Pros and cons of creating a session with 32bit/48kHz audio files

[Mr.Ed]

Hi,

What are the pros and cons of using 32 bit audio files? Can you see a benefit in working with this format in relation to film sound mixing?

I realized after posting that this has been discussed, but I cannot delete the new thread so I figured to make the most of it. :) any new thoughts on the matter of 32 bit audio in relation to film sound work are appreciated!

[Craig F]

personally, a waste of 30% of my drive space

[garnoil]

Originally Posted by Craig F

personally, a waste of 30% of my drive space

But doesn't 32 bit give you more head room, especially not to clip the sends?

[Craig F]

Originally Posted by garnoil

But doesn't 32 bit give you more head room, especially not to clip the sends?

all sessions use the 32 architecture
32 bit files are 1/3 larger than 24 bit files and I am not aware of any 32 bit ADC or DCAs

the Sends headroom has nothing to do with the file size

[lexaudio]

He is talking about internal headroom, and yes you get more headroom. The floating point path is much better than fixed point.

Interesting read here

http://www.dspguide.com/ch28/4.htm

[Mr.Ed]

Originally Posted by lexaudio

He is talking about internal headroom, and yes you get more headroom. The floating point path is much better than fixed point.

Interesting read here

http://www.dspguide.com/ch28/4.htm

So for one to get this expanded internal headroom they would need to work with the 32 bit protools session audio file option, is that correct?

Are the benefits Of working with the 32 bit files reduced due to the fact that you will end up needing to truncate back to 24bits on output?

[lexaudio]

Yes, for that head room you need to be working with 32bit session I believe. If you have been using native or no HD PT, you already had a 32/64 bit bussing path.

Ive noticed a difference when creating my 5.1 and LTRT on a non HD system vs an HD system from stems. Though I doubt it makes that much of a difference to warrant doing 6+2's on a separate system if you can't monitor it.

I think if you are in PT10 non HD TDM you get the 32/64 bit paths.

I'd say its probably more beneficial if you are just doing music. You'll hear it mostly in the reverb tails. Regardless of having to dither back to 24bit, it will still sound better.

[Mr.Ed]

Good info, thanks!
I wonder the benefits for audio restoration of production audio using RX2advanced or other Denoise Audio suite processes. Do you have any comparison experience with that yet at 32bit?

[Greg Malcangi]

Originally Posted by lexaudio

He is talking about internal headroom, and yes you get more headroom. The floating point path is much better than fixed point.

Interesting read here

http://www.dspguide.com/ch28/4.htm

Not really an interesting read as the article is comparing 32bit floating point with 16bit fixed point processing, no contest. It's a bit more complicated with ProTools HD (TDM) though, because we are comparing 32bit float with the TDM mixer which is often using 48bit precision, 56bit summing and 24bit data paths! Additionally, fixed point doesn't have the problems with dither that 32bit float can have. On balance, there is not much difference, except you have to be careful to follow decent gain staging with TDM mixing.

Mr. Ed - You seem to be confusing 32bit audio files with 32bit processing/mixing. Situations where 32bit audio files would be an improvement over 24bit audio files are rare and unlikely to impact most audio post workflows. ProTools 32bit processing has been around for about a dozen years and is nothing new but apart from the potential benefit of almost unlimited headroom, doesn't offer much (if any) audio quality improvements over TDM fixed point.

G

[Mr.Ed]

^thanks very much Greg. I have spoken to a few people who have mentioned to me that they wish to import in the production audio and up convert the 24bit files to 32 bit WAv files so they can have better sound quality when they are cleaning up noisy dialogue with RX2 and other audio suite plugins. Who was the target audience for 32 bit recording and processing?

From phone