 12 dB 0 dB Trim Meter 0 dB 10 dB Trim Display 144 dB to 10 dB ww sonnox com ra o to content 9 2 Manager 9 SPECIFICATIONS 9 2 Manager 9 2 1 Metadata Text Encoding T
48. ioned without glitches To remove a codec click the small red x at the right hand side of each row ARM x5 Prepares an activated codec in the codec list for writing to disk MON x5 These select the active codec for routing to the output section All monitor paths are delay compensated for glitch free switching ww sonnox com Ea o to content Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Filename Format pop up panel Path Users Sonnox Music Sonnox Encoded Files CUE tLe Custom Codec Bitrate Date Bite W Custom string MyTrack Codec W Bitrate O Mode O Quality O Index W Date Time Path Shows the destination path for output files Click the folder browse button to select a new output path Filename Displays the complete string that will be written to an output folder You can re order any of the elements for a completely custom filename The filename elements are Custom String Displays the identifying name string of the filename eg a song name Codec Add the codec type Optional Bitrate Add the encoder bitrate Optional Mode Add the encoder mode either CBR or VBR Optional Quality Add the encoder quality information Optional Date Time Add the current time and date when the file is created Optional Index Add a codec specific number index Optional ww sonnox com a7 o to content 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Codec Setting
49. ired it should be rendered with the Plug In monitor set to input or with the Plug In bypassed ww sonnox com P7 o to content Sonnox 5 8 Online Encoding 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 8 Online Encoding To encode a file in real time first you have to record enable the codec This is done by selecting the ARM buttons to the left of the codec list Multiple files can be selected for simultaneous recording ARM CODEC MODE BITRATE QUALITY MON SEE CBR 256kbps o as DIEESE CBR 256kbps High Laje DEZ CBR 56kbps High doe E HEAACV2 CBR 28kbps High ue E AAC LC CBR 256kbps High SONNOX FRAUNHOFER PRO CODEC MASTER IN To record straight away press the RECORD button when the host is playing back audio this will write the output of your selected codecs to disk You cannot change the record ARM settings while dropped into RECORD ww sonnox com bg Sonnox 5 8 Online Encoding 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Sonnox SONNOX FRAUNHOFER PRO CODEC O 2 ET JENGA E cic cor estro Hoh ENO 2 EE EEE Be memo cor 2stins mo JEI 2 ESET EE You can also ARM the codec when playback is stopped so that codecs will start writing the instant you start host playback Likewise stopping playback will terminate the writing procedure Record duration and exact data compression ratios are displayed see screenshot above Press the FILENAME FORMAT button to view the filename format pop over window This allows the user to
50. lied to them The Export Settings data the Custom String filename attributes and Output Path The Master Record button and five Record ARM buttons Unless detailed otherwise all other data are always returned in any form of preset load Rule 1 Project Session loads and host preset loads Will load all data as it was saved including all the Special data above Rule 2 Onboard Preset Manager PM preset loads and PM copy pastes Will not load any of the special data listed above To be more specific Output folder Remains as set Output filename elements Remains as set Custom String Reset to the default MyTrack TRIM dB All five are reset to O dB Record ARM Master Record and all five codec record arm buttons are reset to off ww sonnox com b4 o to content Sonnox 6 2 Plug In Signal and Control Flow Diagram 6 PRESET MANAGER TOOLBAR Note Sonnox Toolbar preset loads must match the session sample rate and the session channel configuration to avoid incompatible codec settings the codecs are sensitive to session sample rate and channel configuration Presets that are incompatible with the current instance will appear greyed out in the preset load menu Rule 3 Persistence for plug in insertion and deletion Only the Output Path and filename Attributes are remembered across a delete insert All other controls whether special or otherwise are not remembered and so are defaulted on plug in
51. m 2 20 1 3 Supported File Type 2 FileList 24 Selecting Multiple Files for Batch Processing 3 Encode Decode Section 3 1 Encoding 3 2 Codec Settings Presets 000 ce eee ee ee 3 3 Decoding 3 4 Batch Encoding Decoding 2 2 2 54 545 3 5 Dither 4 Auditioning Files inthe Manager 2 2 05552 eee 5 The Metadata Editor oo ee ane 5 2 Supported Tag Formats 0000 ee eee ee ee 5 3 Supported Tag eee 5 4 Editing Text Tags 5 5 Adding Cover Art 5 6 Writing Tags to Multiple Files 20 2 2 2 2 2004 5 7 Importing Tags from Another File 2 2 2 22804 5 8 Metadata Presets 5 9 The Metadata Lock Mechanism 2 2 e804 6 Keyboard Shortcuts 8 Online vs Offline Encoding 8 1 When to Use Online Encode 53 54 54 55 56 57 57 58 59 59 60 61 61 62 62 63 64 64 65 65 66 67 68 68 69 69 69 70 71 72 e w my Specification 9 1 PU cade we eS a TEETE io a seals 9 3 1 Bit Rate vs Sample Rate 9 3 2 Codec and Session Sample Rate 0 a a eee 9 3 3 Codec and Encoded File Sample Rates 9 3 4 Preferred Sample Rate 0 Commercial use of MP3 Content 1 Supported Platform 2 System Requirement 3 Copyright and Acknowledgement 74 74 74 75 75 77 77
