Export or Save in any supported format

[Rich_O]

Thank you.

The experiment was quite illuminating.
In summary I can now say that even though I digitized at 16-bit, it's still worthwhile to convert to 32-bit float for any processing. That's worth knowing.

Rich

[Gale Andrews]

1) Import or record a bit of audio
2) Make a duplicate of the track (Select the track then Ctrl+D)
3) Apply "Normalize" to bring both tracks up to a peak of -1 dB
4) Set one track as 16 bit and the other track as 32 bit float (they both sound identical, though the 32-bit track will now use 32-bit values).
5) Apply the Amplify effect with the Amplification amount set to -40 dB (minus 40). Both tracks go very quiet.
6) Repeat step 5 to make the tracks a further 40 dB quieter (or just press Ctrl+R to repeat the last effect)
7) Now Normalize both tracks back up to -1 dB.
The 32-bit track should sound virtually unchanged by the processing. The 16 bit track shows extreme deterioration.

Before people get too shocked, the damage is almost un-noticeable if you replace "-40" with "-5".


Gale

[steve]

Before people get too shocked, the damage is almost un-noticeable if you replace "-40" with "-5".

Absolutely, but it gives an idea about how good 32-bit float is that you can drop the volume down by 80 dB and then boost it back almost perfectly.

[Rich_O]

Yes.. Understand that it's an extreme test to make a point.