Making CDs from 24bit

S

Stephen Jones

New member
Hello.
A while ago I asked the list what format they liked to record in, and the consensus was that 24 bit 44.1 was the best because you could make CDs directly from these files.
I now have a 24-bit track in PA9 ready to go and I can't burn it to CD. I'm using Easy CD Creator after I mix it down to Wav ... am I missing something?
And then if I need to convert the track to 16 bit, what is the best way to do this? Changing the file Audio Format in PA9? Is there a better way? Anything else I should keep in mind for quality's sake when I do it?
Thanks a lot for answering all these questions,
steve
 
You should be able to burn your 24-bit files to a cd - however, the cd will not be compatible with most players. Firstly, familiarise yourself with all aspects of your cd creator software. Experiment with some pre-recorded stuff or a commercial cd. You want yo make sure everything is configured OK with your EZ creator package. Once you feel you know your way around the cd creator software then start working the PA9 files.

With PA9, I recommend getting your best track mix and exporting it as a 24-bit stereo wave file. Now open a new project file then import your finalised 24-bit file, I have a blank template for this purpose, for everything I am finishing I use the same template which basically has a software compressor on it. This is done in hopes of maintaining more consistency. Once you have imported your file then change audio format to 16-bit. 16-bit is currently the standard for most car, home players. We all record at 24-bit for obvious reasons, but part of the finalising process is to convert to 16.
 
Thanks.
There's definitely something that is preventing CD Creator from burning a 24-bit Wav onto a CD. I'm using version 4.02 How do other people burn CDs - direct from SONAR, or using other programs?
Also, I followed your advice and changed the format of the mixed WAV from 24 to 16 in PA9. The first time I did it there were loud pops all over the place - the second time it seemed fine. Any idea as to what could have been the problem?
Thanks again,
steve
 
If some applications act as if they are letting you burn 24-bit audio to a standard audio CD, they must be downsampling the data for you. A standard audio CD is 16-bit, 44.1kHz data only.

I have EZ CD Creator and it won't do this for me automatically; I need to prepare my WAV files beforehand using Sound Forge or Cool Edit 2000.

There is a great deal of argument about whether it's better to just record in 16/44.1K in the first place, or record in as high a resolution as possible and then dither down to 16 bits at the end for the master...
 
Is it really an argument i thought it was general consensus to record higher then CD quality for the fact that plug-ins don't work well wit 16 because plug-ins will usually f*ck up the sound and 24 is more dynamic right?

u got those loud pops cuz u ain't dither....when u convert from 24 to 16 u are removing a 1/3 of the waves info...dithering allows that removal to be more smoother and some sort of hum that supposed to give it that 24 bit flava to ur ears
 
they say its better because there's more processing cuz dividing 96khz to 44.1khz is messy math which means more processing which gives the computer more time to fuck it up...thats what they say i don't know....i personally don't cuz 96khz is too much stress on the system and i don't transfer to adat so fuck 48..now if u recording at 88.2 then dither down to 44 should be good cuz u just divide by 2
 
And the arguement will rage on and on. Dithering means adding a small amount of noise into the 24bit signal at just about the theoretical noise floor of the 16 bit signal. This enables you to hear low level sounds in the 16-bit track. Without dithering, the conversion to 16 bit will lose a great deal of the low level sounds.

It is this addition of noise that causes the arguement as to whether or not to record at 16 bit in the first place.

Typically, 24 bit resolution gives a theretical 144db signal to noise ratio (6db per bit), so a 16 bit conversion has 96 db s2n, same as a CD or DAT player. This is a measure of the the difference between the loadest and quietest output.

But in reality, 144 db isn't achievable whereas a 16 bit signal will typically produce a dynamic range of upto 115 db s2n ratio! Confused? Well welcome to the club.

A DIGITAL sound system that has been correctly designed should reproduce sounds up to half its sampling rate. As the human ear can ascertain sounds upto just over 20khz, sampling takes place at twice that rate. Thats why the most common sample rates are 44k1 (CD standard) and 48k.

I don't think the maths overload on a cpu to produce 44k1 from 96 is any part of the arguement!

I save to wav and then burn my CD same as AlChuck in 16 bit format.

And heres the bottom line question, who here can tell the difference between 24bit and 16bit recording?

Answers on a postcard please!
 
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