Recording at 24bit appears to be 16 bits padded to 24bit

[mswlogo]

You can get Windows to record 24bit using ASIO. I do it all the time with WaveLab.

But you need a custom build of Audacity to use ASIO unfortunately.

Sound Mapper will not work.

Direct Sound Might work, but Direct Sound does let you get at the SPDIF Channels on the EMU (ASIO does).
I don't think EMU has full drivers for Direct Sound it's sort of Windows dummy wrapper around the Sound Mapper, and not a true Direct Sound device.

You also have to go into the Control Panel of the EMU Driver and set it to 24bit (it defaults to 16bit).

I have both the Tascam 144 and EMU 0404 and the EMU works over ASIO but it is very buggy compared to TASCAM.

But I wish Audacity would fix the dB scale being way off.

Also be careful that if you just convert 16bit to 24bit it will just pad with zero's and that is correct.

[whomper]

...
If so, this software is junk.
....

it is worth every penny you paid for it so if you
don't like it then buy nuendo or sonar producer

i am amazed at how good it is for a free program
and how much the developers have been able to do
for too many platforms
and they answer questions too

if my recordings were really that important
or i was trying to sell commercial recording services/cds
then i would buy a pro commercial studio with software and gear to match that requirement

[steve]

Audacity is capable of sound quality exactly as good as other "pro" software.
I use Sonar, Adobe Audition, ProTools and Audacity and the sound quality is identical on all three.

As explained by Gale Andrews in his post 6 months ago, this is a limitation PortAudio with the Windows sound system, not a limitation of Audacity as such. There are several ways to get round the limitation - you can use Linux, or a modern Mac, or build Audacity with ASIO support.

[Gale Andrews]

...I wish Audacity would fix the dB scale being way off.

I did have a quick re-scan through this thread but couldn't see what you mean here. In what way is the dB scale way off?


Gale

[whomper]

he may mean the oddball way it displays at times
and that if you magnify in different places on the left vertical side you see different things
also
the db scale does not match the linear display
probably for practical programming you only show the top of the linear scale not the middle portion when you switch to db view

[steve]

also
the db scale does not match the linear display

One is a linear measurement on a scale of +/- 1
The other is a dB measurement on a scale of 0 to -inf.
Not surprisingly the numbers don't match up. An amplitude of 0.5 on the linear scale is equivalent to -6dB.

I expect that the confusion is just that the "Waveform (dB)" view displays equally spaced divisions in dB rather than the more usual logarithmic spacing.
The bottom end of the dB scale can be set by the user "Edit > Preferences > Interface".

[whomper]

when the linear goes to zero why doesnt the db scale to to max negative? mine usually bounces from -24 to -48. once it got as low as -72 but that was a very rare occurence. never hits -96. when the linear goes to zero shouldnt the db scale go to zero (as close as it can considering its db and binary arithmetic is used?)

does db the scale never use more than 16 bits even though it implies that it does?

[whomper]

...
I use Sonar, Adobe Audition, ProTools and Audacity and the sound quality is identical on all three.
....

which is easiest to use for a higher end production effort?
what sort of benefits do paying for a high end daw get you that audacity cant do ?

[steve]

Some of the features:

Sonar: Full midi support, VSTi support, groove quantizing.
Adobe Audition: Real time effects, split edit/multitrack view, very good noise reduction.
ProTools: Integrated control surface, dedicated high quality multi-channel audio interface, very good pitch stretch,
Audacity : Combined edit/multitrack view, very quick and convenient, can carry it on a USB stick.

Audacity is my preference for small jobs because it is just so quick and easy.
Sonar is my preference if midi/VSTi are involved.
Audition is my preference for very complex mixing jobs.
Protools is my preference for recording, mostly because of the dedicated hardware.

[Gale Andrews]

when the linear goes to zero why doesnt the db scale to to max negative? mine usually bounces from -24 to -48. once it got as low as -72 but that was a very rare occurence. never hits -96. when the linear goes to zero shouldnt the db scale go to zero (as close as it can considering its db and binary arithmetic is used?)

Zero is silence on the linear scale that the Waveform view uses, but maximum loudness on the Waveform dB view.

does db the scale never use more than 16 bits even though it implies that it does?

If you have a 32-bit project it will contain data in 32-bit resolution if you provide it with such. If you record from a 16-bit device (or as happens on Windows, from a 24-bit device but only in 16-bit resolution), there will only be 131072 possible values for any of those recorded samples, because the data is 16-bit. That is true even though Audacity could (in a 24-bit or 32-bit project) display the thousands of extra possible 24-bit values if it was able to capture the recording in 24-bit.


Gale