should I be using 24 bits instead of 16?

Is it common practice to be using 24 bit now? 

 Recording in 24 bit yes absolutely better.More headroom. Mastering is a different story.

   I meant to say mixdown to whatever end format is a different story. I master to either 24 or 32 bit in a wav file. Sorry about the confusion there. I save my masters in high bitrates.

It has been proven that people can't tell the difference between 16 and 24 bit files at the end mix. There has been a lot of back and forth in argument of this,but in blind listening tests the difference is not discernable.

  I guess DVD audio is 24 bit,but most other forms of consumer audio are either 16 bit wave or mp3/mp4. 

 

I record tracks at 24 bit.  The final waves exported are 16 bit which is CD quality. 

In 24 bit tracking it just seems to work well. I had a vocal track the other day that had levels all over the place from the singer moving in and out from the mic.  I was able to get those weaker phrases up to volume without any problems at all..... so if 24 bit saved the day... that's cool. 

I never record at the higher bit rates above 24 bits and always export to 16 bits and have never had any quality issues arise as a result. 

Mastering... I keep the tracks and busses out of the red.  yeah, I know that's not very technical, and when I export the waves, I look at them in  my wave editor to be sure they are not trying to smash the ceiling. Very rarely do I have a full term wave in the export stage. And rarely is it clipped. Maybe that comes from staying out of the red in the project.  I use Ozone on the master buss to polish and since I don't have a need to send tracks out of house to master, the details and db levels do not concern me too much. If it looks good and sounds good I;m happy......

I can hear the groans from here.....