File size

[Oldbear]

I have recently started recording a band my father plays in regularly and I am now up to 28 GB of data. Saving just one set of music takes up one CD (and I get 4 sets per night).

How much will I lose if I record at 16 or 24 bits or at a lower sample rate?

Is there a simpler or better way to archive my tracks?

Oldbear

[audino]

How much will I lose if I record at 16 or 24 bits or at a lower sample rate?

16bit is the standard for a wav file so I think you could stick with it, alternatively you could record 2 short samples at different sample rates and compare the differences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV

[PGA]

Standard audio CD quality is 16-bit 44100Hz. There is, in my opinion, little point in going any higher since the extra frequencies that you capture are beyond the typical hearing range of a normal human adult.

[kozikowski]

You might want to record with higher specifications if you plan on doing serious post production later. If all you're doing is blowing your club sets off to a CD at the end of the night, then yes, advanced sound specifications may be a waste of time and disk space.

We are all assuming you want to produce a music disk that will play in your car. If you don't need the car part, you can record the works as straight sound files (not special Music CD ones) on a Data DVD and get 4GB per disk. Almost all Macs with optical drives can do that and many Windows laptops, too. If you really push the envelope, you can create a Data BluRay and get 25GB per disk.

We do need to ask you what you mean by "archive." That's a dangerous word.

Koz

[Oldbear]

I should stick to "back-up" for this data.

Oldbear