gswitz


yes when recording, use 24 bit. you will often not use every available bit at the loudest moment. when youuse every available bit at the loudest moment in a tune 16 bit 44.1 can accurately reproduce everything a human can hear upto 96 deciibels.

Most Pro Studios use 48kHz or 96kHz 24bit or better/higher. 24bit is LOCKED no floating. It need to CUT down the information to fit inside a 24 bit file format. 24bit format take more CPU and longer to read for a x64bit system compare to a native x64bit floating file format.
 
 
I use 64 bit floating same as your VST-I stream in a x64bit system. 32 bit floating works too.x32bit and x64 = no compromise of audio quality. EQs and other filters, VSTs and hardwares tend to sound better in higher audio quality 48kHz or 96kHz 32bit/64bit then 44.1kHz 24bit 16bit. That will effect how your mixdown and Mastering will sound later on in 44.1kHz, 16bit CD file.   
    
   
  

Eh? You use 64 bit floating point file format? Are you sure?

Freddie wants every little bit!

Freddie, you always bring a smile to my face.

FastBikerBoy

Eh? You use 64 bit floating point file format? Are you sure?

I have to agree with Freddie on this. I'm not being argumentative, I'm simply fascinated by this topic and want to learn as much about it as I can and apply the best case scenario that my system will handle.

I did a lot of testing when I first got in to the 24 vs. 32 vs. 64 bit discussion and I was surprised at how much better some effects sounded when I switched my project settings to 32bit. I may not be explaining myself well on the subject as for the reasons why there is a difference, but there definitely is one albeit minimal on my puny i5. I'm certain you'd hear a greater difference when using 32 and 64 in a professional studio.

Fun subject, glad it hasn't turned in to a brawl like most other threads of this nature. :-)

The whole concept of digital "headroom" is somewhat misleading. I think we equate it with analog headroom which is many things of itself. To suppose that 1's and 0's and increments of both values will be reduced ( truncated) without dessimation of the increments or positive values is pretty much an unknown to the ear. At some point the detail becomes something you feel more than you hear unless you're a dog.
I asked once, "what's the bit depth of tape/", in essence that means, "what's the bit depth of magnetic particles?" If anybody really knew, we would be working with much higher bit depths.
But I guess it all boils down to this. How much information (data) are you going to put into a bytes worth of computer recorded music?

Bub

FastBikerBoy

Eh? You use 64 bit floating point file format? Are you sure?

I have to agree with Freddie on this. I'm not being argumentative, I'm simply fascinated by this topic and want to learn as much about it as I can and apply the best case scenario that my system will handle.

I did a lot of testing when I first got in to the 24 vs. 32 vs. 64 bit discussion and I was surprised at how much better some effects sounded when I switched my project settings to 32bit. I may not be explaining myself well on the subject as for the reasons why there is a difference, but there definitely is one albeit minimal on my puny i5. I'm certain you'd hear a greater difference when using 32 and 64 in a professional studio.

Fun subject, glad it hasn't turned in to a brawl like most other threads of this nature. :-)

 
I'm not going to argue......
 
The only reason I queried it was that the OP question was "is there any advantage to recording tracks in 24 bit?". The answer to that is yes, how much of an advantage sound wise is open to debate as a 16 bit file will hold everything a human can hear but 24 bit will allow more headroom by lowering the noise floor.
 
Obviously the choice is there to use a higher record resolution within Sonar but the fact (not an opinion) remains that the best resolution that is actually going to be written into that file is 24 bits (actually nearer 21 in reality I believe) the rest of it will just be zeros.
 
As to whether Sonar handles a 64 bit floating file quicker than it does a 24 bit is way beyond my knowledge and I guess the only ones who really know that are the bakers themselves. I'm still certain I won't hear a difference, in fact I'd be absolutely amazed if I played a wave file to someone and they could tell me by listening whether it was 24bit or 64 bit, especially as it'd have to be coming back through 24 bit converters....
 
It's be interesting to know. As I said earlier I'm more than ready to be corrected if any of my ramblings are incorrect but that's certainly how I understand it.