On the basis of various Sound on Sound articles and from using my modest home studio this is my current understanding:
24 bit is worthwhile for the improved dynamic range, especially when recording. Digital overload needs to be avoided at all costs as it sounds nasty and unnatural. 24 bit makes life a lot easier when recording as you can work well below the red line and still have an adequate dynamic range for the final track. Opinion seems divided on the sample rate but the consensus is that it is less important than 24 bit once you get above 48 kHz. Many claim to hear no difference. The ADC and DAC chips to support the higher rates are readily available and I would guess not much more expensive now, thanks to DVD players supporting mass production to these standards. So, they get put in the studio hardware anyway. 24 bit is probably worth while for classical music which in reality has a huge dynamic range, but only if you have the replay system to do it justice. For the pop/rock/indie/electronica side of things where the music is compressed and limited much of the time to a radio-friendly dynamic range and frequency balance it is not something to worry about. At least, that is my interpretation of what I have read. -- dBerriff ------------------------------------------------------------------------ dBerriff's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=12247 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=67512 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
