I have read 24bit/44khz is the best quality for uploading to Youtube.
What are your experiences. We are mainly dealing with audio here.

Also, which programs do you use for adding an image to an audio track, i assume one could do it with windows movie maker, but probably something of a higher quality would be desired, that would not mess with the audio quality?

 

Hi, YouTube recommends:

Audio codec: AAC-LC / Channels: Stereo or Stereo + 5.1 / Sampling rate: 96 kHz or 48 kHz

Free
Windows Movie Maker, iMovie von Apple, VideoPad Video Editor,
Shotcut, Lightworks, DaVinci Resolve, Hitfilm Express

Chargeable
Power Director, Magix Video Deluxe, Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2021

THIS
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

 

Yes, 48khz for video content but 44khz for audio since it downsamples anyway?

 

Here are the original " Samplerates in PreSonus - Studio One "

32.0 kHz MP3
44,1 kHz MP3
48,1 kHz MP3

44,1 kHz MP3 WAV 24 Bit
48,1 kHz MP3 WAV 24 Bit
88,2 kHz MP3 WAV 24 Bit
96,0 kHz MP3 WAV 24 Bit
176,4 kHz MP3 WAV 24 Bit
192.0 kHz MP3 WAV 24 Bit

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2021

Yes, i meant 44.1, when i talk to audio engineers we just say 44.

 

I've also read about the 44, but the textbooks don't say anything about it,
it tends to bring even more chaos and confusion.
It is better to stick to the values that have proven themselves.

 

ableton can also export video and load image on a track.

the thing to check is the max peak level and loudness -14 LUFS standard or you will have a level reduction on your mix.
you can check your files here
https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/
or use a dedicated vu meter pluging, or the peak report in reaper.

the best result will be 24bit 48Khz -14 LUFS in your case

 

The highest quality audio YouTube provides at the moment is 256kbps, however, it’s only available for YouTube Premium subscribers. All free user will have their audio in 128/160/192 kbps (I'm not sure what this bitrate is determined by).
Given the shitty final encoding I think it's really irrelevant to provide 44.1 or 48, 16 or 24 bit for the upload (but this is just my opinion)

 

Formats for Internet Distribution
Audio files can get very large in their original created state, so some method must be used to make them smaller and more manageable. This is the only way they can be sent over the Internet. This method is known as data compression. At some point in the distant future, when everyone is hooked up to a fast broadband internet provider, large files will no longer be an issue. But to the present Time is data compression in the only way for a successful online transmission.

Data compression
Data compression is a process that uses psychoacoustic principles to reduce the number of bits required to represent an audio signal. Data compression is currently used because regular LPCM files are so large that they cannot be transferred or stored online quickly and easily enough. Data compression reduces the physical storage space required to store a sound.

Therefore it also reduces the timewhich is required to transfer a file.Data compression can be lossy. This means that the sound quality - as already discussed - is reduced or impaired by the compression. But it can also be lossless, which means that there is no loss of quality when the file is decompressed again. A number of methods or codecs (derived from the words encoder / decoder) are used for data compression, all of which have a different sound and a different purpose.

Lossy compression method
MP3, AAC, MPEG-4, Windows Media Audio, Ogg Vorbis (.ogg), u-law

Lossless Codecs
Apple Losless, FLAC

Source:
Bobby Owsinski - The Mastering Engineer's Handbook: The Audio Mastering Handbook

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2021

If you have 48 kHz (but why?), just leave it as is. Use lossless/uncompressed audio whenever possible.

You could use FFmpeg:

Code:

ffmpeg -loop 1 -i image.jpg -i audio.wav -c:v libx264 -c:a copy -shortest out.mkv

Replace "image.jpg" and "audio.wav" with your files (full path if needed) and you'll get an MKV file with untouched audio.

 

Huh?

 

I just found a very interesting read from February 17, 2020 https://appuals.com/why-converting-youtube-to-320kbps-mp3-is-a-waste-of-time/

 

While that's true of course (converting any audio file to another format won't increase the quality), it has nothing to do with uploading.

 

I was hoping i would get some actual real street tips from users who are have been doing it regularly.
Like i doubt applying an image to a song in windows movie maker yields same results than some other program that handles audio better, that does not mess with the quality of the file.

 

24 bits/48Khz should be fine for Youtube only, but I tend to give my clients a 16bits/44.1 wav file as their song usually get uploaded on multiple platforms, and some of them still convert audio to 44.1. So I prefer taking care of the conversion myself to avoid a crappy one from spotify or other ones...
You simply need to find a soft that allow you to embed you audio in the correct codec for youtube (adobe, Davinci etc...)

 

Streaming audio

Streaming audio avoids many of the problems associated with the size of files on the Internet. Instead of waiting for the entire file to be downloaded, you can listen to the file as it arrives on your computer. This is a safe transfer method for artists and record labels because the file is never actually downloaded to your computer.

Streaming audio players store data in a buffer for several seconds before it is played. this buffer absorbs the incoming data packets when they arrive from the Internet at an irregular rate and outputs them at a constant rate, which enables problem-free playback.

You can stream many digital audio formats by embedding in a streaming format, such as Microsoft ASF (Active Streaming Format) which can stream MS audio, MP3 and other formats.

Streaming audio formats
(Developer - Type // Primary Format)

MICROSOFT - Windows Media Technology // WindowsMedia Audio / Active Streaming Format (ASF)
THE ICECASTTEAM - Icecast (open source) // MP3
QUICKTIME // Quick-Time
REALNETWORKS - RealSystem // RealAudio

Source:
Bobby Owsinski - The Mastering Engineer's Handbook: The Audio Mastering Handbook

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2021

Almost. Since YT audio is not even close to 320kbps I see no reason to upload HiRes audio. Even CD standard would be overkill (but no one produces below it).

 

Actually, YouTube uses Opus with up to 160 kbps. This should be pretty close to MP3 with 320 kbps (see comparison). Yes, you're right, most likely nobody would hear a difference when uploading MP3 with ~200 kpbs or higher instead. But the main reason is rather the Content ID matching system. Lossless audio gives you more accuracy. And since you have your original audio anyway, why would you risk a potential quality loss? Together with a still image it's something around 50 MB vs. 10 MB for the upload size. This shouldn't make a big difference. If it's a real video, the difference is even more negligible.

Moreover it's conceivable that content is still stored in its original format and could be re-encoded if the future, theoretically. At least this already happened with video before.

 

This is a popular topic and rightfully so, because there's no hard rules.
Last time I checked no matter what you do Youtube will re-encode both audio and video. I've no idea about premium features.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to upload lossless audio like has been talked. But it's also true the final format is quite inferior to even mp3 320.

The modern codecs like AAC or Opus are remarkably better than MP3 only with low-mid bitrates.
from 256kbps to higher the quality is quite similar