@Rycher:
…isotope RX2 advanced for restoration
I am undertaking exactly the same task as you and I have around 800 LP’s to import (about 300 completed). I have looked at restoration sw and Isotope RX2 is high on my list. Do you have any useful feedback on Isotope RX2 you could pass on to myself and others?
@Koz:
There is a spirited discussion of USB problems with higher bitrates.
Could you please provide a link to the ‘Spirited’ discussion and thanks in anticipation.
Windows does support 24 bit audio in that 24 bit audio can be played, edited, copied,…
When Audacity records, it sends a request to the OS sound system for the type of data that it wants. If Audacity is set to record 32-bit float (default) then Audacity requests 32-bit float format audio data. The request is passed to the Windows sound card drivers via Portaudio which is an open source, cross-platform audio I/O library. If the sound card drivers are unable to provide data in the requested format (perhaps because the sound card hardware does not support that format), then Portaudio negotiates with the sound card driver for the closest format to it. If the supplied data is in a lower bit format than what has been requested (always the case when Audacity is set to record 32-bit float) then the audio data is converted from the actual supplied data format to the requested format.
I believe the above implies that if the sound card supports 24 or 32 bit recording Portaudio will transfer the data, in the requested format, to Audacity. However, in post LP Rip with Distortion at the end of side one you stated:-
…there is no benefit to recording in 24 bit with any release build of Audacity on Windows because PortAudio (the library that acts as an intermediary between Audacity and the computer sound system) only passes 16 bit data to Audacity - the last 8 bits of 24 bit audio are replaced with padding (8 zeros if I remember correctly).
I think your post in the first paragraph states Audacity and Portaudio will handle 24 or32 bit data, dependant on the sound card, and your post in the second paragraph states only 16 bit data is transferred to Audacity by Portaudio. Could you please enlighten me as you seem to be telling Rycher he can record in 24/96 and the opposite to me?
I also asked in post https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/firebox-or-inspire/174/1
Does the 16 bit PortAudio limitation apply when the ADC is an external box, as in my case? I am not, as far as I am aware, using the computer sound system because the external ADC interfaces to Audacity via S/PDIF. Audacity sees the M-Audio driver interface because I can select the S/PDIF input.
Maybe you did not see my post but I have not yet received a reply.