recording raw tracks in 16 or 24 bit mode

[Bullwinkle]

I'm a newbie to digital recording and I'm currently putting together a setup on a PIII/550 with a Delta 1010, a USB CDR and am recording with Cubase VST24. I want to create finished masters but, with all I've read about dithering, I don't know if I should be recording in 16 or 24-bit mode. It seems like 24 sounds a little better but I haven't experimented enough yet to really know how to achieve the best results. All suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[gidman]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Bullwinkle,
Always 24 bit for recording.

A Piece for men and goodsex for women : )
Happy Holidays !

Gidman

[Edited by gidman on 12-25-2000 at 06:35]

 

[Rev E]

Also, do your final mix in 24 bit. You should wait till the very end of Mastering to dither down from 24 bit to 16 bit (let the your mastering engineer do it).

Rev E

 

[dachay2tnr]

Rev E - you raise a question that's been bugging me. I am currently doing a home recording project that we will eventually want to send out for professional mastering. What format do you use to transmit a 24-bit file(s) to the mastering house? I thought you normally would send them an audio CD - which of course can only be recorded at 16 bits. Do you send them a 24-bit wave file? If so, is there a problem if they work on MAC's (as I think many do) since wave is a Windows format? Your comments would be appreciated.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Rev E:

Let's suppose that we're doing a project that won't be shipped-out for professional mastering and mass production; such as a jingle or just a few copies of a band demo and that we want to end-up with the highest quality(or, at least, the most professional-sounding)audio CD that we can produce with the tools at hand.

At what point in the process do we go from 24 bit to 16 bit?

Also; should the raw tracks be recorded at 44.1 or at the highest available sample rate?

Thanks,

BW

 

[regebro]

Answer to the first question:
Go from 24 to 16 as late in the process as possible.
Exactly when that is depends on what you are doing and what your final product is. If you are making a CD, give the mastering guys a 24-bit mix so they have the extra bits to fiddle with when mastering.

Answer to second question:
That depends on what the highest rate is. If it's 48KHz, read this thread: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=19433
It seems to be a matter of opinon, with about half of the people saying 44.1 and the other half 48.
48kHz is slightly better quality, and will give a better end result, but the 48 to 44.1 conversion that will take place when you make it into CD-format will degrade the quality somewhat. If that degrading will completely remove the added quality or not seems to be a matter of religion.
If the highest is 96kHz, go with that.
I now open up the field for a religious war on the diffrence of 88.2 and 96kHz sampling when making CD's.