Hi Jerome,
Yes, interesting theme. It has changed with each release and it got more forgiving each time. Which doesn’t mean one should use the lowest format possible: mp3 or aac.
Let me add to this, it is similar to images or any material we use, we should use the best source possible, not a delivery format. The MP3 or AAC files are certainly nice for enduser-distribution, small and stable, but for production they are nearly as bad as compressed MPEG/h.264 for movies or lossy JPG for textures. You get only out what you put into, and mostly less of it.
I’m not happy with 44.1 khz either, as with all broadcast material—we need to deliver 48khz. I highly recommend to use whatever file works in C4D for everyone, but for the final delivery, use the best file possible or requested. Get the exact requirements from the station you work with!
Last week I got for a project of mine a CD track from Moby, in 44.1khz, which I have converted in a specific sound application into 48KHZ, 24bit. Sound conversions should be done in applications that works internally in floating point precision, while checking the values as well. Which should be done at the same time one needs to adjust speed if needed, 23.976 to 24fps etc for longer clips. Avoid repetitive and cascading adjustments.
Note that khz and bit depth work both on the quality. Like two axis on a graph, khz time wise and bit depth how many steps are sampled. One alone might not be sufficient to get a good quality, but need to be a good match.
For the work in C4D the 8bit versions might work faster, but they are very limited.
All the best
Sassi
The manual states this (R16)
Reference> CINEMA 4D> CINEMA 4D Prime> Appendix> File Formats
Sound Formats
The following native sample sizes (with arbitrary sampling rate) are supported for sound files:
8, 16 and 24-bit
WAV Import
Only uncompressed WAV files are supported.
Markers included in the WAV files are imported into CINEMA 4D.
AIFF-Import
Uncompressed Mac sound files are also supported.
QuickTime
Furthermore, all sound files with formats other than those listed above and available in QuickTime can be played back if QuickTime is installed, i.e., *.mp3 and *.aac files.
Internally, these will be converted to 44.1kHz in 16-bit and saved within the Project file.