52. n Japan Typical bit rate 128 kbps stereo HE AAC High Efficiency AAC High performance audio codec for good quality at bit rates of 32 48 kbps per channel Used for XM Radio mobile music downloads and Digital Radio Mondiale Typical bit rate 64 kbps stereo HE AAC v2 High performance audio codec for good quality at bit rates of 16 24 kbps per channel Used for 3GPP music download Digital Radio DAB and internet radio streaming to mobile devices e g iPhone Typical bit rate 48 kbps stereo HD AAC High Definition AAC Lossless audio codec with an optional lossy core Used for music distribution and archival Typical bit rate roughly half the bit rate of a 16 bit uncompressed WAV file Apple AAC High performance audio codec for excellent audio quality at low bit rates Used for Apple iPod iTunes etc Typical bit rate 256 kbps VBR stereo ww sonnox com 051 4 1 iTunes 4 SUMMARY OF CODEC FEATURES AND APPLICATIONS 4 1 Apple AAC iTunes Plus Mastered for iTunes Mac only The addition of this Apple AAC codec allows real time audition of files produced under the Mastered for iTunes initiative that are destined for the iTunes store This codec is available for Mac computers only It uses the same Apple codecs and resamplers that are used for the current iTunes Catalogue It very specifically resamples to 44 1 kHz if necessary and encodes as AAC LC 256 kbps variable bit rate and highest quality which ar
53. nd OSX 10 6 or higher Audio Unit Host application e g Logic Digital Performer etc ww sonnox com Bg o to content Sonnox 13 COPYRIGHT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13 Copyright and Acknowledgements Trademarks and content copyright 2007 present Sonnox Ltd All rights reserved Sonnox and the five dots logo are registered trademarks of Sonnox Ltd This product is manufactured and supplied by Sonnox Ltd This product is protected by one or more European and or US patents DIGIDESIGN AVID and PRO TOOLS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology Inc VST is a trademark of Steinberg AG All other product and Company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders ww sonnox com Bg o to content
54. nd area of the screen is the Metadata Editor If a supported M4A or MP3 file is selected any metadata it contains can be examined edited and written back to the file If a WAV or AIFF file is selected the section is used to edit the metadata that will be written when this file is encoded ww sonnox com ba o to content Sonnox 7 1 Folder Browser 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 1 Folder Browser The leftmost section of the Pro Codec Manager presents controls for browsing folders on your system From here individual folders can be selected so that their contents can be loaded into the File List This section describes the different components that make up the Folder Browser section including details about some common operations you may need to perform To help minimise the size of the Manager the Folder Browser can be hidden and revealed at any time using the hide reveal button This button is located on the top right hand side of the section 7 1 1 Setting up a Root Folder The Root of the Folder Browser is the folder whose path is displayed at the top of the section All folders contained in the current Root Folder will appear in the Folder Browser Users Sonnox Music The Root Folder can be selected in one of five ways Select one of the default Root Folders from the drop down list Browse to a new Root Folder via the folder browse button Right click a folder in the Folder Browser and choose Make Root
55. ng different algorithms and will compress to very different degrees HE AAC is optimized for the best quality at very low bit rates and will produce very small files potentially around one hundredth of the input file size HD AAC in contrast is not so effective at compressing data and will produce files that are around half the size of the input The familiar MP3 codecs produce compression factors of typically around 12 A yellow asterisk if present indicates that the figure is approximate This will be the case for HD AAC and variable bit rate VBR encoders Note Remember that using perceptual coding is always a trade off between more accurate reproduction of the original on the one hand against a higher compression ratio and smaller files on the other hand ww sonnox com p4 o to content Sonnox 5 6 A B Auditioning and A B X Testing A B Tab 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 6 A B Auditioning and A B X Testing A B Tab 5 6 1 A B Auditioning For simple and quick auditioning use AB Mode Control is via the A B tab Clicking in the A or B columns will assign a codec to the A or B audition channels Clicking in the B column adjacent to a selected A codec will automatically set the B column to the input signal I P To revert to a codec for the B column click on a cell non adjacent to the A codec The A B buttons toggle between the codec selected in the A column and the codec or input selected in the B col
