Audacity Forum

Success at last! I poked around in Audacity for other things I could change. In the Quality tab, I changed the Default Sample Format from 16-bit to 32-bit float. When I exported two different recordings of the same tape to 16-bit WAV, I got two bit-identical files (after I trimmed off the leader and...

Hi Koz, OK, sorry, I wasn't reading right. Yep, I certainly understand the environment that Audacity works in and the limitations that come from that. Thanks to you and Bill, I now understand more about what's going on. I think my only lack of understanding now is why the mk II shows a certain error...

Hi Bill, Thanks for the comments. I like your list. I think sources 1-5 in your list are unlikely in this case, mostly because the errors always show up in the low order bit(s) and random errors in those places would probably show up as errors in all the bits, not just the low-order ones. I also tho...

Hi Koz, I'm not sure that I understand your last comment. I think what you're saying is that, when I use Audacity to record the same DAT twice with dithering off, I should indeed expect to see two bit-identical files. When I combine that with Bill's comment, I should see differences when the tape ha...

Bill, thanks for the clue. I did some checking and found out a lot that I hadn't known before. It was an interesting journey, but in the end, I think it doesn't solve the problem. It turns out on the DA-20 Mk II, there's a way to display the error rate on the front panel. According to the manual, th...

Major progress, but not total success. Thanks, Koz. Argh! I thought I had set dithering to None, but when I looked closer, I found it in two places on the Quality panel. I've now got both set to None, not just one of them. Now, instead of every sample differing by 3-4 or so, I see every second or th...

I'm trying to make bit-exact WAV file copies of a bunch of DATs. So far, I haven't succeeded. I record a DAT using Audacity, then trim off the leader and trailer and export it to a WAV. I record the same DAT again, trim to the same spots relative to the music and export as a WAV again. When I compar...