24-Bit Recording Status

[chris319]

The fellow who develops Goldwave is also named Chris. I let him use my name

[Gale Andrews]

The most important first: Goldwave works perfectly! I tried it with 96/24 only, not with any other sample rate.

Actually I rather expected that because we have seen that before in Audacity/Goldwave comparisons.

Another thing that Goldwave WASAPI manages that Audacity WASAPI does not perform reliably is to play the entirety of a track without cutting the end off.

The Voice Recorder is even worse than I expected: It records in an .m4a format, compressed.

OK, I knew that but I had forgotten, sorry. And although there are obscure ways to launch it from the command-line I don't think you can give it command-line arguments. The Windows 7 and 8/8.1 Sound Recorder can record to WAV if run from the command-line specifying a filename ending in .wav.

Is it possible for you to try this on a machine which isn't running Windows 10?

I could re-animate my old XP machine. Would that make sense, particularly after these new experiences? I would, particularly when it helps you.

Windows WASAPI is not available in XP. It came in with Vista.


Gale

[UweB]

I tried out Goldwave, not too long, but I needed to know a little more than just that it works with 96/24. Of course the first thing that happens when you try a new software is that you miss the good ideas and functions that you learned to know before. Than you start to learn to know the good ideas and nice implementations of the new software, so that when you switch back to the old software you are missing things, too. (A so-called loose-loose situation )

The worst drawback of Goldwave against Audacity that I found up to now is that monitoring ("Software Playthrough") during recording is not possible. To my point of view this is a knock-out criterion. The way that is described in the Goldwave Help is using Windows sound control and it is an incapable workaround which works only while Goldwave does not use (i.e., record or display) the input signal. That's really very sad.

Audacity with WASAPI at 48/24 (and less) is capable of monitoring. I'm desperately waiting for Audacity's full WASAPI support. Chris, can I help in any way? Would a digital audio source (my USB interface), programmed to generate an appropriate 96/24 test signal when no external signal is connected, help? (I let you use my interface )

[Gale Andrews]

The worst drawback of Goldwave against Audacity that I found up to now is that monitoring ("Software Playthrough") during recording is not possible. To my point of view this is a knock-out criterion. The way that is described in the Goldwave Help is using Windows sound control and it is an incapable workaround which works only while Goldwave does not use (i.e., record or display) the input signal. That's really very sad.

If you enable "Listen to this device" for the input in Windows Sound, and choose "Shared" in Golwave Options > Control Properties > Device, does that work?

And does disabling "Exclusive Mode" in Windows Sound let Audacity record at 96000 Hz?

Can you hear the difference between 96000 Hz and 48000 Hz, either before or after editing your recording?

Audacity with WASAPI at 48/24 (and less) is capable of monitoring. I'm desperately waiting for Audacity's full WASAPI support. Chris, can I help in any way? Would a digital audio source (my USB interface), programmed to generate an appropriate 96/24 test signal when no external signal is connected, help? (I let you use my interface )

To be clear, Chris is not really a volunteer for Audacity, but it was I who asked him to join in because he helped implement PortAudio's WASAPI support.

I will send you both a private message about this.


Gale

[chris319]

Perhaps someone reading this thread could test Audacity on a different interface than Uwe's at 96 kHz.

[chris319]

Just for you, Uwe, I downloaded and installed the latest version of Audacity, v 2.1.0.

Audacity records and plays back fine for me at 96 kHz in WASAPI mode.

[steve]

I downloaded and installed the latest version of Audacity, v 2.1.0.

The current version of Audacity is 2.1.2. It is available from the Audacity website: http://audacityteam.org/download/

[UweB]

I downloaded and installed the latest version of Audacity, v 2.1.0. Audacity records and plays back fine for me at 96 kHz in WASAPI mode.

Here I'm standing helpless. I tried 2.1.0 too, but it is the same as in 2.1.2: 48/24 (WASAPI) works fine, 96/24 creates "Error opening sound device.". BTW, when I switch back to 48 kHz (and rescan, of course), I get the same error message. I must restart Audacity than. But such a restart doesn't help when I try it with 96 kHz.

What kind of source do you use? Mine is a UAC1 compatible one, that works in MME mode (16 bit) and on OS-X (24 bit), too, so that I don't suspect an incompatibility there. But there must be a reason...

[UweB]

I ought to try a different 96/24-capable UAC1 interface, but do such devices exist? And I ought to buy it just to try it...
Brilliant idea: I'll try it on a different PC, that's easy for me. Just in the other room...

[cyrano]

I ought to try a different 96/24-capable UAC1 interface, but do such devices exist? And I ought to buy it just to try it...

Yes.

But i doubt you'll find these in today's marketplace. For instance, The Emagic A26 and A62 are 96 kHz capable and UAC1. You can still find these on ebay, but they are very expensive. Around 125 $ for a "new" one. Of course, these aren't new, as Emagic was bought by Apple more than 10 years ago and Apple immediately stopped hardware production of all Emagic products. And these interfaces need a firmware loader...

Most others will be 48 kHz only, or UAC2, as far as I know.