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green peanut · Posts: 26

What length PSA is most preferred by stations these days? 15, 20, 30 or 60? Also I would like the opinion of some of you regarding the "exact length" that PSAs should be. Back in the old days (when I was most active in radio) the 30s were :29:20, the 60s were 59:20 etc......and just how important is it these days for the total time to be "exact.?"
My feeling is that timing is not as critical for PSAs these days as it used to be. But please correct me if I'm wrong.

Deets · Posts: 6

We mostly use 30's here and the length should be 29.9. We have a split system here for our spots so timing is critical. If I get something that's too long and I want it in the system I'll shorten it in CE2K. We don't use 15's or 20's and will occasionally need a 60 but not very often.

Deets

green peanut · Posts: 26

Thanks for the reply, Deets. I recently produced a spot....that ran over approx 1/2 sec......mainly because of the music "ringing out"....and just wondered if I should "fix" it at this end......or....let it go. (to "fix" that 1/2 second would have meant major production time....and if it wasn't absolutely critical for most stations..it would not have been worth the effort. The stretch feature of CEP/SoundForge wouldn't correct it without artifacts.)

Radio Chaos · Posts: 3

Yup Deets is right. 30 seconds is good for a PSA. We have a few PSA's we produced for the Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia and we did one in a 30 and another as a 60. The 60 we inserted into our syndicated radio show and the 30's we gave out to all the other stations. You'll find that a PSA takes a back seat to the paying ads and usually a 15 or 30 is what's best. Cheers!

Syntrillium M.D. · Location: USA Posts: 5124

Peanut - I'm curious as to what type of artifacts you were experiencing with only a change of 1/2 second? There really shouldn't be ANY at all with such a small change in duration. With high precision selected and 'Preserve Pitch' selected, adjust the slider, or even better, input a time in the 'length' field; it is represented in seconds, and you can use decimal values, ie, 30 -->29.50

---Syntrillium Support

green peanut · Posts: 26

Syntrillium...Thanks for jumping in. I was hearing some kind of a "thump"...during spot. That's what I described as artifacts. I was doing it.....just like you said...EXCEPT....I had "Low Precision" checked instead of High Precision. When I tried it with High Precision.......Voila..no thumping or artifacts!
I love Cool Edit......and thanks to this forum....I've learned something valuable.
Now.....if you could just explain WHY anyone would want Low precision...(on purpose)..in the first place........And.....what the heck is the difference between CBR and VBR...when saving MP3 files.......I can relax and live happily ever after.

Syntrillium M.D. · Location: USA Posts: 5124

Hi again. Glad to hear it worked out! As far as why someone would want low precision...well, there are many applications where (a) lo-fi is desirable, certainly in music; (b) quality is not really an issue because it may be broadcast over a medium or internet connection that is compressed to a very low rate; or (c) processing time is of the essence, and the program material in question and it's general characteristics are not adversely affected by low precision processing.

As far as VBR (variable bit rate) and CBR (constant bit rate) the differences are few, but there are benefits to both. In general, most people will encode their MP3s with CBR. The file sizes are still relatively small, and essentially what CBR means is that whatever engine plays this file back (lets say, a 128kbps file) that the entire file will be played back at that rate. The compression involved, frequency wise, is a little less radical, and thus the file size is a bit larger than a VBR file. Here, the encoder will actually compress more frequency bands when they are not in use, which enables the file to be smaller. The quality is basically the same (particularly at higher rates). The difference here is that many players can't really decode VBR and thus your file might not play back at the best fidelity...sometimes.

Most, however, like WinAmp, can handle VBR, and if you watch it's 'Kbps' field, you'll see that if you encoded an MP3 at 128kbps VBR, as it plays back, the values in WinAmp will change from 128 to 64, back up to 96, then 128, back down, and so on.

It's basically a trade-off for a slightly more 'lossy' compression, but with smaller file sizes.

---Syntrillium Support

Edited by - syntrillium support on 04/18/2001 1:34:51 PM

Bob Allen · Posts: 15

I don't know what is RIGHT, a :30 or :60. at my group I prefer :60's only because they fit better in my breaks and i can produce them a little more. Our PSA'S run on formats ranging from adult standards to hip hop so they have to be interesting to ALL. so as long as they are interesting and don't pose a tune out factor, time is..not irrelevent, but is not a HUGE factor.

green peanut · Posts: 26

Little did I realize I would learn so much...in such a short time. Thanks everybody! I don't want to press my luck, but one more question for Syntrillium......I save all my files in MP3 at 128kbs....All my files are stories for radio....and voice only, except for a zinger once in a while...I have to make sure EVERYTIME I save a file.....that I save it at 128.....because if I don't, sure as heck........it will save it at 64...or 96.....or whatever.......it seems to have a mind of its own. Is there a box somewhere I can check......to make it save at 128 each time...without going through that dance....everytime I save.

Craig Jackman · Location: Canada Posts: 909

Here's a good reason to make sure all your PSAs are 29.9 or 59.9 - the devils known as automation or syndication. If you are filling to time in either situation, it's best if you can rely on something being exactly thetime it's supposed to be. You can't time out an hour or time out a break if you're not sure if your spots or PSAs are 35 instead of 30.

Syntrillium M.D. · Location: USA Posts: 5124

Peanut - well, the save-to encode rate is largely dependent on (a) the last rate saved to; and (b) the current file that may be open (if it was from an MP3 source). If the last file you saved was encoded as 128kbps MP3, Cool Edit should remain on that setting the next time you go to save. However, because there is no 'checkbox' per se, it's probably a good idea to just verify before saving. Simply clicking Options, verifying, and then Clicking ok is probably much less of an ordeal than having to re-encode a slew of files.

The other option which might work for you is to do 'batch conversion saving'. Create all of your wave files and when you're done with the production lot, go to scripts and batch processing, call up the Batconv.scp script, and 'Batch Run'. From here, you can add all of the waves that you want to Save to Mp3. You can also, from there, select the option of 128kbps, ONE TIME!, and then, voila...all saved in the right format, in seconds! Easy!

---Syntrillium Support

green peanut · Posts: 26

I don't want anyone to pick up my bad habits..but since all my production is mostly voice..I save everything in MP3 at 128. That's all the quality I need. If I keep going back and forth..from .wav to MP3...to .wav......it confuses me...S.S. is right about CEP saving MP3s.....the same way you last saved a file..........USUALLY. But beware.....when you least expect it......it will save your priceless production at some bargain basement rate...that makes it sound like it's coming from another planet!
Maybe it's CEP.......Maybe it's my memory.....doesnt matter. Click on options....and see what you're saving at....BEFORE you save!
Is there anything Batch processing doesn't do? SS's suggestion re: batch saving is nice to know.....but I save each file as I work on it......I don't let them build up.
You can probably tell.....that I've been bitten a few times. But, no big deal for radio guys like us....After a few years of getting fired every Friday afternoon....what's a little rate change in an audio file.....