What is the point of recording in 24 (32 bit)?

[Weird Musician]

I have a delta 1010, it can supposedly record up to 24 bits, but cool edit only works with 32 bit files, is there no, just 24 bit wavs?
I don't want to save 8 extra bits of nothing, it's a waste of space?

 

[Scott Tansley]

Ok I'm going to be kind to you even though there will be others that will say that this has been discussed here too many times. In fact two threads down (at time of writing)is the exact same question. With answers. But I'll tell you anyway since you asked.
When recording in cool edit pro in 32bits with a 24bit sound card you will gain exactly nothing. You could record 128bit from a 24bit sound card and it'll sound the same as 24bit. So thats not the reason we record in 32bit. The reason is that when you go to mixdown your multitrack mix, It mixes in higher quality because its converted all the wav's to higher resolution to get better mathmatical calculations when mixing down 20 or 30 tracks into a stereo pair. Once audio is in the computer the number of bits and ones and zero's matter. Some plugins like sonictimeworks actually convert you wav to 64bit when calculating theere reverbs and eq's because its more acurate.
So if you just recording one track of something in mono , there will be no need to bother. But if your going to mix two or more tracks together then upping you 24bit tracks to 32bits will definatelly make your mix sound better thats for damn sure.

 

[Scott Tansley]

So if you just want to record and save in 24bit you still must select the 32 bit record mode. But when saving wav files click on the options button in the save as window and select 24bit. There are options there for this. As you may only want just 24bit files sometimes. The 32bit files will only play in cool edit. The 24bit files will play in anything these days so long as you have a 24bit soundcard.