Why all the bits?

[HapiCmpur]

I don't get it. Just about every piece of digital recording equipment on the market these days boasts 24-bit capability, but aren't commercial CDs produced at 16 bits?

I'm not well-versed in the digital realm (or any other branch of recording, for that matter), but I don't see the value of recording something in 24 bits if you're going to have to convert it to 16 when you burn it to disk. What's up with that? Can somebody please educate me?

 

[drstawl]

More bits translates to finer gradations of the digital representation of the analog signal. Like more pixels in a digital image making it look more like a 35mm photo.

So what! If you're just recording a track and then burning it to CD I'd say you were better off staying with 16.

But each time you do something to the .wav file other than copy it you are doing a mathematical operation which will cause errors because it's an integer representation of a non-integer value. So if the errors are small enough to be isolated to the least significant 8 bits of your file, when the math is finished and you lop off the last 8 (or "dither" it down to 16) you've skated on the introduction of those errors into the final version of the track.

Examples of such operations include:

Volume changes, panning changes, mixing multiple tracks together, adding effects, etc.

 

[Beathoven]

I could write a big post about this but instead I'll just leave some links...

http://www.digitalprosound.com/Htm/SoapBox/soap2_Apogee.htm (48 kHz vs 96 kHz)

http://www.24bitfaq.org/ (Why 24 bits & much more...)

Peace,
Beathoven
http://www.nowhereradio.com/beathoven/singles

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Person of KampingHappy:

One of the neat little things about my rig, the Yam 2816, is I can record in 24 bit and then pump that out through the box onto cassette tape for some pretty startling results.

But, for the CD's, I blast away in 16 bit and mix it down and burn the CD. Good sounds either way although the CD is better than the tape version via 24 bit.

I kind of wonder what the sound will be like if there is ever a 32 bit system? Awesome?

And Beathoven: I have a mic just like the one in your logo and it works fairly well too.

Green Hornet

 

[Beathoven]

And Beathoven: I have a mic just like the one in your logo and it works fairly well too.

Cool

I always liked the look of those mics... If I ever happen to make a clip, I think I'll have one like that...

Peace,
Beathoven
http://www.nowhereradio.com/beathoven/singles