56. o produce a gold master then audition and online encode at the same high sample rate 2 Master at high sample rate and produce a gold master Down sample to 44 1 kHz for CD Load CD master session and audition codecs then encode the CD master with the Manager application ww sonnox com o to content 5 3 Online Auditioning and Configuring Codecs 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 3 3 Overloading Pre Codec Codec Headroom It is possible but not desirable that the plug in will be fed by an overloading input sample values greater than 0 dBFS In this case the input meters will show clipping This is separate to the possibility that a lossy encoder given a non overloading input could produce a bitstream that overloads a decoder output If an overloading input is presented to lossy codecs such as AAC LC the codec output will endeavour to follow the input as accurately as possible using internal headroom in both the encoder and decoder Bitstream Level Max dB will accurately indicate the maximum level of the signal and the signal will not clip in the plug in Note This is not true for the HD AAC codec lossless which does not have internal headroom for the lossless layer 5 3 4 Overloading Post Codec Audition Level Matching As discussed above any form of filtering including encoding and decoding can increase the peak level of a signal Some codecs such as HE AAC can add several dBs hence the provision of Bitstream Level Trim
57. on does not appear in the codec selection window The transport is stopped and the 48 kHz file is selected The user now tries to select the HD AAC codec but it is still not available as an option After the transport is set to play the codec can be changed to HD AAC The file plays normally and the plug in and codec perform normally The transport is stopped and the 32 kHz file is re selected Now if the transport is set to play the codec will receive invalid audio data and the plug in will substitute an AAC LC codec Quit and re start WaveLab 7 Select a 32 kHz wav but do not press play Instantiate the Pro Codec At this moment the plug in has not picked up the correct session data because WaveLab has not been set to play The plug in has been defaulted to 44 1 kHz Note it is possible now to select HD AAC but if this is done the plug in will substitute an AAC LC when playback starts Now try to load a preset saved from a 32 kHz session The preset will be greyed out in the load preset menu and cannot be loaded To progress press PLAY then STOP and then load the Preset ww sonnox com ES 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS Summary These complications arise mostly when low sample rates 82 kHz are combined with low bit rate codecs or when high sample rates are combined with high bit rates Generally Pro Tools Logic Cubase and Nuendo are among the hosts that are immune to this behaviour but Sequoia Sampli
58. or 5 seconds Enable Sonnox Toolbar Shows or hides the Sonnox Preset Manager toolbar Show Preset Name Path Shows or hides the Preset name path in the Preset Manager toolbar Clip trigger Changes how an overload or clip is measured on the input meters Use Host Channel Configuration Sonnox Clip Hold Until Clicked 2 Seconds 5 Seconds Enable Sonnox Toolbar Show Preset Name Path Clip Trigger 1 Sample gt 0 dBFS 1 Sample gt 0 dBFS 2 Consecutive Samples gt 0 dBFS Legacy Graphics Mode Show Help Tooltips Open User Guide About Sonnox Fraunhofer ProCodec Most VST hosts indicate channel configuration For those that don t such as Sound Forge and REAPER the configuration can be forced to mono or stereo These options are only visible when the plug in is inserted on a 6 channel track or the host does not fully convey the channel count of a mono or stereo track Note Some hosts that exhibit this by default provide options to improve the behaviour for such multi channel configuration plug ins For example in REAPER 4 and above right click on the VST Pro Codec in the FX Browser and enable the option Inform plug in when track channel count changes Legacy Graphics Mode This disables the use of OpenGL graphics acceleration for the meters and FFT display for use with computers with older or incompatible graphics hardware Show help tooltips This useful tool can be enabled or di
59. or delay compensation until the plug in is removed and re instantiated Individual codec sample delays Codec Mode 44 1 kHz 48 kHz 88 2 kHz 96 kHz MP3 CBR max min 13849 7345 13849 7345 26978 14690 26978 14690 VBR 37041 39127 74082 78254 AAC LC CBR VBR 3648 3648 6144 6144 HE AAC CBR max min 7398 7300 7398 7300 7296 3648 7296 3648 VBR 7300 7300 14600 14604 HE AAC v2 CBR VBR 9153 9153 18306 18306 HD AAC n a 4096 4096 6144 6144 Apple AAC VBR 5120 8192 12288 12288 ww sonnox com 74 o to content 9 1 Plug In 9 SPECIFICATIONS CPU Use All codecs are mathematically intense some more than others and some have significant latency as a result The user can take advantage of advances in CPU power in modern computers if appropriate but can also use the plug in extensively with older and possibly lower powered computers by selecting fewer codecs simultaneously In particular the HD AAC lossless codec creates a heavy CPU load High sample rates exacerbate this situation for example without a powerful CPU the HD AAC codec might cause a prohibitively high CPU load at 192 kHz All codecs that are added to the Codec List are always active in order to report accurately the NMR signal and potential overload state This is irrespective of which codec is selected for monitoring Remember that this requires both encoding and decoding of the signal in real time Thus it is possible to have dropouts with an underpowered CPU if several highly
