Session Bit Depth

[QjeffQ]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting work on a short film, and was curious if anyone can offer advice for the session bit depth.

Most elements are 16bit (production sound, music, library sfx). I would like to record high resolution foley and sfx. A teacher of mine suggested that I should keep all my sessions at 24 bit.

- Is there any benefit to setting up my sessions as 24bit? (when most files are 16?)
- If I keep the mix at 24bit, should the release print stay at 24bit too?
- Would I need to transfer and dither to 16bit for creating an AC3, Lt/Rt, Discrete?

Thanks for any help!

[subwoof]

I ask myself the same question a lot. I try to work in 24 bit in film whenever I can. It keeps the music guys happy, and they don't accuse me of gypping them out of 8 bits. (Whether or not you can actually hear the difference is another topic.) But I say, why not work in the highest bit depth you can. However, keep in mind 24 bit uses a third more disk space for archival purposes.

I've been told that digi plug ins have more resolution at 24 bit than at 16 bit. I don't know if that is true or not but why not ere on the side of caution. As far as Printmastering is concerned, Dobly Digital is 20 bit resolution but you can feed the DMU 24 bit just fine. DVD mastering can be done at 24 bit. All your stems, M&E, final 5.1 mix, DM&E, and Lt-Rt's can all be mixed and delivered in 24 bit, 48khz. Only DTS needs a dithered down 5.1 mix at 16 bit, 44.1 khz. Everyone else is happy with 24, 48khz.

I guess for the sake of the music tracks I would work in 24 bit if you can. Dialog very often comes to me in 16 bit, even though it is usually recorded in 24 bit. (I guess the Avid editors around here must just import everything into a 16 bit session without thinking about it, but what do you expect they are picture people and don't think about sound) Any new sound effects will also be recorded at 24 bit more than likely, as well as Foley (Just imagine how much more fabulous cloth movement tracks will sound with those extra 8 bits!!!)

I say go for it. 24 bit, why not?!

[QjeffQ]

Thanks for the response, Michael!

I'll go for 24, despite the space requirements. Glad to know deliverables can be kept 24bit, I was worried about that. Even if the resolution of plug-ins aren't noticeably changed, it'll be worth trying the recordings at a higher resolution, methinks.

Thanks!