High Definition Audio Post Production

By Marshal Sandler
While you may already be familiar with high definition audio from experiencing surround sound in movie theatres and in your home entertainment center, a new technology is bringing the same experience to your headphones. Dolby’s new surround sound system allows you to experience the feeling of surround sound right in your headphones.

Podcast listeners don’t necessarily have to own special new headsets to appreciate the quality of high definition audio. For the past few years, live music lovers have traded high definition music files online. Usually, these files are high quality field recordings made at live concerts, often sanctioned by musicians. In uncompressed, “lossless” formats, these files can take up huge amounts of space. Therefore, high definition audio post production systems must be equipped with large hard drives and maxed-out memory chips to process these files.

As a result, many podcast producers are introducing themselves to the world of high definition audio post production. While many of the free audio editing software programs on the market handle post production quite well, none of them adequately process the high definition elements required for true surround sound. To achieve true high definition audio post production on a desktop computer, many sound editors may end up purchasing full media production suites.

Windows users accustomed to post production software like Audacity can expect to spend a little more money to achieve high definition podcasts and audio recordings. The Vegas media production suite, while designed primarily for video and film production, contains a sophisticated high definition audio post production module. Using Vegas with the video elements turned off, editors can compose and edit audio in full 5.1 surround sound formats.

Apple users accustomed to using the popular GarageBand tool for podcasting must also invest in some new software for high definition audio post production. The popular Logic Pro software package offers podcasters and other audio producers a powerful set of tools for music creation in full surround sound. While this high definition audio post production tool is one of the most expensive packages on the market, editors using Logic often save significant amounts of money compared to renting advanced equipment at professional recording studios.

Whether you’re building your high definition audio post production system on a PC or on a Mac, prices for hardware and software will continue to drop, offering you the power to create audio just like the pros.

Check out Best AVS Audio Tools here.