Syntrillium Backup Forums :: View topic

George W. · Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 1:43 pm

I have a new Audiophile 2496 installed and (finally) working correctly with CEP. Had to figure out the proper routing settings. I'm confused about recording at 24 bits. I'm currently set at 16 bit at 44.1, which is the default for the card and what I've used in the past with a cheap card. Is recording at 24 bits worthwhile considering it will probably be mixed down to 16? And (here's the dumb question) how do you set the card and CEP to record at that higher rate? Thanks.

VoodooRadio · Location: USA

If the card is 24bit capable, (which it is) then you'll just select 32bit in Cool Edit when you set a track up to record. 32bit... that's right. It is 24 bit with an 8 bit interger. This will make a difference when doing transforms on files. Things like using noise reduction, hiss removal, etc... benefit greatly from the added bits. Just don't forget to convert your files to 16bit/44.100 KHz/stereo (the Red Book standard) when your ready to burn to CD. That is a very rough descipt and a search for 24bit and 32bit in the archives will turn up alot more indept information that should clarify anything your in doubt about. Wink

George W. · Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 2:28 pm

AndyH · Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 2:42 pm

The A to D converters are 24 bit -- period. If you record at a 16 bit depth, by setting the audio software, such as CE, to 16 bit, the lower order 8 bit are simply truncated. So, there is no soundcard control panel setting.

There is a soundcard control panel setting for sample rate. If you leave it unlocked, the card's clock will set itself to the software -- i.e. to whatever sample rate you select in CE. If you lock the rate in the card's control panel, you must set CE to record at that rate.

This is considering A to D, an analogue input. When recording from a digital source, the source is in control of both bit depth and sample rate. You must make both the soundcard and CE match the source. You must check 'external' in the card's control panel and select the correct rate in the external section.

kylen · Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 3:20 pm

George W. · Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 6:40 pm

I really appreciate all the help and explanations. I guess I'm a little too old to be trying to learn something new. Smile

I'm mostly interested in doing some basic recording of acoustic guitar with some simple additional tracks. Also I do some transfering of music from minidisc and a small stand-alone digital 4-track to edit and mixdown in CEP. Of course I'd like to get as good a quality as is reasonable. Maybe it's just me but I found the Delta Control panel to be a bit confusing. Now that I've toyed with it some I think I understand the options a little better. Thanks to this forum I'm doing a little better with CEP too.

I've currently set the multitrack/card options to 32(24)bit and a sample rate of 48,000. Is this sample rate practical? I gather that it's best to record high and convert down when the project is complete but is much gained by going to a rate of 96,000?

Thanks again to everyone.

kylen · Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:05 pm

Hey George W., older is better, eh ?

I forgot to mention I always work in 44.1K/24bits on my Audiophile 2496.

I tested out some transcribes of some analog mixes at 96KHz but I didn't notice anything. I'm sure my home equipment never made a hiss over [nyquist] 44.1KHz. Till I get a decent pre amp I won't worry about it much. If I was working hi-quality samples I might worry about that or maybe impulse stuff...not now though!

Sometimes if I fly some stuff in from the VS1880 I think it comes in at 48KHz so I'd probably leave it there until I needed a reason to downsample it - like writing a red book CD or mp3.

I think your minidisk might be 44.1KHz so I wouldn't save that at a higher rate unless you really want to. You might have recorded some tracks on your digital 4 track at 48KHz so those might be OK to leave at 48KHz.

I don't really have a clue about switching beteewn 44.1K and 48KHz. I think if some DAT guys poke their heads in here they might say something.

You can search some threads here - I've seen it come up. In fact I've seen anything that either you or I could ask come up here so don't be a stranger to grabbing a coke and a bag of popcorn and searching the night away - filling up your tech notebook.

Ain't digital fun ? (The answer soon will be yes! Smile

)

kylen

alofoz · Location: Australia

Check out this thread on the new Cool Edit forum.

George W. · Posted - Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:50 am

Thanks to Kylen and everyone else....this has all been a hugh help. As suggested I did a lot of searching through posts last night and checked out the provided links as well. I now have everything setup for 32(24) bit and 48K. There seems to be some difference of opinion on using 48 over 44.1 so I'll try both. My guess is it doesn't matter much and 44.1 is fine.

The 2496 card is working well with CEP. Some users seem to be working around some multitrack quirks with the card and CEP but I just set the patchbay/router option to "Monitor Mixer". In CEP the device properties for wave in/out are both set to "M Audio Delta AP Multichannel" and it seems to work fine. Currently under 32-bit Audio in CEP "4-byte PCM" is selected. I'm not sure if this is the correct setting since I keep seeing mention of CEP using "4-byte IEEE float".

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for all the help.

G.

kylen · Posted - Wed Jul 23, 2003 9:00 am

Now for the real fun - playing the acoustic guitar and mixing the great tracks !8)

kylen