Best File Format to Save Files

What is the best file format to save my Audition 2.0 working files as?  Most of them are coming in as .wav files and I'm saving them out as .mp3 after some clean up but I'd like to save my working file as something nondestructive.  (ie: saving photoshop files in progress as .psd instead of .jpg)  Most of them are just one or two channel .wav files and I haven't even touched the multitrack capabilities of Audition yet.  I once saved a file as one of the raw formats (I don't recall which one) but when I tried to reopen it I got a dialog box asking me to input all sorts of values before I could open it and even then it didn't work properly.  Any help would be appreciated.

Mandy

Leave them as WAV files.
32 bit float is the best option for Audition.  They aren't small, but disk space is cheap.

Leave them as WAV files.
32 bit float is the best option for Audition.  They aren't small, but disk space is cheap.

There are 5 different WAV formats in AA2, which one should I choose.

A/mu-Law Wave
ACM Waveform
DVI/IMA ADPCM
Microsoft ADPCM
Windows PCM

I didn't see 32 bit float except as a greyed out option in Windows PCM (*.wav) format.

Sorry to be asking such a basic question but I have spent most of my tech life in apps like Photoshop & Dreamweaver and I'm very new to audio applications.

Mandy

Windows PCM
If your not working wit 32-bit float, you'd probably have to do a conversion before you save them.  That will double the size of the file compared to 16 bit - which it seems you are probably working with now.

Depending on what sort of work you're doing with the files, you might or might not benefit from the 32 bit format.

How are you using AA?  What sort of work are you doing with these WAV files?

Consider the bit depth to be the same as the color depth in a graphics app.  If you're bring in 256 color GIFS and doing simple cut/clip/paintbursh functions with them, there's no point in converting them to 24 bit color.

If, on the otherhand, you are bringing in a high-res B&W TIF file, you may have reason to convert it to grayscale before resizing or other formats which could cause serious issues if done on a 2-bit file.

There are a lot of similarities between digital graphic processing and digital audio processiong.

How are you using AA?  What sort of work are you doing with these WAV files?

Most of them are recordings that I've made at seminars, workshops and the like.  I have a Treo 650 with mVoice, a great little app for the Palm that does an outstanding job of recording such things.

I then take those files into Audition (I previously used Sound Forge) and cut out the intermissions and combine the sessions and also try to remove any extraneous distracting sounds that I find.  I know they won't sound like studio recordings but they do turn out amazingly well and my friends that listen to the final .mp3 files that I make are very impressed.  They're very easy on the ears when played on an mp3 player while working out, driving, etc.

I'd also like to learn to do a better job of filtering some of the files that didn't come out so well but there just isn't a whole lot of tutorial stuff out there for what I want to do.  For example, I went to a comedy show a few weeks ago and even though mVoice does a great job of picking up sounds from a distance, the audience was louder.  Now I now that some of it can't be salvaged (parts that the audience stomped on) but if I learn how to better utilize audio compression, I should be able to do an adequate job of bringing up the comedian while softening the audience.  Anything I do now ends up with the comedian either too soft or the audience is too loud.  I just need some instructional material and practice and I'll figure it out.

Mandy

It sounds like (for the most part) you're doing simple editing tasks, and for the nature of the material, 16 bit wav files are fine.

As far as your comedy recording, your best bet would be to post a sample and let folks around here take a swing and fixing it up.  Then we can tell you what was done.

I'll warn you now, however, I would not get your hopes up.  Lifting specific parts of a single-track recording is only possible in pretty specific cases.  I suspect not much can be done.

As far as your comedy recording, your best bet would be to post a sample and let folks around here take a swing and fixing it up.  Then we can tell you what was done.

Thank you so much for your help.  

I will post a sample in the next day or two since I have to run off to one of those meetings right now.

Mandy

On the Adobe site I've suggested looking at Wavpack for archiving files with lossless compression.

On the Adobe site I've suggested looking at Wavpack for archiving files with lossless compression.

I use FLACs and occasionally SHNs.

Habits from my bootlegging.  

On the Adobe site I've suggested looking at Wavpack for archiving files with lossless compression.

I use FLACs and occasionally SHNs.
Habits from my bootlegging.  

I don't see Wavpack, FLAC or SHN in my "Save As" dialog box.  This is a screenshot of the drop down menu of file type options.

http://www.wavpack.com/

That is because they are not options within Audition.

This is the tool I use to convert with.  Just right click on the file you wish to convert.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

That is because they are not options within Audition.

Both wavpack and flac have plugins that allow them to be saved and read directly by audition.

Both wavpack and flac have plugins that allow them to be saved and read directly by audition.

That is a great bit of info to have!  

Off to google I go.

Do any of the recommended formats save any history information?  Say I run a certain type of filter on a file and then learn later that perhaps there is a better way, can I undo those adjustments and try something different?  Like nondestructive editing in Photoshop, just go back a few steps in history or turn off a layer and create a new layer.