A question regarding 16 and 32 bit converting

ORIGINAL: Gladstone

Hello,

I accidently converted 16 bit SHN files to 32 bit (float) uncompressed WAV files with Switch. After that I mastered them with iZotope Ozone 3 (Sound Forge 9 as host). Then I cleaned them up, removed mic scratches and noise, with iZotope RX. At that point I discovered they were originally 16 bit files so my question is... Will I lose any quality converting them back to 16 bit SHN, FLAC or WAV files (without dithering)? I mean obviously they've always been 16 bit, even though I converted them to 32 bit but the effects I afterwards put on them, are they 32 bit?

I have obviously tried converting them back to 16 bit and carefully listened to both the 16 bit and 32 bit files but I honestly can't tell a difference. Sometimes I think the 32 bit ones sound slightly, very slightly, tighter in the drumkick or bass but then I just think it's psychological.

Does anyone know if I have to redo them all or if I can safely convert them back to 16 bit?

Thanks in advance!

Hi I've never used SHN files before .......I did look it up before posting....
Accident.....nah.....from time to time I end up collabing with people and they have sent me 16 bit files ...instead of 24 bit waves......
In SONAR I wind up having them upsampled to 64 bits ...
and when done a 64 bit mix gets rendered to go into my audio editor....
while in there my editor reads them as 32 bit floating point ....
I tend to prefer those type of bit rates ......the effex and plugs seem to work and sound better to my ear......
as a last and final step I will dither after going from 64 to 32 to 16...with the new mix ......
I cant think of any reason not to dither for a 16 bit final mix as the last step ...
I can hear the difference between all the various bit rates...of my song
64 ...32 ....16...MP3.....and mix acordingly ....
I wouldnt sweat it .....could be a happy accident where you find that plugs sound better during the psudo mastering mix stage...my $.02

Kenny

ORIGINAL: Gladstone

Hey, thanks for your reply.

In that case though I wonder if I should convert all those SHN files to 64 bit and then redo them all...?

I don't know......I'm just a guitarist .....
my SONAR workflow is simple ....
whatever goes in .....audio import goes in at 64....
when its time to export the mix ....
.........the file I will put in my audio editor comes out as a 64 bit wave......
while doing internet collabs , often times the song might have a track that was sent to me as a 24 bit mono wave Bass
maby a 16 bit paino part stereo......and whatever I happen to be recording on my own.....
HD disk space is cheap ...so I have SONAR handle the bit rate out of the gate....
all imports go in at 64....over here....
for the final mix .....I find that engaging the 64 bit audio engine and exporting as a slow bounce 64 bit Wave seems to work for my situation...
I figure ...why not let SONAR do what it does best
"Make Music Sound Nice For Ears That Like To Be Tickled and Carresed "...

like I said ...I'm not to fimaliar with the SHN format....
maby you could look into your batch conversion options ...via your sound editor....
I have that with Samp..... but I have never used it ...so I cant say if that is the right option or not...

fwiw I tend to fly by the seat of my pants while doing my thing.....
I let the sound be the guide....
you have Soundforge 9 and Ozone
I use SAMP...and a bunch of stuff I bought ( plugs over time) and what has come with my SONAR/ Cakewalk prods ...via upgrades
some of these tools are very powerfull
they can alter sounds BIG TIME ....
over time I have had a few fellas I was collabing with send my low bit files that got upsampled for the benifit of using the tools and plugs ...at better sounding with more choices for listening options.....
I cant say that I've ever gone back to using one of those sounds instead of the upsampled ...highly manipulated tweaked frankenstiens I came up with ...
when all was said and done ....that puppy got dithered at the last step of the process...

dont know if I've been much help to ya.....on this topic ......
but if you happen to like the way things sound after experimenting around...
that all that realy counts....

Kenny

ORIGINAL: Gladstone

Hey, thanks for your reply again! It does really help me out actually! :)

thats cool

ORIGINAL:
I do have 1 more question though. What about Khz? I edit my files in 44, but should I instead edit them in 192? Will it make any difference? If so, how do I change it to 192?

depends on a lot of things...
44...seems fine for me ....
I'm just doing my thang as a solo guitarist / composer in a project Home Studio....
one of my sound cards goes up to 192 ...and my other sound card goes up to 96....both in seperate computers......a P 4 ...a P 3 ....
both setups run well at 44...
imo I cant think of the benefits of overstressing my cpu .......for what I do...
I take great care in the small details concerning the music I do and I feel that area is where I need to focus on....
if you happen to have one of the more current Dual Core and above ....with lots of ram ...
and clients that need those type of sample rates ...then I can see the need .....
bare in mind that very few people can hear a difference ...at those levels....
imo.....
heck if somebody wants me to deliver a song at those sample rates ....
they can send the limo ...and bring me into the studio ....

to change your sample rate ....you need to do that in your soundcard ....and then have SONAR reprofile your card ...

ORIGINAL: Oh and 1 more small thing, I'm a newbie to dithering so I was wondering if you can dither a 64 bit file straight to 16 bit instead of going 32 bit first?

Thanks in advance! :)

well this also depends on your work flow.....
you can dither down from 64 bit straght down to 16 ....people do it all the time ...

my preference / work flow is pretty simple
I will export my mix at 64....work in my audio editor ......
once satisfied with how she sounds I will export a 24 bit non ditherd wave of the mix to have on hand ...
then I will export the same file/ mix as a 16 bit wave dithered , and create an MP3 ...WMA......

have a good one
Kenny