Hi
 
Can anyone advise me on setting the File Bit Depth in 'Audio Data:All Projects'? 
 
In Driver settings, I've selected the audio driver bit depth at 24 and have enable 64-bit Double Precision Engine.
 
In the Audio Data, I've currently set the Record Bit Depth to 32, Render Bit the same and Import bit depth as 'original'. 
 
The range is from 16 to 64bit for all these settings. Any pro/cons to setting at say the highest?
 
Thanks
 
 
 
 

A larger bit depth creates a larger file and larger numbers for your computer to calculate with, so it increases the load on your system somewhat.
 
Larger bit depth has to do with the accuracy and dynamic range with which a waveform is drawn. Generally I don't believe it's useful to set the recording file bit depth higher than your soundcard supports. There will just be extra zeros tacked on the way I understand it. However if you're using a lot of FX you're doing many calculations on the source material/waveforms. So extra accuracy could theoretically be beneficial. As an example; 5.253 gets rounded off to 5.25. But twice 5.253 is 10.506, which becomes 10.51, not 10.50 (twice 5.25). Conversely, dividing 5.253 by two becomes 2.6265, another decimal, which may be lost without sufficient bit depth.
 
In practice, I haven't been able to hear a difference between 32 bit and 24 bit, but I do hear the difference between 24 and 16. I always stay at 24.
 
 

Read the last page or two of my thread 'my biggest fear with X3'

Fabio Rubato
Hi
 
Can anyone advise me on setting the File Bit Depth in 'Audio Data:All Projects'? 
 
In Driver settings, I've selected the audio driver bit depth at 24 and have enable 64-bit Double Precision Engine.
 
In the Audio Data, I've currently set the Record Bit Depth to 32, Render Bit the same and Import bit depth as 'original'. 
 
The range is from 16 to 64bit for all these settings. Any pro/cons to setting at say the highest?
 
Thanks
 

These settings are fine.

I would say record bit depth at 32 is overkill. But your mileage may vary. If your system doesn't complain and you don't mind the larger audio files, it's whatever.

Sanderxpander
I would say record bit depth at 32 is overkill. But your mileage may vary. If your system doesn't complain and you don't mind the larger audio files, it's whatever.

I agree. No more bits for recording than your interface can provide.
 
Rendering, bouncing, etc is a different story - go higher there if you can afford it CPU wise.

I miss-read.  Still too early.
 
24 bit for recording: good enough for most audio stuff
 
32 bit for rendering: no truncating occurs here
 
no one has found any reason to use the 64 bit engine, mainly cuz the chip is already running at 64 bits, so they all say

There is no reason to use a record bit depth higher than your sound card as no changes happen between the signal entering Sonar and it being written to the file. IOW, the extra bits will contain no data, but will use more disk space and will increase the amount of work done reading/writing.
 
For rendering, 32bit is best as it preserves all of the useful data and protects you from any inadvertent clipping. Setting it higher (64bit) will have no benefit, but will use twice as much space and double the amount of work done reading/writing.

These setting are what I use:

• 64 bit engine should always be on. Although, if you just enable it when bouncing and exporting, you will be good to go. But why give yourself more work. so just leave that checked at all times.
• Import bit depth should be set to 32bit (that is a floating point)
• Audio driver bit depth should be 24bit (no sound card can record higher than 24bit fixed point)

CJ
 

CJaysMusic
These setting are what I use:

• 64 bit engine should always be on. Although, if you just enable it when bouncing and exporting, you will be good to go. But why give yourself more work. so just leave that checked at all times.

 
There's no real world benefit to turning it on, so many of us who understand the math leave it off.
 
However, with the power of modern processors there's usually no downside to turning it on either.