60. or processing Please note that this will only work for audio file types that are supported by the Manager such as WAVE AIFF MP3 and AAC encoded M4A Right click a file in the list and select Reveal in Finder Mac or Reveal in Explorer Windows to open the operating system file browser at that file s location ww sonnox com bd o to content Sonnox 7 3 Encode Decode Section 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 3 Encode Decode Section 7 3 1 Encoding The Clip Safe button enables a level correction feature This works by decoding the newly compressed file calculating the maximum sample value in the PCM stream and if necessary applying the precise amount of gain trim required when the source file is encoded a second time This guarantees that the final encoded file once decoded for playback will not contain any illegal sample values or overloads However if your audio files have been correctly prepared using the Pro Codec Plug in using Clip Safe should not be necessary NORMALISE can be enabled in addition to Clip Safe in order to ensure that the post decoder level of the encoded file is as close to 0 dBFS as possible If the Normalise button is enabled the source file is encoded then decoded and the maximum sample value is found The source file is then re encoded with a gain adjustment to force the decoded max value up or down to O dB When you are ready press the Encode button to encode the file and write it to the ta
61. ox com o to content Sonnox 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 9 2 Bit Depth The HD AAC codec has a 16 bit mode that is available in the codec settings selector MP3 36 AACLC 112 HE AAC 128 HE AAC V2 160 192 iTunes 224 Bit Depth 16 Dither Codec is functioning normally The bit depth and dither settings are reflected in the bit meter operation when moniitoring HD AAC codec and they are reflected in the plug in output signal The settings are saved into presets and project settings ww sonnox com Bg o to content 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 9 3 Dither and Truncation When encoding online or preparing a session for render through the DAW it is essential to provide the input to the HD AAC codec with a correctly dithered and truncated audio data stream As stated above the plug in should be the last element of the processing chain and a dither truncation plug in should immediately precede it This is particularly important if HD AAC is to be used When HD AAC is selected for audition the FFT display area changes slightly to include an input bit meter for the left hand scale This bit meter is included specifically to help select the correct dither truncation settings for the signal into the codec There is one segment per bit for bits 1 to 24 see right One large segment at the bottom indicates any activity below the 24th bit With a 16 bit input you would expect activity in bits 1 16 and
62. playback To select a file for processing single click on the file ww sonnox com bg o to content 7 2 File List 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 2 1 Selecting Multiple Files for Batch Processing It is possible to select multiple files in the File List for encoding decoding to the same output format To select multiple files Command Click Mac or Control Click Windows to add a file to the current selection Shift Click to select a range of files Press Command A Mac or Control A Windows to select all It is important to remember that the available bit rate list for each codec changes depending on the source sample rate and channel configuration Because of this and the modality of the Codec Selector and decoder output format selector there are necessary restrictions on the types of files that can be selected simultaneously 1 Encoding and Decoding cannot coexist in a single batch operation 2 When selecting uncompressed WAV or AIFF files for encoding all files in the selection must have the same sample rate the same channel configuration In order to enforce these restrictions when keyboard focus is set to the File List and a multi select modifier Command Mac Control Windows or shift is held incompatible files in the list are greyed out and cannot be selected Drag an audio file onto the File List to set the file s parent folder as the root of the Folder Browser and select the file f
63. prior to the Plug In HD AAC 16 bit internal dither is DISABLED In these cases it is clear that the HD AAC truncation to 16 24 bits is causing truncation distortion Note The HD AAC processing will still be lossless to 16 24 bits however the signal that is losslessly encoded has already been distorted prior to the encoder input so is not an accurate representation of the signal prior to the Pro Codec Plug In In these cases the bottom bits of the bit meter are filled red This red fill indicates that truncation distortion is occurring ww sonnox com BG Go to contents 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN 5 9 4 Internal Dither and Truncation The previous examples include the insertion of a dither truncation plug in in the audio path to provide correct treatment of the signal prior to the codec For convenience if a dither plug in is not available the 16 24 bit dither option can be enabled in the codec settings selector Note If the plug in is subsequently bypassed to render to WAV the resulting output will not be dithered and truncated correctly Reset Zoom HD AAC 24 bit with INCORRECT or NO dither and truncation prior to the Plug In HD AAC 24 bit internal dither is DISABLED The DIFF signal and the bit meter are indicating presence of audio data input at bits greater than 24 The bits greater than 24 are indicated in red to show an error condition Reset Zoom HD AAC 24 bit with INCORRECT or NO dither
