24 bit vs 16

[mixologist]

Here's an odd question: I'm collaborating on a project where I'll be importing drum tracks and then adding the bass and vox myself. A guitarist will then add his tracks, etc. . .

Problem is that the drum tracks will be imported as wavs and are 24 bit. We were planning on recording the bas, vox and guitars at 16 bit to save space and keep files sizes under 2 megs.

under options / audio i can change my project to 24 bit and import the drum tracks. but is it okay to then change the option back to 16 and record the rest? will this cause problems down the line, or will it be taken care of when we export the audio to a stereo file and it dithers automatically?

thanks for the help.

 

[cawhite12]

Problem is that the drum tracks will be imported as wavs and are 24 bit. We were planning on recording the bas, vox and guitars at 16 bit to save space and keep files sizes under 2 megs.

Remember that in 16bit, 44.1Khz 10Megs=1 minute, or actually 5 megs maybe for a mono track, so your 2 megs will maybe net you about 25 seconds. So unless you plan on recording everything in 25second intervals and splitting up all the waves, then it's going to be bigger.

I would think that there would be a conflict because of your soundcard wanting to either go in 24 bit or 16 bit.

 

[mixologist]

gee, thanks for the help. clearly that was a typo and we're not trying to keep everything under 2 megs. there is a limit to the size of bundle files, no? regardless of whether we hit a 2 gig limit on file sizes, we're trying to conserve space on our hard drives. . . that was the point.

anyone have an answer to the original question regarding mixing tracks recorded at 24 and 16 in one project?

 

[BeagleBoy]

You can't mix wavefiles in CW at different bit rates or sampling rates. You'll have to open his wavefile at the rate that he has mixed down to in a project by itself, change the bitrate and sampling mode to the rates that you want to use, then mix down the waveform in those settings. then you open the new waveform into your project which will have all the settings the same and CW will be happy.

 

[crosstudio]

i don't understand why this is a problem. doesn't Sonar5 allow you to do this? I know that you can import a 24bit track and use 16bit drivers for playback?

you can also do 32-bit internal precision for sound processing and then kick out to 16bit playback.

you should absolutely be able to import a 24-bit wave and then record your new tracks in 16bit.

what you can't do is import 48khz and then record/playback in 44.1.

I also assuming that you are adding your tracks to the drums tracks, mixing it to 44.1/16 and then sending a single stereo track to your guitarist. if so, why do you need to record in 16bit (not that you shouldn't)?

the guitarist will only be sending his tracks back to you.

 

[guhlenn]

I too think you shoudl be able to do this. just set the project to 16 bit, import the audio and record new tracks. If you acn import mp3 audio into a 24 bit project (yup, guitly) i can;t see why you wouldn;t be able to import 24 bit audio into your 16 bit project.

But then agian, not sure. have you tried?