16bit vs. 24bit listenning

  • Thread starter Thread starter rockem
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rockem

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If I master a track in 24bit sample rate and my sound card can only produce 16bit, is it a problem ??

what i'm asking is, if it metter if I buy a 24bit card or 16bit card for listening while mastering

thanx
 
In a word, YES. If you have a 16 bit card, you're tracking at 16 bits (even if the software is "recording" at 24 bits, the sound card is converting incoming audio at 16 bits. And playback is a bigger problem as the last 8 bits over 16 will be truncated, or lopped off by the sound card).
 
I'm talking only about listenning,
i can bring the audio in wav files
 
rockem said:
why ?
Click to expand...

If you are mastering at 24 bit you would need to hear the 24 bit. At 16 bit there would be some loss in the signal definition, how much would be affected I don`t know, but I can hear the difference between 8 and 16 bit and 24 bit on some things. Are you talking about running preset mastering software and then listening to the finished wav file after its finished?
 
Toki987 said:
If you are mastering at 24 bit you would need to hear the 24 bit. At 16 bit there would be some loss in the signal definition, how much would be affected I don`t know, but I can hear the difference between 8 and 16 bit and 24 bit on some things. Are you talking about running preset mastering software and then listening to the finished wav file after its finished?
Click to expand...

Track Rat, am I correct in that there would also be an 8 bit loss of the signal itself as far as monitoring goes, and the 8 bits the card would drop would not be heard in playback, so you would not have an accurate reference of what was on tape or disk?
 
Toki987 said:
Are you talking about running preset mastering software and then listening to the finished wav file after its finished?
Click to expand...

no, i'm talking about hearing the wav while mastering
 
Yep. It would truncate the last 8 bits on playback so decays, reverb tails would be lopped off and just hash in general would occur.
 
Track Rat said:
Yep. It would truncate the last 8 bits on playback so decays, reverb tails would be lopped off and just hash in general would occur.
Click to expand...

but wouldn't that what will happen avetually when dithering to
cd ?
 
No. When doing word length conversion properly from 24 to 16 bits, dithering takes place to keep the last bit open so this won't happen. Just playing back 24 bits thru a 16 bit converter doesn't dither the last 8 bits, it just ignores them.
 
Much of this discussion is unnecessary because you're just not going to find a high quality 16 bit card. Really it's more an issue here of converter quality, and good converters are going to be 24bit these days. Get the audiophile, it's only $150.

P.S. dithering only occurs if the software or hardware doing to the bitdepth reduction is capable of dithering, and you tell it to.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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