Rob Danielson, you wrote,
>A
>recorder's overall mic pre gain can also play a role in final quality
>in terms of generated bit depth saturation when ambient sound levels
>are low.
It isn't necessary to use the terminology "generated bit depth
saturation." The noise floor of the recording process, as
distinguished from the noise of the mic and the noise of the preamp,
is determined by the A/D converter and the bit depth of the recording
(16 or 24). The converter is always the limiting factor; I don't
believe it's actually possible to record 24-bit sound from a
microphone. 24-bit files, yes, but the actual dynamic range of the
converter is rarely more than 21 bits (126 dB) in the most expensive
gear, so the bottom bits of 24-bit files are filled with noise anyway.
In my opinion it's more helpful to talk about the dynamic range of
the converter in dB than to talk about bits. The bottom is noise,
just like in analog audio; the only difference is that the noise can
be uglier in digital.
-Dan Dugan
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