16 or 24 bit?

How to use MultiTrack DAW
newcomer77
Posts: 4
Joined: June 5th, 2:30 am

16 or 24 bit?

Post by newcomer77 »

Another newbie question:

I understand from browsing past posts in this Help forum that it's generally better to use 24 bit instead of 16 bit when recording new songs with Multitrack DAW. But when I plug my microphone (it's a ZOOM iQ5 sterio condensor mic) into my iPad with Multitrack DAW running, a few seconds later a popup appears saying "Hardware: ZeroBandwidth(2x2) 16 bit (44.1 khZ) [128]. Does this mean my mic can only output 16 bit audio to my iPad? And if this is so then is it still a good idea to set the New Songs Use option to 24 bit in Multitrack DAW?

Thanks!
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pwnified
Posts: 1565
Joined: August 17th, 9:41 pm

Re: 16 or 24 bit?

Post by pwnified »

Funny you should ask, I actually had removed this info from the popup to avoid confusion, because it was only displaying the requested hardware bitdepth. In reality the hardware is using the maximum possible and converting to float, which is effectively 25 bit (yes, 25). Which is independent from the project format. So the next version it will be removed anyway, and you can safely ignore the 16 bit message that pops up as it is not truly reflecting the actual depth. As far as which project depth is 'better', there is plenty of controversy about that on the interwebz. I'll just say that 16 bit is already greater than most recording studios dynamic range is capable of. But if you want to record all the bits being output by the mic, even if those bits are below the noise floor, go for 24 bit =)
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newcomer77
Posts: 4
Joined: June 5th, 2:30 am

Re: 16 or 24 bit?

Post by newcomer77 »

OK thanks!