When will we see 32 bit sound cards?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Prizmaxic
  • Start date Start date
P

Prizmaxic

The Shizz
I am wondering haw far down the road this will be available? Why? I don't Know.
 
What is excactly the reason you NEED a 32 bit card? And what excactly are you referring to by this 32 bits? The bit depth of the ADC? AFAIK The best of todays 24bit AD converters has dymamic range of about 115db to 120dB that corresponds to 19 to 20 significant bits (in theory 24 bits gives 144dB and 32bits 192db) the rest being random noise generated in the electrical circuitry of the converter. OTOH if you we're referring to the internal signal path I believe there is already 32 bit cards on the market.
 
Yeh, there's no need for 32bit resolution for audio. 24bit is ample. You would only be recording extremely low level noise with the extra range of 32bit. With a pci soundcard, the interface is 32bit and as I don't think computers have any 24bit data lengths, it's either sent as 3 bytes or a 32bit long word with 8bits unused. I'm sure 32bit will be touted by some hi-end hi-fi manufacturer before long but it really is pointless. A higher samplerate would be easier to argue for but it's hard to prove any benefit there too.
Software like Sequencers and plug-ins already work at 32bit. But this is needed to allow both headroom (two indentical max level 24bit signals would require 25bit when mixed together) and a convenient and efficient data size for the cpu to work on.
 
Most direct gear you will use (drum machines, synths, POD) have less than 100dB dynamic range anyhow. I don't know of any recording mics with low enough self-noise to make a 32 bit recording medium useful.

24 bit is great...conversion is the future. Hell there are some new single bit formats that threaten to blow 24 bit out of the water.
 
the argument for the NEED of higher word sizes applied when the idea of 24 bit was floating around, too.


some day in the future, we'll all be saying how necessary it is to have 128 bit 560Mhz sampling technology.
 
bleyrad said:
the argument for the NEED of higher word sizes applied when the idea of 24 bit was floating around, too.
some day in the future, we'll all be saying how necessary it is to have 128 bit 560Mhz sampling technology.
Click to expand...
I highly doubt it. I think the technology will move in a different direction.

DSD audio is one alternate route, but I doubt there will be a word length/frequency explosion (I could be wrong).
More likely to be a 10 mhzx2 fuzzy logic paired bits or something equally strange sounding.;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top