64. r require additional fees of any sort Both the MP3 and AAC compression routines are based on technology that is patented At present no royalties are required for AAC codec usage and private or non commercial use of MP3 content does not require royalty fees Under some circumstances the commercial i e revenue generating use of MP3 content will require a separate licence irrespective of how that content is generated To summarise There are no licence fees for private or non commercial use of MP3 content Enterprises with a turnover of less than 100 000 per year are exempt from MP3 royalty payments There are currently no royalties collected for AAC commercial content distribution Note If you are in doubt about whether fees are applicable for your project please contact ww mpSlicensing com ww sonnox com B7 o to content Sonnox 12 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 11 Supported Platforms Avid Pro Tools AAX Native 32 64 bit VST hosts 32 64 bit AU hosts 32 64 bit Mac Intel OSX 10 6 or higher Windows 7 and 8 32 64 bit 12 System Requirements For latest System requirements please visit www sonnox com All versions Free iLok account Appropriate product licence iLok2 Pro Tools Approved Digidesign Avid CPU and hardware configuration Pro Tools 10 3 5 Native or HD or higher VST Native VST compliant host application e g Cubase Nuendo etc Audio Units Approved Apple CPU a
65. rey highlight Metadata in files that are not currently selected can be previewed in context by hovering the mouse cursor over the Metadata Import button in the File List Metadata section buttons Undo Redo Undo or Redo a metadata edit Importing metadata from presets or other files sets an undo point so can also be undone redone Clear Remove all the existing metadata in the table Revert Undo all changes and restore the section to the metadata held within the selected file ww sonnox com bg o to content 7 5 The Metadata Editor 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION Write to File Write the contents of the Metadata Editor to the selected file This alters the selected file and cannot be undone 7 5 2 Supported Tag Formats The Manager provides the ability to add and modify metadata in files with an mp3 extension and some files with an m4a extension Adding and modifying metadata in m4a files compressed with the Apple Lossless Audio Codec ALAC is not supported The Status panel will display an error message if one of these files is selected The adding and editing of metadata in wav and aiff formats is not supported The metadata contained within mp3 and m4a files is distinct from the audio data and is stored in a separate format of its own The Manager supports the handling of 2 different metadata formats ID3v2 This format is typically for use in mp3 files The ID3v2 standard is now in its 4th
66. rget location A status bar will indicate progress during the encoding process During encoding it is possible to press the encode button again if you wish to cancel the process CANCEL Note The current status of the process is also indicated in the Status tab at the bottom right corner of the Manager All edited tags in the Metadata Editor will be written to the encoded output file Some computers may indicate a spinning progress cursor during the first few seconds of the encoding process This is quite normal and does not indicate that the application is not responding ww sonnox com o to content 7 3 Encode Decode Section 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 3 2 Codec Settings Presets Codec settings can be saved as presets for later use To display the codec settings preset manager click the Codec Presets tab in the lower right hand area of the Manager Hover the mouse cursor over a preset name to preview the saved codec settings Click on a preset name to load these settings into the Codec List The list of presets is ordered alphabetically and is immediately re ordered when a new preset is saved To delete or remove a preset hover the mouse cursor over the preset name and press the red X button that appears at the right hand side of the row Since this is not undoable a pop up window will request confirmation before deleting the preset If you have saved a Pro Codec Plug In preset of various cod
67. right of each of the five codec selection slots Clicking on an overload LED resets the overload condition for that codec It is important to note that the indicated Bitstream metering and overload LEDs are provided as a guide only If a segment of audio is being cycled these maximum values are not exactly repeatable from one cycle to the next Furthermore in some host applications repeatedly rewinding to the beginning of the track will also result in ww sonnox com bg o to content Sonnox 5 5 Data Compression Factor COMP Tab 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN unrepeatable maximum values The discrepancies in both cases should be minor and not all source audio and not all codecs will be affected So it is not always possible to trim exactly while auditioning because a subsequent pass might have a slightly different maximum value There is a technical reason for this stemming from the difficulty of synchronizing the start point of the buffer that is used to input data to the codecs Note In some situations this will be important and for those occasions we recommend encoding the file offline using the Manager application Offline encoding is exactly repeatable however many times the file is encoded 5 5 Data Compression Factor COMP Tab The COMP tab shows the data compression ratio for each of the selected codecs All of the available COMPRESSION RATIOS codecs compress an audio data bitstream Different codecs compress usi
