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Subject:Would it be 16- or 24-bit?
Posted by: buffalosnout
Date:9/14/2002 12:18:03 PM

I started a project using 44,100 and 16-bit resolution. I worked on it and saved it a hundred times. If I now set Acid to 48,000 and 24-bit AND set my soundcard to 48,000 and 24-bit, will the project now play back to a stand-alone recorder at 48,000 and 24-bit?

Thanks,

James

Subject:RE: Would it be 16- or 24-bit?
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:9/14/2002 3:10:08 PM

It will playback at 24-bit/48 kHz, yes, but you're limited to what the recorder can actually capture for max resolution and sample rate at that point. Can the recorder, for example, capture 24-bit audio in its native resolution? Still, I would think you'd benefit from the extra acoustical headroom 24-bit provides, especially if you're using real time effects in the project (though I'm not a propellerhead on the subject).

Iacobus

Subject:RE: Rewire not needed. Sync in SOFO is.
Reply by: buffalosnout
Date:9/14/2002 7:14:21 PM

Thanks, Iacobus. I'm trying hard to get a handle on this type of issue.

My recorder is a Marantz stand-alone CD Recorder. It would seem like it could "accept" the higher resolution signal, since I am recording with it like a tape recorder, rather than rendering to it.

Is the difference between the 16 and 24 bits something that the typical listener can distinguish?

Thanks,

James

Subject:RE: Rewire not needed. Sync in SOFO is.
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:9/14/2002 10:41:46 PM

Hi James,

You might want to check out a more thorough treatise on 24-bit recording here.

Basically, I'd say the typical listener probably wouldn't know the difference unless they've got an apples to apples comparison, like having both a 16-bit and 24-bit version of the same project. The difference is more noticeable in acoustic music than in electric or electronic music.

Still, having the extra acoustical headroom gives a project an edge over a 16-bit version whether it's electronic or not, IMO, especially for post processing techniques like mastering. My artist page over at ACIDplanet is almost like a chronology of audio quality. My first project was originally 16-bit/44.1 kHz. My latest was originally 24-bit/96 kHz dithered down to 16-bit/44.1 kHz.

Iacobus

Subject:RE: Rewire not needed. Sync in SOFO is.
Reply by: Chienworks
Date:9/15/2002 8:56:50 AM

The Marantz is recording standard Audio CDs, right? If so, it will be encoding 44.1K/16bit on the disc. So what you're doing is filling out the data with extra empty bits and resampling it to a different frequency, converting it to analog, sending it through an analog connection to an external device (picking up analog noise and distortion on the way), converting it back to digital and storing 44.1K/16 bit on the disc. So your final result isn't going to be 48K/24bit anyway, and along the way you've gone through some tortuous conversions. On the other hand, if you burn your project to a CD at 44.1K16bit on an internal CD writer, you've preserved the original project quality with identical settings with no extra conversion steps.

Subject:RE: Is it 16- or 24-bit?
Reply by: buffalosnout
Date:9/18/2002 9:53:45 AM

Thanks for clearing that up. The engineer in the studio said he preferred to work with 24-bit material, and I was (ineffectively) trying to accomodate him.

James

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