Soundcards again - 16bit vs 24bit

says...

I thought of that, but if I upgrade N-track to the 24 bit version, I think that *may* cause problems using the older card...

A hundred and sixty quid is a lot of money to give Mutley (my dog) better value for money when I play him my demos

Its sounds like this is very subtle, and I suppose I really need to ask whether its worth it until my production skills are more advanced and for that matter, until I get pro quality mikes. I'm using pretty much entry level (Shure SM57) at the moment.

Right, thanks - didn't realise the files would be bigger.

Yep, there's a different version available.

Thanks James.

This is clearly untrue! Everybody knows that anything is possible with magic! Ask yourself, how many times have you completed a recording only to find those odd little blips and squeaks which 'just weren't there' during the recording process? Magic you see, these things appear by magic.

John www.crazy-train.com

Once any kind of fx processing is involved, this may indeed be the case (as I'm sure you know - just being clear).

For my money: 16 bits is plenty unless an awful lot of fx processing is used. I've seen many CDs go to press based on 16-bit wav files... The only good reason for using more (when on a budget) is to reduce the degradation causes by many layers of processing.

I'm a bit late coming in here Jon, but I found this thread on HomeRec that may answer your question. Scroll down and look for the post by Slackmaster2k
http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=& threadid=78261

Make sure you get all of the URL...

Frank A Muller

170490.news.dfncis.de:

damn ! but that is a *brilliant* article on 16bit vs 24bit. Thanks Frank for bringing it to our attention.

now I need to go and cool my brain down from trying to keep up with the explanation.

Frank

Thank you so much for that. The best description I have ever heard of the subject. It's converted me (pun absolutely intended).

Is the term 24/7 descriptive of recording speach in incredible detail?

Andrew Sinclair wrote

It's a question that has reared its head many times, particularly on HomeRec. I've no doubt you've printed out the article like I did for future reading

Yes, it certainly made both my brain cells hurt

Frank A Muller

Gary Wright wrote

Well I hope it serves to clarify (!) the situation regarding the 16 bit vs 24 bit debate.

I used to have an AWE 64 Gold sound card that was 'half-duplex'. That is it would record at 16 bits but would only play back at 8 bits during recording. Needless to say the quality of the playback when recording was absolute shite, worse than Radio Luxembourg on a wet and windy night with the radio slightly off-station. More noise than signal

detail?

Less Crackle and more Jangle as Steve Dix would say

Frank A Muller

After reading it, I know have a Terratec 24/96 on order!

Anyone know of a good wavetable card to go with it? I'd use the Yamaha SW60XG I currently have, but it's AT-bus only and I want to move to PCI. It's also a little noisy, but the drums are really excellent.

I've just bought a new motherboard with an ISA slot, specifically because I wanted to retain the SW60XG.

As I've said elsewhere, I had the same issue with an AWE32 which I kept specifically as a home for my DB50XG (same as the SW60XG, but in daughterboard form). I recently bought a Sonic Fury soundcard which, apart from being a good soundcard, is the only PCI card I can find with a daughterboard connector; so my DB50XG is now mounted on a PCI card and the AWE has been retired. Works well. Not aware of noise being a problem.