Greetings, Lloyd, and listers.
I'll try to explain the bits issue again and do a better job. I
believe the new Cooledit for Win95 still operates on only 16 bit
files, if information I was told earlier this afternoon is correct.
The 32 bit refers to operating system level stuff, not the resolution
of audio that can be imported or exported.
Lloyd's comments were on compression of any other process that can
happen to audio which can be destructive in nature, i.e. you can't
undo the result. The reason we see most mastering facilities and
folks who work with audio for video in the high end using 24 bit audio
in their editing workstations.
The easiest way to consider it is the usual fade-out. Most good
mastering shops ask you to leave the fade-out for them to do,
especially for studios mixing digitally at 16 bits. A strange thing
happens there when you do your mixing in the digital domain. The bit
rate is being recalculated all the time. As you fade down, eventually
something funny happens with the recalculation, and it looses the
"least significant bit" is a believe what they call it.
Anything such as a fade, a crossfade, change of equalization can
change this. Therefore, you want to make that "least significant bit"
as high as possible. More headroom in other words.
For radio work, voice-overs, etc. SOmething such as Cool or saw that
I mentioned earlier will do you quite handily, I"m sure. When doing
cd's audio for video, etc, one might still like to have the higher end
software available. Even in these situations, sometimes you might
want to use some of the tools and practices of the mastering house to
overcome problems with the material you have. In audio for video, you
might need to work with audio from one of the cameras or decks that
uses emphasis, which boosts the high frequencies. If you want to
apply some equalization to the signal to remove some of this, it's
best if possible to do this on the digital signal. If you convert
back to analog, process, then go back to digital, you're inviting all
sorts of gremlins in the door through the conversion process in both
directions. If it's
to be mixed with other audio and the result be a .wav or other similar
file at 44.1 khz 16 bit. You're going to want to do something to
strip that emphasis, especially if your software doesn't act upon or
pass the emphasis flag. Some video camera manufacturers still set
emphasis on by default in their products.
These are only a few reasons why you see the higher bit resolution
workstations out there. I'm sure Craig from our National Center
recording studio could comment on this.
I think it's interesting, though, that for all the great advances in
digital audio workstations and all that, the folks at National Public
radio and other major radio newsgathering organizations around the
world are still sticking with their analog quarter-inch tape. I don't
expect the razor blade to be supplanted by the mouse as the tool of
choice here for awhile yet.
REgards,
Richard Webb
Electric Spider Productions
"Unfortunately ... you can't bring your home with you.
My ideal thing would be playing in my living room and
putting the music out on the Internet or something."
-- Charlie Watts
Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Test Drive
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