Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
Earlier on, somebody asked why DAWs work at 32 bit. There's a good reason for this--virtually every DAW operates internally at 32 bit floating point because that gives a dynamic range so big (up into 4 figures) that you can pretty well forget it. However, you are NOT storing audio at a simple 32 bit integer depth. The floating point means that you have 23 bits of audio, 1 bit to indicate +/- and an 8 bit exponent. The effect this has as editing is that you can mix to levels far higher than 0dB(FS) without hearing clipping, then just pull the levels down with the master to get them back below 0dB(FS). I'm not advocating this as a way of working but it's fun to play with sometimes.
Therefore the question is "why 24 bit" and on this one there is a real answer. As I said much earlier, most of the gear that will be used in a home studio will have a noise floor above the -96dB that 16 bit give--but that's most. If you have really top end mics and preamps you might just achieve a noise floor below -96dB hence moving to 24 bit "just in case" A typical good noise floor in a home studio (speaking electronics only, not room noise) would be in the mid -80s so you're not THAT far off.
(As an aside when I first started in TV, video was recorded on 2 inch VTRs, mainly the Ampex 1200 or 2000 though RCA had some too. These had a noise floor of around -48dB which is why things sound hissy when you watch archive recordings of Ed Sullivan or Laugh in--well, unless modern noise reduction techniques are applied.)
Anyhow, to end, somebody asked how individual samples can be made into continuous sound waves. The answer to that is in the algorithm:
...though I'm not sure that will help this discussion much.
Therefore the question is "why 24 bit" and on this one there is a real answer. As I said much earlier, most of the gear that will be used in a home studio will have a noise floor above the -96dB that 16 bit give--but that's most. If you have really top end mics and preamps you might just achieve a noise floor below -96dB hence moving to 24 bit "just in case" A typical good noise floor in a home studio (speaking electronics only, not room noise) would be in the mid -80s so you're not THAT far off.
(As an aside when I first started in TV, video was recorded on 2 inch VTRs, mainly the Ampex 1200 or 2000 though RCA had some too. These had a noise floor of around -48dB which is why things sound hissy when you watch archive recordings of Ed Sullivan or Laugh in--well, unless modern noise reduction techniques are applied.)
Anyhow, to end, somebody asked how individual samples can be made into continuous sound waves. The answer to that is in the algorithm:
...though I'm not sure that will help this discussion much.