Why 32 bit audio clipped at playback? What's the bit depth of an audio interface?

[Rockman413]

Hi there,
I understand that 32 bit audio has a lot of headroom so we can see yellow indicator at playing back. But why at the mixer of our audio interface you'll see the output is actually clipped and sounds distorted? Is it because 24bit is the highest for DAC?

I think pro audio fundamental questions but usually got ignored by many people that almost everyone nowadays just grab a daw and go.

[amagras]

If you go above 0 your DAW won't clip but the analog circuit of the D/A converter of your soundcard will.

[Rockman413]

Yeah, but it's because that the audio analogue circuit does not support more than 0db or 32bit, and 32 bit depth is only a digital thing?

That 24bit/16 bit is defined for analoge that 0 is the clipping place while 32bit is not defined for analogue so it has more headroom?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Rockman413

Yeah, but it's because that the audio analogue circuit does not support more than 0db or 32bit, and 32 bit depth is only a digital thing?

That 24bit/16 bit is defined for analoge that 0 is the clipping place while 32bit is not defined for analogue so it has more headroom?

Like many of your questions you could answer this by going and reading how stuff works. And I'll repeat amagras' question... What are you really trying to do? Besides just flood this forum with weird questions. What are you actually trying to use Pro Tools to do?

The analog circuits have no concept of bits. And you can't really talk about 0dB. What do you mean? 0dBFS? 0dBV? All concepts a good book on audio engineering will cover. And just understanding those concepts properly likely self-answer many questions here.

There is really no such thing as a 32-bit float DAC. You'll have a 24-bit fixed point or similar DAC and the maximum level that can output of that is the very definition of 0dBFS. How a 24-bit fixed number maps to/within the range of a 32-bit or 64-bit IEEE floating point number is something you can Google. That has nothing to do with audio per se.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by Rockman413

Yeah, but it's because that the audio analogue circuit does not support more than 0db or 32bit, and 32 bit depth is only a digital thing?

That 24bit/16 bit is defined for analoge that 0 is the clipping place while 32bit is not defined for analogue so it has more headroom?

With Darryl on this one.

You are trying to run before you can walk.

32 bit is floating point.
24 bit and 16 bit is fixed point.

If you don't understand what that difference means, every explanation after is going to mean nothing to you.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Like many of your questions you could answer this by going and reading how stuff works. And I'll repeat amagras' question... What are you really trying to do? Besides just flood this forum with weird questions. What are you actually trying to use Pro Tools to do?

The analog circuits have no concept of bits. And you can't really talk about 0dB. What do you mean? 0dBFS? 0dBV? All concepts a good book on audio engineering will cover. And just understanding those concepts properly likely self-answer many questions here.

There is really no such thing as a 32-bit float DAC. You'll have a 24-bit fixed point or similar DAC and the maximum level that can output of that is the very definition of 0dBFS. How a 24-bit fixed number maps to/within the range of a 32-bit or 64-bit IEEE floating point number is something you can Google. That has nothing to do with audio per se.

I know I said this in another thread here with Rockman413 - he does this same thing over on Motunation which is the forum for Digital Performer and myriad other MOTU material. I've been trying to figure out what his game is other than being allergic to Google or logical thought.

Maybe he just wants to be spoon-fed?