When I export a project to a wave file I always pick 16 - that is the rate to use to match a CD, right? Seems I recall reading that in the Sonar documentation somewhere.
Why would you use a different rate?
Is there some advantage I am missing?
Just curious. It's been 11 months since I converted from a stand alone digital recorder to my first DAW - which is SPLAT.
Thankfully a good friend strongly suggested SPLAT along with the Waves Platinum bundle. So you can see why even almost a year later I am still going, oh wow, you can do that or asking rookie questions like what is the deal with bit depth rates.

Thanks!

Al

16 bit for cd.

24 bit otherwise for high definition audio.

MP3 for small and portable.

I never export 32.

Flac doesn't seem to be actually lossless to me. If I save a wave to Flac, export, import, null test, normalize, I don't get silence.

If Flac was lossless, I would save as Flac not 24 bit wave.

For use in movies, you might want 48K samples per second rather than 44.1K.

Saving to double rates like 88.2 or 96 might make sense if you were sending it to be mastered.

What if I plan to master myself? I plan to export the project at 16 then bring the stereo wave file back into SPLAT and master from there. Would the 16 bit depth rate still be the way to go?

It's like every time I ask a question the forum members answer it and then I have more questions. Ha! So enjoying learning all this with the DAW.

Thanks!

Al

IMHO I would keep it at 24bit until you are ready to do the final export to CD (or if your exporting to HD - just keep it at 24bit). 

Without a doubt at 24, if you do a "bounce" in SONAR the default is 32; IIRC.
I bounce a mix (32 bit) then "master" that.
I rarely bother with a separate project, bounce a mix, archive the tracks; then "master" the mix (another bounce).
Export that "mastered" track at 44.1k or mp3; whatever.
Then, if ever needed, the "master" could be exported at 24.
Just my workflow.
 
T

 
Leave it at 24  (or 32?)  until your ready to burn the CD. 
It gives the mastering software room to breath when rendering the audio.  
I keep all my masters at 44.1/24 bit these days and do bulk conversion in Gold Wave for the MP'3. 
Not much call from clients for CD's other than proofing. 
So I only use CD's for proofing mixes and I will export from Sonar at 16 bit to save a step. 
Serious albums go off to the next level once I'm done and that's been using Flash drives these days, so those are 44.1 /24. 
I also use 16 bit for my backing tracks as there's little to be gained otherwise. 
 

i often refer people to Tweakheads audio site for excellent in-depth explanations:
 
http://tweakheadz.com/16-bit-vs-24-bit-audio/

I export my songs at 32 bit without dithering so I can bring them into my Album/Mastering project at as high a resolution as possible.
 
Then for CD, export @ 16bit 44.1KHz WITH dithering.

I agree with staying in 24 bit for as long as possible. Once you're ready to export and burn your final master to cd and go 16 bit, consider dithering. I see you have the Waves Platinum bundle - in the L2 manual there is a pretty good explanation of what it is and when to use it.

Bristol_Jonesey
I export my songs at 32 bit without dithering so I can bring them into my Album/Mastering project at as high a resolution as possible.
 
Then for CD, export @ 16bit 44.1KHz WITH dithering.

this is me too