(Archived) Please - Better Audio Quality with .M4A!

[Anders Eklov 5]

I´m a song writer and I need to be able to work fast and send stuff directly from evernote to my colleagues and friends. The app is great for viewing sound directly on the area where lyrics is annotated, but with the current .amr quality it is next to impossible to hear anything, especially if someone is speaking low.

So I made a little A-B test. I first recorded a bit of music directly through itunes out on my macbook, then just through the computer-microphone into the computer again. I did this first through Evernote Mac Application, the desktop, then through my android phone running evernote, latest version. At last I re-recorded the same audio through an audio app with the AAC codec in .m4a files.

Settings used in the audio app:

AAC / .m4a

Bitrate: 24kbps & 48kbps

Samplerate: 32khz & 44.1khz (32000hz, slightly under CD-quality for the 24kbps file, 44100hz for the one with 48kbps samplerate)

Mono

Here are all the files for everyone to judge for themselves:

Evernote Desktop - MAC:

http://cl.ly/210m1c2a2B1V

Evernote Android - HTC Phone:

http://cl.ly/0b3s12222v1g

M4A / AAC - 24 kbps:

http://cl.ly/3J3s3A003n3W

M4A / AAC - 48 kbps:

http://cl.ly/36250V0I0J3k

Here you can clearly hear the same sound source for all the sound, although the sound source, the microphone, on the audio recording app on the Mac and the Evernote Mac App is better than the one on the phone. So I included a file recorded through the Easy Voice Recorder app for Android. This app is super simple and uses M4A/AAC to capture sound, with 48 kbps.

Download here:

Easy Voice Recorder - free version - AAC/M4A - 48 kbps:

http://cl.ly/420L36112c08

My personal view is that the Easy Voice Recorder is the best of these. But the microphone position was a bit more angled directly towards the sound source, so this is a bit unfair. For completely normalized versions (to clearly hear everything loudly, not direct originals) ...

... click here to download (ZIP):

(these sound files are the same recordings, but normalized in new versions through a music conversion application, for the ease of listening to them at the same volume)

http://cl.ly/0C443e3o2e1g

Here you will clearly hear the difference.

Hope you get something out of this and what could be, easily, if the evernote team would consider changing the app a bit, or just give the user an option to adjust the setting.¨¨

I really hope you do, cause I´m hooked on your app and love sound next to text - and would gladly not have my recordings in 10 places if I dont have to...

/Anders

[husskat 0]

Anders, you sure went to a lot of trouble here - thanks for posting all of that.  I am a songwriter also, and have been searching in vain for the perfect work tape/final song organizer for...well, forever, actually.  

PLEASE EVERNOTE - hear this repeated request.  It does not matter that there are other ways to record and import audio.  That is not the point. I have a million superior ways to record audio - what I need is what you are offering in terms of organization, but with audio that is merely of TOLERABLE quality.  Seriously - if only it were tolerable I would upgrade to Premium right now. 

I need to be able to "Jot down" audio ideas and compile them in a chronological, or just plain logical way, and I am too much of an audiophile to return to the 20th century in terms of SQUASHED, digitally dismembered sounding files...

I realize that file size is a consideration, but a different format, like a 128 mbps MP3, which preserves the vast majority of the info in the audio file with practically no discernable digital distortion is a pretty small file.  And each note in the free version is allowed something like 25 MB of content - enough for several full-length song recordings in that format (and enough for HOURS of audio recorded at the currently available bitrate. Who needs that?!).  I'm not talking about something to use as a final product, just something we can playback for reference without wincing.

Anyway, this is my plea, and my reiteration of a request that is made several times yearly (by others) without result - even if selectable audio quality was included in the Premium version only - I would upgrade in a heartbeat.  And I know MANY songwriters that would receive this recommendation from me, in my workshops and songwriting groups...

Thanks for taking this request seriously.  -kathy hussey

[Imbranato 0]

Anders, you sure went to a lot of trouble here - thanks for posting all of that.  I am a songwriter also, and have been searching in vain for the perfect work tape/final song organizer for...well, forever, actually.  

PLEASE EVERNOTE - hear this repeated request.  It does not matter that there are other ways to record and import audio.  That is not the point. I have a million superior ways to record audio - what I need is what you are offering in terms of organization, but with audio that is merely of TOLERABLE quality.  Seriously - if only it were tolerable I would upgrade to Premium right now. 

I need to be able to "Jot down" audio ideas and compile them in a chronological, or just plain logical way, and I am too much of an audiophile to return to the 20th century in terms of SQUASHED, digitally dismembered sounding files...

I realize that file size is a consideration, but a different format, like a 128 mbps MP3, which preserves the vast majority of the info in the audio file with practically no discernable digital distortion is a pretty small file.  And each note in the free version is allowed something like 25 MB of content - enough for several full-length song recordings in that format (and enough for HOURS of audio recorded at the currently available bitrate. Who needs that?!).  I'm not talking about something to use as a final product, just something we can playback for reference without wincing.

Anyway, this is my plea, and my reiteration of a request that is made several times yearly (by others) without result - even if selectable audio quality was included in the Premium version only - I would upgrade in a heartbeat.  And I know MANY songwriters that would receive this recommendation from me, in my workshops and songwriting groups...

Thanks for taking this request seriously.  -kathy hussey

 

Kathy,

 

I fully agree with you. To use other apps to voice recording  it's not a pratical solution, and I belive that, for a considerable number of users, the only thing that would justify the upgrade for a Premium account is a better sound recording quality.

[lars_m 0]

+1