Newbie need help

[nitely]

i'm a total newbie to recording, so please, forgive me if my questions are stupid.

1./ Should i record a vocal into Cool Edit as mono or stereo track.

2./ Some of my gears are 24 bits, and my Cool Edit Pro v.1 don't have any selection of that resolution, it only shows 16 or 32.
Which resolution is best suit for my system and gives a better result.

Appreciate very much any help.

TIA

[lpdeluxe]

1. Mono. Stereo will mostly take up more hard drive space.

2. 32 bit is how Cool Edit Pro processes 24 bit internally. It's perfectly compatible with 24 bit, and CEP runs all its effects at 32 bit for a better sound. Go with 32 bit.

[nitely]

Thanks so much for the help

[chrisharris]

I'll just add that the only time I record in stereo is if I'm using some type of real time effect, like a stereo reverb, when I'm tracking...which is rare. A question I've always wondered but been too lazy to try out is how something like a post stereo reverb/delay works on a mono file. I always just convert the file to stereo before I start using stereo effects, but I'm probably just wasting time and hard drive space.