68. rom 8 kHz minimnum to a maximum of 48 kHz MP3 96 kHz AAC family or 192 kHz HD AAC only see above Under certain settings at higher session sample rates downsampling occurs between the session and the audition path or between the session and the encoder This downsampling is lossless to 24 bits The following tables indicate the preferred sample rates of the codecs see section b 3 2 Only supported sample rates from 32 kHz and higher are shown MP3 Bit Rate Range kbps Supported Sample Rates Preferred Sample Rate Channel Count 40 47 32 22 050 1 48 55 32 24 1 56 73 32 44 1 48 32 1 64 320 32 44 1 48 44 1 1 96 111 32 44 1 32 2 112 319 32 44 1 48 44 1 2 320 32 44 1 48 44 1 48 2 ww sonnox com B4 o to content Sonnox 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS AAC LC Bit Rate Range kbps Supported Sample Rates Preferred Sample Rate Channel Count 32 55 56 127 128 191 192 264 264 288 40 95 96 111 112 255 256 384 384 529 529 576 160 239 240 279 280 639 640 800 HE AAC Bit Rate Range kbps 32 32 44 1 48 32 48 96 44 1 48 96 48 88 2 96 32 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 48 96 44 1 48 96 48 88 2 96 32 32 44 1 48 32 44 1 48 32 48 96 Supported Sample Rates 32 44 1 48 96 96 32 32 44 1 48 96 96 32 32 44 1 48 Preferred Sample Rate N N N N N 5 5 1 5 9 1 5 9 1 5 5 1 Channel Count 12 17 18 39 40 56 16 27 28 95
69. s selector MP3 a Low Medium HE AAC HE AAC V2 Highest HD AAC iTunes 320 Codec is functioning normally Codec Click to select a codec from the list Some codecs will not be available depending on the host sample rate and the number of channels For example HE AACv2 is stereo only Bitrate Choose the bit rate of the selected codec Some bit rates may not be available depending on the sample rate of the host DAW and the number of channels If the bit rate is accompanied by an asterisk the codec is resampling the audio stream Mode Select from the available list either CBR or VBR encoder algorithms for the selected codec Quality Select the quality by which the mode is calculated The highest quality setting often causes codecs to re sample the signal in which case the bit rate and the quality setting will be displayed with an asterisk If the codec is resampling the auditioned signal will not reflect this but the encoded signal written to disk will be at the highest quality setting which is higher than the auditioned signal This is the one case where the auditioned signal will not reflect the written signal Status The status e g downsampling is shown at the bottom of the codec settings selector 48 Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Dither Only visible if the selected codec is HD AAC Only enable 16 or 24 bit dither if the input to the plug in has not already been dither
70. sabled About Displays the date version and build number of the plug in and the version of each encoder library in the plug in ww sonnox com 4 Sonnox 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Input Section SIGNAL The input meter indicates 2 dB per LED below 12dBFs and 0 5dB per LED above 12dBFs It includes peak hold indication The meter will be mono INPU LCR Ls Rs Lfe stereo or multi channel depending on context CH MAP 5 1 instances only Use these options to match the input output channel mapping of the plug in to the channel mapping used in your host DAW If you use SMPTE ITU channel order simply select this option Manager Button Click the Manager icon button to open the Manager application for offline encoding decoding and metadata editing FFT Display Section L R Sum etc Select which channel s FFT to display FFT LISS Switch the display between FFT and Lissajous NMR Hide Show the NMR indicator line on the FFT Log Lin Switch the FFT frequency axis between a logarithmic and linear scale Reset Zoom Reset the zoom level of the FFT frequency and amplitude scales to default ww sonnox com T o to content 5 10 Description of Controls 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN Codec List Section CODEC LIST Displays a list of codecs chosen for auditioning The codec type bit rate and codec mode are displayed at all times Any codec pre loaded in the list can be audit
