John
"This is probably a good place to ask this question. I did my first-ever sampling last weekend, and ended up using Audition to do the task. I recorded them 44.1KHz mono (drums), but Audition defaulted to a 32-bit float on saves so I just used that. Is that 32-bit buying anything at all, or just wasting space on me?"
 
 
For recording yes its wasting space. Keep in mind that your converters are incapable of recording anything above 24 bits. So the file that was created is 24 bits plus a lot of padding. This adds nothing useful to the recording at all.  
 
Now for processing it a very different story. However, I am of the opinion that the file on disk doesn't need to be greater than 24 bits even after processing.   I am sure I am alone in this view.  

 You are not alone...
 
Regards,
Dan

Goddard;
I agree that he has a style that is not paper quality. I also have a problem with people talking about science in the way he does. I know he is addressing the public.  However, I have been saying much the same thing for many years now. I did as you suggest and read the bit depth article and again I am in total agreement. 
 
What he says is the way I understand both sample rate and bit depth. I shall put it to you to clearly state where and what he is saying is wrong. Please give citations and where your objections are coming from.  

John
 
...I am sure I am alone in this view.  

Nope. We're up to at least three now.
 
Regards,

mmorgan

John
 
...I am sure I am alone in this view.  

Nope. We're up to at least three now.
 
Regards,

Sometimes you all make my day. That somehow was very funny. 

bitflipper
 
It's like saying Roger Waters was the genius behind Pink Floyd.

Careful, Bit.  You know we're not supposed to discuss religion here.

dmbaer

bitflipper
 
It's like saying Roger Waters was the genius behind Pink Floyd.

Careful, Bit.  You know we're not supposed to discuss religion here.

Wow...  no bassist/genius jokes?   
 

Goddard
Sigh... wotta buncha hooey. Facetious scientist indeed.
 
Surprise! ADCs actually sample at frequencies in the MHz even if they only output PCM streams at 44.1/48kHz. And DACs oversample 44.1kHz audio streams (in MHz) too! That's not ultrasonic, it's radio frequency (and relates to why the use of a CD player is prohibited at times on airliners). Not to worry though, decimation and lowpass (and often highpass) filtering fortunately keeps the out-of-band nasties from getting through (at least, its supposed to if things are designed and working properly).
 
Another surprise: the cheapo onboard 'high definition audio" codec chip inside the typical PC/Mac can handle 192kHz digital audio (such as one might find as a primary audio stream on a Bluray disc) just fine (by design).
 

None of that seems to address anything in the article. I'm not sure what point you're making here.

John

mmorgan

John
...I am sure I am alone in this view.  

Nope. We're up to at least three now.

Sometimes you all make my day. That somehow was very funny. 

I liked the comment from the OP on the law of diminishing returns, and the chuckle I get with digital audio is that if it hasn't already reached some sort of level of "too good" then things that inject "noise" (tape emulators, console emulators, etc.) wouldn't be "needed."

Count me in on the 24 bit is enough crowd.

Also, whether a DAT recorder at 48KHz sounds better than your current card at 44.1KHz could be depending on a lot of things besides the 7KHz difference. Psychoacoustics not being the least of them, and certainly also clock stability, to name a few.

Doesn't X3 default to 32 bit for bounce?
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation/default.aspx?Doc=SONAR%20X3&Lang=EN&Req=Mixing.45.html
 
Note: You control the bit depth of all rendering operations (bouncing, freezing, applying effects) in Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data, in the Render Bit Depth field. The default value of 32 is the best for most situations. See Bit depths for rendering audio for more information.