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Re: Re: Headroom for processing

Subject: Re: Re: Headroom for processing
From: Aaron Ximm <>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 15:42:04 -0700 (PDT)
> Dan Dugan, in a reply to Klas Strandberg (about digital manipulation, and
> especially w.r.t normalization), wrote
>
> > In intermediate steps, you need headroom
> > for processing.
>
> My question: I've always assumed that most digital manipluations were don=
e
> as floating point (thus giving
> more headroom than even long integers could require.) Is this true? If no=
t,
> what are the problems with using
> floats?

FWIW my own PC-based editor, Samplitude, by default performs all
calculations in a 32-bit space, I don't remember if it's FP or integer.
But the upshot is you never run out of headroom, signals can get much
hotter than 0db and never clip.  It's only when the mix is 'bounced' down
to 44/16 for CD delivery (for example) that you need to normalize so that
no signal is hotter than 0 db...

best,
 aaron

  
  http://www.quietamerican.org



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