HELP! Huge Audio Job-Recording Recommendations -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:HELP! Huge Audio Job-Recording Recommendations Posted by: whiskey3 Date:3/11/2002 5:57:44 PM 120 3" Reels double-sided mono reel-to-reel tapes. I'm using SMPTE Non-Drop (Audio 30fps) 8-bit mono, 44.1 settings in Forge. Also using an external compressor limiter before the sound card. It's recording into Forge as a mono track, left & right speakers...so mono-stereo. Anyone else do a job huge like this or have any tips?
Subject:RE: HELP! Huge Audio Job-Recording Recommendations Reply by: Chienworks Date:3/12/2002 8:59:33 AM Definately use 16 bit instead of 8 bit. I know it will use twice as much drive space, but the extra headroom and editing accuracy are more than worth it. You can always output to 8 bit after you're done editing and have normalized if you need to, but an MP3 file will probably sound better than an 8 bit file, and it will be smaller. 8 bit mono is 1/4 the size of a CD quality file and will sound rough and noisy. MP3 at 160Kbps is 1/9 the size and will sound almost indistinguishable from the original. Since your source is mono, you could probably even get away with 96Kbps before you notice any degredation. You don't say what speed the tapes are recorded at, but i'll guess they're 225' 3.75ips, which would make them 24 minutes each? That would be about 120MB per tape at 16 bit 44.1KHz mono WAV, and 17MB per tape at 96Kbps MP3. If they're 7.5ips or 1.875ips, just divide or multiply the above sizes by 2 respectively

Definately use 16 bit instead of 8 bit. I know it will use twice as much drive space, but the extra headroom and editing accuracy are more than worth it. You can always output to 8 bit after you're done editing and have normalized if you need to, but an MP3 file will probably sound better than an 8 bit file, and it will be smaller. 8 bit mono is 1/4 the size of a CD quality file and will sound rough and noisy. MP3 at 160Kbps is 1/9 the size and will sound almost indistinguishable from the original. Since your source is mono, you could probably even get away with 96Kbps before you notice any degredation.

You don't say what speed the tapes are recorded at, but i'll guess they're 225' 3.75ips, which would make them 24 minutes each? That would be about 120MB per tape at 16 bit 44.1KHz mono WAV, and 17MB per tape at 96Kbps MP3.
If they're 7.5ips or 1.875ips, just divide or multiply the above sizes by 2 respectively