Two newbie questions - 24 bit vs 16 bit audio and conversion software

eichler

New member
I have just started using Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 to lay down some popular musc tracks comprised of typical instrumentation - guitars, bass, drums, synths, vocals and horns. Most future recording will also be of this type as well as some acoustic guitar music.

My first question is, am I better off with 24 bit recording or will the "sonic benefts" be negligable over 16 bit recording? The two 24 bit projects I've already recorded sound great, but even with my "state-of-the-art" computer setup, CPU usage and disk access seem very high.

I know there are no right and wrong answers here, but I am looking for some opinions based upon more experience than I have.


Question 2 - Is there a software utlity to convert 24 bit wave files to 16 bit files?

Thank you in advance.
 
If you are going to eventually record to CD, the files will ultimately need to be 16-bit anyway. However, if you do any processing of the file - reverb, eq, compression, etc. - you will benefit from using 24-bit files while processing and dropping to 16-bit as the last step before burning to CD.

A good wave editor should be used to drop to 16-bits - e.g., Wavelab.
 
Well, If you look around this site a little more you'll find a lot of debate over the 24bit vs. 16bit issue. The overall consensus is that regardless of whether you are going to be mixing down to 16bit (for CDs), recording at 24bit has distinct and audible benefits. This all has to do with the fact (like dacha2tnr said) that if you do ANY processing (even fader movement in cakewalk, not just fx) the extra data in the 24 bit file will benefit that processing and your final product will sound better, even if its a CD. There are a number of things you can do to optimize your DAW to get more tracks and better performance. Why don't you list your setup and we can help. But if you have a fairly new computer and tweak it out, you should be able to get plenty of tracks and plugins for an average rock song.

For your second question - Cakewalk will dither down to 16bits so you don't need to buy wavelab or soundforge.
 
I agree with the 2 posts above.....

To add , if your cpu usage is high, 24 bit probably isnt the cause....usually realtime effects (DX,VST) plugins are the culprit.....

if disk access is a probably, you may need to look at your disk drive setup....how many drives do u have and what speed?....
 
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