> With very quiet backgrounds and low noise pro mics and inputs or
> mixers, 24 bit recording theoretically gives you another 8 bits, which
> is nice but probably difficult to justify. I say "theoretically" as
> the dynamic range at 24 bits is 23 times 6dB, or 138dB which is much
> greater than any mic input stage could ever come near. With studio
> mixers, you don't want to worry about noise, so 24 bit is used, but
> with wildlife recordings, this increases file sizes.
>
> Thermal noise of the air is around 0phons (it's frequency dependant)
> and the best pro mic systems will have an "excess noise over thermal"
> of around 12 dB. Ear damage starts around 90 phons, so if you need to
> record this level without adding noise, use 24 bits, but you won't
> find a listening setup which can reproduce this range. :-)
24-bit codes are written, but the actual signal-to-noise in the real world is
21 bits maximum due to the analog parts of the signal chain. Fade-outs in a DAW
will use all the bits, which is why you must add dither noise at the very last
stage when reducing to 16 bits for CD distribution.
I use 24-bit recording because it gives you extra headroom to work with. You
can record low for safety in the field and boost it in post without any loss of
quality. Now that storage is larger and cheaper, the larger file size doesn't
matter much.
-Dan
"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause.
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