#WAV 8 BIT VS 16 BIT SOFTWARE#Certain characteristics of an analog sound wave, like the frequency and amplitude, are converted to data computer software can read. It’s a bit of theory and a bit of math, but hopefully it will peel away some of the mystery behind how digital audio works.ĭigital audio is the system in which we store, recreate, and manipulate audio information in a computer system. Today, we’ll focus on audio sample rate and audio bit depth, as well as a few topics related to them. In this article, we’ll cover some basic aspects of digital audio, and how they affect the production process. What does each of the options do? How was I supposed to know what would sound best? Unfortunately, in the chaos of beginning to produce, I didn’t learn the basics of how a computer actually handles audio, so the whole concept of making music on a laptop felt a bit abstract.Įven bouncing my first track was confusing. #WAV 8 BIT VS 16 BIT HOW TO#The arrangement possibilities were endless, and I could learn how to mix music to sound like what I heard. But in some situations, for some productions, it can be helpful to have on hand.I remember how eager I was to get into music production. We might not recommend that everyone go out and rush to try a 32-bit recorder like the Zoom F6 ($700) or F3 ($350) immediately. Like everything else, 32-bit float recording is a tool you can keep in your belt for when you need it. #WAV 8 BIT VS 16 BIT 1080P#On the other hand, it's far less than the difference between, say, moving from 1080p to 4K recording. In general, you can expect 32-bit audio to be about 33 percent larger than 24-bit recordings, which isn't nothing, especially if you're recording hours of audio. There's also the file size issue to consider with 32-bit recordings, though they are a bit overblown. Of course, there are other ways to get around this challenge–some recorders, like the Zoom H6, for example, can record a backup track with lower gain to catch audio that peaks. It can also be helpful for indie filmmaker shoots where individuals are doing multiple jobs and there’s not always someone free to monitor levels constantly. “Where I do really see 32-bit being a huge advantage is for journalists who are recording out in the field, or for documentary filmmakers that are capturing things that you only get once and can be unpredictable,” Pereira says. However, there are some scenarios where having room for error can be a benefit. Adding gain to the signal while recording will amplify that noise, as well as your audio source, and once it’s baked into the recording, it’s there for good. To oversimplify, no matter how quiet you make your recording space, there’s always some amount of noise from background objects, or even the electronics you record on. Setting levels on 24-bit systems can be tricky because of the noise floor. “When you're recording in a 32-bit format, there is no volume knob, it essentially just creates a mathematical chart of data that it can then interpolate in postproduction,” Pereira says. With 32-bit float recording, on the other hand, applying gain prior to recording isn’t necessary. So now when someone decides to yell, between 60 and 145, that's not a lot of dynamic range.” #WAV 8 BIT VS 16 BIT PLUS#So you may crank up the dial on the recorder to let's say, plus 60. “That's good when you have a quiet scene where two people are whispering. And some recorders will apply somewhere between 30 and 90 decibels of gain,” Pereira explains. “When you're recording sound on set, you're usually going to apply gain. Setting those levels involves applying gain to the signal from the mic, which is an irreversible step that crushes the dynamic range of even 24-bit recording. Now, typically you’ll set audio levels when setting up your equipment to avoid hitting that limit. Anything higher than this will be clipped, which is why it sounds distorted when YouTubers scream like that. The highest level a device can record at is referred to as 0 dBFS (the FS here stands for “full scale”). The insane dynamic range of 32-bit float audio is where the claim that you never need to set levels comes from, though even that is a little more complicated than it seems.
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