71. scan can be disabled in the Settings tab by deselecting Folder Browser Background scan for audio files With this feature disabled all folders will be displayed with a full colour folder icon and the number of files in each folder will not be shown ww sonnox com bg o to content 7 2 File List 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 1 3 Supported File Types The Manager supports the following file types M4A AAC including AAC LC HE AAC and MPEG Surround gt MP3 WAVE Uncompressed AIFF Uncompressed Unsupported file types will not be recognised as audio files by the background scan process nor will they be displayed in the File List 7 2 File List This section displays all compatible audio files that are in the top level of the folder currently selected in the Folder Browser Incompatible file types are not displayed The section provides the following information File Name File Type File Size in MB Presence of Metadata for MP3 and M4A files If a file contains metadata supported by the Manager an Arrow Button is displayed in the rightmost column of the list Hover the mouse cursor over one of these buttons to preview the file s metadata Single click to import the file s metadata into the Metadata Editor To select a file to audition single click in the playback column to the left of the file name The file will begin to play immediately and clicking in the same column again will pause
72. the new encoded file ww sonnox com zd o to content 7 6 Keyboard Shortcuts 7 THE PRO CODEC MANAGER APPLICATION 7 6 Keyboard Shortcuts Global Context Mac Windows Process File s Command P Control P Write metadata Command W Control W Undo metadata edit Command Z Control Z Redo metadata edit Shift Cmd Z Shift Ctrl Z Save metadata preset Command S Control S Toggle playback Spacebar Spacebar The grey highlight that appears around the Folder Browser File List or Metadata Editor indicates the section that is currently the keyboard focus target for the remaining key commands Focus can be changed by pressing Tab or Shift Tab and also follows the most recently clicked section Folder Browser Key Command Select next or previous folder Collapse folder File List Arrow key Up Down Arrow key left Select next or previous file Folder Browser Arrow key Up Down Key Command Edit next tag Edit previous tag Edit current tag Stop editing tag and discard edits ww sonnox com Tab Shift Tab Enter Escape 8 ONLINE VS OFFLINE ENCODING 8 Online vs Offline Encoding We can now discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online encoding with the Plug In see section B and offline encoding with the Manager application See section Fh Offline Encoding is now done with the included desktop application the Pro Codec Manager Advantages of Offline Encoding Bit stream overloa
73. tting and sample rate might cause an encoder to down sample internally especially at the highest quality settings In this case if the stream is decoded for auditioning the number of samples per second produced will not match the session sample rate and there will be a pitch shift To work around this problem when one of these special combinations is selected the plug in creates two versions of the codec one operating at lower quality for auditioning so that internal down sampling does not take place and one operating at the selected quality which will be used only for writing to file if the user drops into online record mode we 160 192 HE AAC 254 HE AAC V2 HD AAG iTunes 400 Auditioning at High quality Output file Highest quality at 48 kHz In a 44 1 kHz session selecting Highest quality for these codec settings will result in the encoded output file having an internal sample rate of 48 kHz At higher session sample rates the codec settings selector shows when down sampling is occurring In this case the input audio is down sampled prior to encoding to bring the sample rate into the range supported by the codec The decoded audition signal is correspondingly up sampled Note The encoded file s sample rate is derived from the session sample rate the codec supported sample rate the selected codec bit rate the selected codec quality setting and the channel configuration Hence it is not a simple
74. tude and WaveLab are examples of hosts that can exhibit these issues To avoid these problems after changing the session configuration it is advisable when using affected host applications to press PLAY then STOP before instantiating the plug in or loading a plug in preset This will ensure that session sample rate and channel configuration data are flushed through the plug in correctly It is also advisable to save presets for the plug in at a variety of session sample rates and channel configurations It is advantageous to categorise the presets by channel configuration and session sample rate 9 3 3 Codec and Encoded File Sample Rates The sample rate of an encoded file is derived from the session sample rate the codec supported sample rates the selected codec bit rate the selected codec quality setting and the channel configuration Hence it is not a simple process to choose a desired encoded file sample rate The codec sample rate is shown in the codec settings selector The following tables give examples of the encoded file sample rate that result from various selection conditions for full tables see section b 3 4 Preferred Sample Rates The codecs have an internal preferred sample rate which will give the highest quality reproduction but quite frequently higher CPU usage In general if the highest quality setting is selected for a codec then the encoded file will have the sample rate as listed in the Preferred Sample
