should I convert?

  • Thread starter Thread starter fprod south
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fprod south

fprod south

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I've got almost an album worth of drums tracked in 16 bit 44.1kHz. Since tracking the drums I've recorded some other stuff in 24 bit and am convinced that 24 bit sounds better, even after dithering down to 16 bit.

It took 2 days to get these drums tracked and I don't know when the drummer and I will get to have 2 free days to track again in the next decade, so retracking is out of the question.

So my question is: Should I convert the drum parts to 24 bit and do the rest of the tracking and mixing, or am I better off staying in 16 bit? Everything obviously will need to end up in 16 bit so I'm worried that will be too many conversions.

More info - the drums were miced with close mics on all drums and 2 overheads (total of 7 tracks per song), and there will be lots more tracking to be done - percussion, layers of guitar, layers of vocals, horns, etc.

Thanks in advance!
 
some software will let you work between both within the same project...if yours doesnt, id suggest converteing them to 24 bit just for the sake of the new tracks....there wont be any advantages for the drum tracks (that i know of)
 
Thanks Gidge.
I'm pretty sure my software (ProTools LE) won't let me work between both in the same project.

In fact, what I think I'm going to do is make a 24 bit drum sub mix to use just as a reference track. I'll track and mix everything else in 24 bit, dither a mix of that down to 16 bit, and mix it with the original 16 bit drum tracks for a final mix.

Someone please speak up if there is a better way. Thanks!
 
That is a good question, i will soon be doing this in logic audio.
I think i might just track 16 bit to finish up the songs in progress and for any new songs do them in all 24 bit.
 
ambi said:
That is a good question, i will soon be doing this in logic audio.
I think i might just track 16 bit to finish up the songs in progress and for any new songs do them in all 24 bit.
Click to expand...

i really would consider going 24 bit....

converting from 16bit to 24bit is as easy as opening up the wave file in goldwave and merely saving it as a 24bit file....
www.goldwave.com
 
But wouldn't i have to reload all of the tracks in logic audio, resequence them, and add new effects again?

Or would it just load the same file, accept in 24 bit?

I have soundforge, will it be the same thing?
 
Logic probably will convert somehow. I use ProTools LE and if I click "save session copy in.." I can choose 24 bit and it will create a full 24bit copy of everything I've done. My guess would be look for the command in Logic that creates a copy.

My concern is about converting from 16 to 24 back to 16. I think I can avoid that because I've only tracked drums so far, but it sounds like you've done a lot of work so far in 16 bit. You might just want to stay in 16 if that's the case.
 
I do have quite a few songs, with quite a few tracks in 16 bit.
 
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