Audacity 1.3.14 is around

[mmarston]

If you record with Audacity on Windows, it records in 16 bits altough the interface lets you believe otherwise. That's a shame...

I was fairly well disgusted on finding this here and on another forum a few weeks ago. After years of resisting PC audio, I jumped in wholeheartedly a couple years back when a friend discarded an M-Audio 24/96. I spent countless hours copying about 800 singles and a couple hundred albums, meticulously removing clicks by hand... now I'm going to want to do it all over again... if I can muster half the enthusiasm I will consider myself lucky. And there are at least as many more 45s & a *whole lot* more albums yet to copy... argh.

I hope my long-suffering wife still recognizes me when I eventually emerge from the spare bedroom.

Mike

[davidsrsb]

Take a look at this thread:
http://music.columbia.edu/pipermail/por ... 09856.html
ASIO with PortAudio supported 24 bit.
The interface to WMME and DirectSound is blamed

[Dimal]

Somme people say that 24 bit doesn't sound better that 16 and is a waste of space. Well that's true if the files are recorded with Audacity. There all 16 bits.

I must admit to NOT being able to hear any difference between unprocessed recordings made at 16-20-24 or 32bit. However, once processing is involved and DSP rounding errors are accumulated, I can certainly hear the difference in the quality of the output in this circumstance.

Even after several passes with one DSP or another, at 24bit and higher, I am unable to detect any deleterious aberrations....

mal.

[davidsrsb]

Many tests discussed on hydrogenaudio show that prperly ranged 16 bit is good enough. Where we have a problem is recording from vinyl, with recording level a compromise between overload on clicks and having to apply gain to normalise after removing clicks.
Software RIAA equalisation is another matter - you drop 40dB of dynamic range

[dlaloum]

Many tests discussed on hydrogenaudio show that prperly ranged 16 bit is good enough. Where we have a problem is recording from vinyl, with recording level a compromise between overload on clicks and having to apply gain to normalise after removing clicks.
Software RIAA equalisation is another matter - you drop 40dB of dynamic range

Yes 16bits is fine - as long as:
1) you are not editting or processing the result
2) you have input level adjustment so you can "place" the sound at the right level to optimise the available dynamic range

So no messing with removing clicks/pops, no digital changes of level, no EQ adjustments etc....

It is the digital equivalent of a (very high quality) cassette recording - you record and listen - but no editting afterwards.

On the other hand a recording done at 24bit leaves some room for the editting process, click/pop removal, level adjustment - and then final mastering down to 16bits
Both end products are 16bits....

bye for now

David

[davidsrsb]

Editing should be ok, as long as you don't add dither. Major level adjustment is the problem.