75. umn This is ideal for critical listening tests The HIDE button makes the current selection anonymous The A B buttons still toggles between the two column selections The BOTH button displays both of the two DIFF signals the currently auditioning signal is coloured green 5 6 2 A B X Testing For more detailed and statistical listening tests use A B X mode for the principles behind A B X testing there is a good Wikipedia entry Select the A B X tab via the down arrow on the tab Unlike hardware A B X systems there is no switch delay or switching glitches in this implementation The two A B assignment columns are used in a similar fashion to A B auditioning but the column headers are now buttons There is also an additional button labelled X Although the three A B X buttons are like mechanical radio buttons repeatedly pressing the same button will alternate between that ww sonnox com p5 o to content 5 6 A B Auditioning and A B X Testing A B Tab 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN button and the previously selected button This means you can repeatedly alternate between A amp X with your eyes closed or B amp X or A amp B because you don t need to move the mouse pointer Eyes closed auditioning might improve your listening focus As with A B mode there is access to the input signal I P by clicking in the B column adjacent to a selected A codec Press RESET to reset the internal counters and begin a
76. v2 3 are written with Latin 1 encoding However if some characters in the tag are not in the Latin 1 subset the tag is written as UTF 16 Files with ID3v2 4 text tags will always have the text encoding fixed to UTF 8 ww sonnox com 77 o to content Sonnox 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 3 1 Bit Rate vs Sample Rate Available bit rates are dependent upon the selected sample rate Encoder MP3 Channel Configurations Sample Rates kHz Bit Rates kbps Encoder Mono Stereo 8 11 025 12 16 22 05 24 32 44 1 48 Mono 8 320 CBR and VBR Stereo 16 320 CBR and VBR AAC LC HE AAC Channel Configurations Sample Rates kHz Bit Rates kbps Mono Stereo 5 1 AAC LC 11 025 96 HE AAC 22 05 96 HE AAC v2 22 05 48 AAC LC 96 256 CBR and VBR HE AAC 16 128 CBR and VBR HE AAC v2 18 56 CBR and VBR Encoder AAC LC MPS MPEG Surround Channel Configurations 5 1 Sample Rates kHz Bit Rates kbps ww sonnox com AAC LC 44 1 48 HE AAC 44 1 48 AAC LC 192 320 HE AAC 48 128 ra 9 3 Codec Specifications 9 SPECIFICATIONS Encoder HD AAC Channel Configurations Mono Stereo 5 1 Sample Rates kHz 44 1 48 88 2 96 176 4 192 Bit Rates kbps Variable lossless Limitations Supported oversampling modes 1 for input sample rate 44 1 or 48kHz 2 for input sample rate 88 2 or 96kHz 4 for input sample rate 176 4 or 192kHz 9 3 2 Codec
77. with a 24 bit input you would expect activity in bits 1 24 As noted in the introduction to this section if there is processing before the plug in you would expect inters and activity on all bits including bits higher than 24 even if you start with a 16 bit file The following images show the plug in FFT displaying the INPUT and DIFF signals with varying degrees of dither and truncation ww sonnox com B4 o to content 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN First in order to see the effect on the noise floor we input 1kHz and 2kHz tones at 60dB As this is a low level signal at 60 dB there is no activity on the top ten segments of the bit meter Note the magnified scale down to 180 dB ALT drag down on the dB scale Reset Zoom Reset Zoom HD AAC 16 bit with correct dither and truncation prior to the Plug In Since the input signal in both cases has been correctly prepared prior to the input of the Pro Codec Plug In no bit activity is shown below the selected bit depth In these cases the lossless layer of the encoded HD AAC file is 100 identical to the input signal ww sonnox com B5 Go to contents 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN What if the input signal is not correctly prepared Reset Zoom HD AAC 24 bit with INCORRECT or NO dither and truncation prior to the Plug In HD AAC 24 bit internal dither is DISABLED Reset Zoom HD AAC 16 bit with INCORRECT or NO dither and truncation
78. x com o to content 5 9 HD AAC 5 THE PRO CODEC PLUG IN button enabled the audition point is after the HD AAC encoder decoder You will notice that the DIFF signal in the FFT display will drop below 144 dB HD AAC is lossless to 24 bits so the DIFF signal has an amplitude smaller than 24 bits down If the input signal to the codec is quantised to 24 bits either by dither and truncation or because it is unprocessed data from a 24 bit input file the DIFF signal will drop below 180 dB While encoding auditioning an HD AAC signal attention should be paid to the lossy core We recommend selecting the appropriate core codec in an adjacent codec row which will allow correct auditioning of the lossy codec in the HD AAC channel and will also allow correct overload monitoring and mitigation The HD AAC lossy core takes the parameters Bit rate Selectable from 96kbps to 192kbps Mode CBR Quality Medium However remember that if the Bitstream Level TRIM function is used to mitigate the core codec overload and if that same trim value is applied to the HD AAC encoder input then both the lossless and the lossy data streams will be trimmed Also note that under normal circumstances if the lossless codec s Bitstream Level Trim is non zero to avoid clipping in the lossy chain for an offline encode that uses the online trim values then the resulting decoded output file will not be lossless because the level has changed ww sonn

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