Just found out that a 2h track in FLStudio had decided to vanish while recording and was wondering why doesn’t Audacity support proper 32bit float recording yet for 32bit float interface IN Windows with Zoom UAC-232 or maybe even other 32bFP interfaces?
I don’t know but if you can record something that goes-over 0dB that will tell you. Fixed-point (integer) is hard-limited to 0dB.
…And that’s the only advantage. Most 24-bit DACs & ADCs are only accurate to about 20 bits (or less). In the physical-analog world you are limited by (analog) noise on the low-end and you are voltage-limited on the high-end.
I’d just like to not worry about loudness, that’s why I bought this 32bit floating point ADC. But the only free software that doesn’t limit you to 0dB is FLStudio, which just wants to ruin your day.
I guess if I set the loudness in the driver settings to 0dB boost or whatever it is, just setting to the lowest possible value, then I have lots of headroom in Audacity. Just noticed that. And gaining it back to normal levels doesn’t change the noise level compared to being boosted beforehand.
I’ve just tested, and Audacity does support 32-bit float recording.
(Tested with both Audacity 2.4.2 and Audacity 3.4.0 alpha.)
I’m not able to test if it supports recording levels above 0 dBFS as the sound system on my machine limits audio samples to the range +/- 1.0. (Note that in audio, sample values outside the range +/- 1.0 are usually considered “invalid” as they cannot be handled correctly by most audio hardware).
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32 bit float is working perfectly fine when doing other things, but capturing from ADC - levels above 0dB isn’t capturing, it’s just distortion. But when recording in FLStudio, the audio over 0dB was captured and I was able to reduce it. Only a shame that FLStudio sucks.
Why do you need to capture over 0dB?
I don’t want to set gain each time when recording. That’s why I bought a 32bit float adc.
I get that… Maybe in the future there will be more floating-point hardware & compatible software (and drivers). Almost all audio software (including Audacity) is floating-point “internally” already. REAPER uses 64-bit floating-point for mixing/processing.
Right… Usually adjusting the knob on your interface adjusts the signal into the ADC so the signal and noise are adjusted together and the quality isn’t hurt at lower levels.
“Full disclosure”… If you go way-way too low you get quantization noise but it’s rarely an issue, especially at 24-bits, and the analog noise (acoustic & electrical) is almost always worse than quantization noise.
Pros typically record at -12 to -18dB (at 24-bits) leaving plenty of headroom.
I am thinking Audacity should be supporting this. Please report this issue to the developers directly: Issues · audacity/audacity · GitHub
With 24-bit or more you can afford to allow a lot of headroom, so the risk of clipping shouldn’t be a worry. In professional studios with 24-bit A/D converters, it is common to set the gain for a peak recording level around -20 dB. Personally I tend to record a bit hotter than that, but I still never have problems with clipping.
Wait, are you capturing WITH the ADC (as in, using it as an interface) or are you trying to get the playback from the ADC? If the latter, then it may be going over whatever sound interface/card you have it plugged into.
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