a new question about sample rate

[coonsanders]

hi
i have a new 24 bit soundcard and does this mean i can use the 24 bit option in audacity reather than the default 16 bit..and if i use a 24 bit in audacity how does it impact the sound?

lenny

[kozikowski]

Most people don't notice any difference in the sound at rates above 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. That's the Music CD sound standard and while some golden-ear professionals claimed they could hear "enormous damage" to the sound, the vast majority of the listening public couldn't hear a thing.

Most compression systems, iPod, AAC, M4A, MP3, etc cause way more damage than a Music CD.

However, if you're going to start doing origination production and effects it's very important to start with music files in as high a quality as you can lay your hands on. The quality of the show will never get any better than your original clips and depending on the effects, can go downhill in a big hurry. One of the musicians in the shop claims to never having made a live performance capture in anything less than 24-bit. He performs all the parts himself and has to mix up to seven and eight tracks with no damage.

There was a posting on here a while back from someone who found data errors in his work and wouldn't put head to pillow until we found out where they were coming from. Turns out he was finding all the carefully hidden data errors of common sampling systems and exposing them to the light of day. He very quickly went from 16-bit to 32-bit floating and a much higher sampling rate and all his noise and errors vanished. 32-Floating was designed to have statistically insignificant damage, that's why Audacity's default is 32.

Of course, all his music files are now gigantic compared to a Music CD and they're impossibly, unbelievably big compared to the average MP3 file.

That's the tradeoff. You have statistically perfect music files, but you can only get three of them on your iPod.

Koz

[kozikowski]

You do also need to gaze briefly at your client. I do live voice captures in 16-bit, 48000, Stereo because most of it ends up in an Avid machine. Everything runs at television sound standard. Not Music CD.

Koz

[coonsanders]

thanks...


lenny

[coonsanders]

so even though the card is 24 bits you should keep the audacity on 16 bits right?gowd.....i have to re records 0ver a 100 sides by isham jones....


lenny

[waxcylinder]

Lenny,

no you can work in 24-bit just downsample with Audacity on export to 16-bit PCM stereo 441.kHz - (if that is you want CD "standard" files).

The 24-bit sample rate will give you extra headroom with the audio for editing and applying any effects that you require.

So no need to re-record, unless that is you want to save your masters at 24-bit.

WC

[coonsanders]

hi wax

im doing 78s not cds...this this apply to 78s 2?

lenny

[waxcylinder]

I was referring to output as CD "standard" - not your input medium.

I capture/edit at 32-bit floating 44.1kHz for transcription of LPs/45s/tapes, minidiscs and off-air FM - and if I still had any 78s (I don't my parents chucked my collection out many years ago when I moved out ) I would also record those with the same settings. My final production output I downsample to 16-bit PCM stereo WAV at 44.1kHz - for burning to CDs and for loading into iTunes and conversion to AAC.

As Koz observed earlier you need to consider what your target use is - and use this to select your format.

WC

[coonsanders]

thanks wax


lenny

[MarbleGarden]

If you're still working on this, its mostly dependent on your sound card's capabilty. My default sound card could play back 24 bit 192khz, but could only record in 16 bit, so it doesn't have any effect to record at 24 bit fixed point or 32 bit floating point.

My suggestion is to record at at least 24/96 as the resolution is much clearer. Many people who say only audiophiles can hear improvements over 16/44.1 either haven't worked with tape or listened to a lot of vinyl records, or haven't in a very long time and are used to CD quality. 78s are not very high quality to begin with, but I think you'd have a much better edge recording in at least 24/96 to preserve almost everything thats there to begin with. Its important to use either a sampling rate of 96khz or 192khz so you can burn the audio to just a standard video DVD to make it easier to play if a digital music player or computer isn't available.

You can quite clearly hear the differences in the resolution. Working with 2 inch tape at 15 ips, then for digital versions dumping it into the computer at 24/44.1 you could quite clearly hear something was all of a sudden gone, and then for the CD version of the same material, when it was downgraded to 16 bit, the effect was much clearer-- comparing the sound to the original recording made it sound as if the 16 bit version was carved in stone as compared to natural and organic sounding reflecting how it was recorded and how our ear's were meant to hear/perceive it. Best of luck to your project!