<<Hi Scott-
I used to record everything at 24bit/48Hz because it made me feel
more on top of my practice, but money, time, materials, and
CPU-demand are all significant reasons to record to 16 bits.>>
At current media prices & with current CPU capabilities, these really
are not impediments anymore.
<< The
additional 5? bits are useful at the stock races and when a
thunderstorm rolls up, but in the natural spaces I record in, its
very rare for anything to top 80 dB. I feel there's little purpose in
making standard practice out of any option that rarely provides
advantage. I'm with you on mastering to 24 bit files, though. Rob D.>>
Where the extra bits make sense is not in pushing the envelope of
overall dynamic range (since no microphones have even 16bit signal to
noise capabilities, much less 24bits worth,) is in DSP, where any
process, even minor level changes, & certainly any equalization, adds
rounding errors to the least significant bit in the word. You want
those errors to exist at the lowest possible quantization level, even
when the least significant bit contains no actual useful audio. When I
receive 16bit files for CD mastering I always store them as 24bit
files so that any EQ, dynamic processing & fades I do induce rounding
errors at a level below the clients' original dynamic range.
Scott Fraser
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