Quote:
Originally Posted by dogon
Why, What's the benefit if the recording has already been done?
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What lwilliam said is partly right. Any changes to the (formerly) 16-bit audio itself will benefit from the extra resolution. However, the mixing should not benefit, assuming nothing else changes. As I understand it, real-time mixing in PT is supposed to be the same bit depth regardless of the session bit depth - it's like 40 bit floating point, or something fairly high like that. That's on any kind of track, including the master. However:
1. Any new Audio Suite processing will preserve 24 of the process's output bits rather than only 16. Remember, that means preserving 256 times as much resolution! Well worth it.
2. Any fades/crossfades will be made at 24 bit, which will make them sound much smoother.
3. Any new audio recorded will be captured with much greater detail.
4. Any stems (submixes committed to audio) done during mixing will benefit greatly.
Any audio files left unchanged will simply have zeros stored in their eight least significant bits, and should sound exactly the same as they did in the 16-bit session.
If you want your EQ plugs (except those that oversample) to sound better, convert to a higher sample rate. Sample rate is a time-domain attribute, while bit rate is an amplitude domain attribute. That is, a higher sample rate improves frequency resolution, while a greater bit depth improves dynamic resolution. If I understand right, PT's mix engine always uses the same high bit depth, but the sample rate varies with the session. Some plug-ins do their own oversampling, but they still have to convert back down to the current session sample rate to pass the audio on to the next plug-in or to the mix path.