from Desktop DAW to laptop question...

Question for everyone here. I posted this on another forum and thought I had a definitive answer. I will try to be as specific and detailed as possible in my questions and my descriptions of the situation.

Here is my situation. I have a project recorded at 24/44.1 on my desktop DAW. I would like to do some basic editing, such as time aligning/sampling/crossfades etc., on my laptop when I'm on the go. I save the project audio data and .cwp file to a firewire hard drive I take with me to hook up to the laptop. When I open the project file an alert message comes up saying that my soundcard is only 16 bit. So

Question #1 - When I load this project in Sonar on the laptop is it going to immediately convert all audio files to 16 bit? (On the other forum I was told no. I was told that the soundcard is only going to read the 24 bit as 16 for monitoring purposes and that it will not effect the audio data permanently)

Question #2 - After applying edits in the project, to save those edits, will it require the audio data to be saved as 16 bit now instead of 24 bit? Will the project itself become a 16 bit project as well?

Question #3 - After doing all these edits and returning the project to my desktop DAW, should I open it as a 24 bit project if possible for mixing purposes? Or will I have to open it as 16 bit?

Question #4 - Is there any way to get around this without truncating the last 8 bits of audio data going from 24>16>24.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all your help on this.

I don't think anything is going to be automatic. I think you need to get a 24bit sound card for your laptop, that's the only way I know to make this work.

That being said, I just so happen to have an Echo Indigo I/O PCMCIA sound card for sale. It's 24/96. I paid $180 about six months ago, and I'll sell for $80.
Works great for laptops. Has a headphone jack too.



misspell

Nevermind, found a detailed description online. I'll take it off your hands for 80 bucks. Email me at nimbusnomore0707 at yahoo dot com and we can take care of this transaction. Thanks, you are saving me a lot of hassle here :)