• SONAR
  • [Answered] Bit Depth Question
2014/01/11 09:39:04
ThemBonez
I have my driver set on ADIO with 24 audio driver bit depth.
I have done all my audio recording and when I look at the audio files under the Project menu,
it lists all my audio files at 16 bit depth and my bounced tracks at 32 bit depth.
I expected everything to be listed at 24 bit depth.  Am I incorrect in this?
Please someone clarify.  Thank You
2014/01/11 09:41:19
scook
Files are controlled by the "File bit depths" settings in Preferences > File > Audio Data
2014/01/11 11:19:05
Anderton
Also remember that different bit depths are at play within the recording process. Your interface will likely function at 24 bits, but once the data is within Sonar, if you're using 64-bit precision then calculations are being made with 64 bits of resolution. Then when you export, you can choose the bit depth of the export. For example if you want to give someone a WAV file for burning a CD, you would want to export with 16-bit resolution. If you were creating a sample library, you would likely want to export with 24-bit resolution.
2014/01/11 11:19:39
ThemBonez
Thank you.
This whole time I thought I was recording at 24.
DO you think I need to record all those parts, or is 16 sufficient for a professional sounding recording?
2014/01/11 18:33:33
slartabartfast
Anything you are hearing from a CD is in 16 bit. Most people would call commercial CD's professional sounding. The major advantage of more bits on recording is that you can avoid clipping more easily. If your recordings sound professional there is not need to change the bit depth now.
2014/01/12 12:43:09
Loptec
I do both music production and sound design. When producing music I go with 48kHz 24bit. The fact that the audio will end up as 44.1kHz 16bit or even mp3 later doesn't matter, because when the track is finished it won't be edited any more.
 
It's mainly because you get a more detailed sound to work with/edit (data-wise and sound-wise) with a higher resolution that you want to go with that.
 
When I do sound design I go even higher. I record all sound for my sound library at 24bit 96kHz (cuz that's how high my mobile recorder can go). These kinds of sounds are manipulated in all kinds of different ways later on, so here it's very important to have a high resolution of the source-file. Especially if you want to change the pitch of the sound later on it's important that the frequency resolution is high.
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