16 bit or 24 bit

[Edson]

Can somebody tell me the differecne between 16 and 24 bit and which I should use??

Thanks,
Edson

[sunburst79]

24 bit- it sounds better

[Edson]

what's the technical reason...and if that's the case why do they give you the 16 bit option??

[EGS]

Here's some good tech info.

[stmiller]

This is the bit depth. Record and edit in 24bit, then go down to 16bit as needed at the very end. There is much more audio information retained in 24bit. It takes more hard disc space to record 24bit, but is worth the space.

[Edson]

ok..fair enough....i'm sold...

thanks guys!

[mobilemac'nstrat]

Big subject!

Bit depth needs to be considered together with sample rate;

bit depth = quantity of information in each sample

sample rate= number of samples per second of music

you could make an analogy with digital video where bit depth compares to number of pixels
and sample rate to number of frames per second.

cds are 16 bit 44.1khz

but using higher bit depths and sample rates during the recording/mixing process
will produce better results than starting off at 16/44.

Opinions differ as to how high sample rates and bit depth can or should go with discernible benefit. Will depend on how much disc space you have, but also more computing power is needed to manipulate the larger files at higher rates and depths.

[Edson]

I guess the same holds true with bouncing to disc? 24 bit over 16 bit??

[sunburst79]

I guess the same holds true with bouncing to disc? 24 bit over 16 bit??

Bounce to 24 if your going to be using it in your session, bounce it to 16 bit if you going to be burning it to a CD that will play in a CD player.

[Park Seward]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist...mpling_theorem
(You'll enjoy the math on that last one)

http://www.tweakheadz.com/16_vs_24_bit_audio.htm

65,536 values in each sample for 16 bits
16,777,216 values in each sample for 24 bits

Record at 24 bits. I am not a believer in higher sampling rates, however. Not enough back for the extra resources.