Audio stuck at 16 bit, but drivers are clearly running 24 bit. ARG!

Hey guys

Im having a bit of an issue. Basically my sound card is running at 24 bit, 48000hz. But in sonar, at the bottom of the window, it says 16 bit 48000hz. This is really annoying because in the options in sonar I clearly have it set to 24 bit as well. Also even on a new project it makes no difference. Also I have tried to reinitialise sonar (do you shift click to do that?) and it doesn't seem to have any effect. Is there something I'm missing or not doing. I should also add that all my audio settings do seem to work fine, I have no issues or anything so it all seems to be configured well enough. I just want to be running at the best quality I possibly can! Also though, will there be any difference in any situation between 16 bit and 24 bit? And which is telling the truth about what I'm running, the sonar audio control panel and my system panel, or the little box at the bottom of the project window? Thanks guys for your help once again

logan

Note some SoundBlaster cards advertise 24-bit, but they can only playback at 24-bit and only record at 16-bit.

Ah ok, thanks guys. I'm currently using my laptop which just has realtek build in sound. All that concerns me though right now, because i haven't done much recording, is that my midi tracks are laid down, played back, and subsequently exported, in the highest quality that is possible. So should I not worry too much right now, is this only going to be an issue when I start wanting to do more audio recording?

Cheers beagle. Very enlightening, especially about the mixing down to 44100hz

And can I ask one more question which is totally beyond the scope of the original topic. Can I buy an external soundcard and hook it up to my laptop via usb or something, and use that as if it was a proper internal soundcard? And will it be just as good, latency and quality wise, as a decent internal soundcard?

So I've been looking at your sound card advice. I got a bit worried about the whole windows 7 issue, and the Asio driver issues that so many cards seem to have, especially the USB ones. My finding were two fold.

1. No matter how good m-audio speakers are, there usb products like the fast track pro and fast track ultra just seem to be so plagued by problems that they just aren't worth the stress. Constant issues with the drivers that have simply never been resolved seem to just infuriate all of their customers, and support seems lackluster.

2. My second finding was that USB devices as a whole can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to stability and support. But there seems to be a marked difference between different manufacturers approaches to dealing with the problems.

So after loads more research, until about 4am, I finally decided that maybe this is the way to go for me.

http://www.tascam.com/products/us-1641.html

The tascam us-1641. Maybe it's a bit on the expensive side, but it has plenty of room for me to expand in the future in my home studio environment. The quality seems to be good. The stability issues don't even seem to be nearly as bad as m audio. And from what I can see none of these products can guarantee total reliability. This thing also seems to have all the features that any of the other externals have. The only downside that I can see is that it's a bit on the expensive side.

But then again, I'm just really worried by all of the horror stories I've been reading about other brands, and I don't want to go through loads of crap just to then have to return the card at the end of it. So what do you think?

I would disagree with a "large problem" with USB devices in general and with m-audio.  I, too used a Delta 44 for many years, but recently replaced it with a MOTU ultralite hybrid.  it works flawlessly in USB.

m-audio did have problems with vista - they were slow to respond and when they did some of their drivers still didn't work great.  win7 hasn't been the case that i've witnessed on these forums.

tascam, on the other hand, I have seen many people have problems with tascam devices.  I personally will not purchase tascam products.

some people are able to get tascam to work just fine - the US1641 is used by some people in the sonar forum.  their drivers are "hit and miss" however for some people.

I completely agree with planetearth here with one exception:

since your current soundcard only allows 16bit (probably) recording - then use 16bit, but if you get a card that will do 24bit use it.  24bit recording gives you more resolution for mixing than 16bit does.  yes, you'll have to mix down to 16bit for waves and mp3's but for mixing, the 24bit resolution helps a lot.

the sample rate, however, I think is mostly a waste of time and harddrive space and CPU resources for anything above 48k for 99% of the users on these forums.

I do especially agree with him about Tascam's main focus is standalone recorders.  that and maybe rack mount CD players for DJs.  other than that I don't trust them with my money.  they really ticked me off with the Gigastudio fiasco.

But is there anything better than the m audio fast track ultra for that price point

That's card is pretty good sound card. Its a mid grade sound card and you can produce professional mixes with it.
Motu and Echo make great mid priced sound cards and they have great drivers for win7 64bit.
CJ