Audio Recording

One of the best recording advices I could give to newbie in home audio recording and music production is to record at the highest bit depth as possible.

If you are confused, ok this is an explanation in bulleted format:

1.) CD Audio standard is using 16 bits 44.1 KHz.
2.) Typically for better quality of recorded audio, it needs a high dynamic range for your music to flow.
3.) This high dynamic range can be obtained at a much higher bit depth (higher than 16 bits) which is 24 bit or 32 bits.
4.) Think of dynamic range as a size of your painting canvass. If a painting canvass size is limited; of course the resolution is limited also and you cannot clearly see the visual image of the painting at a farther distance.
5.) With big dynamic range available in higher recording bit depths, it is analogous to a large canvass painting which you can clearly see even the small details. This increased in resolution increases the ambiance, clarity and volume potential of the recorded audio. In music production, this is also offers a comfortable audio working environment since lots of audio details are available. This is recommended in mixing and mastering, where detailed tweaks to the audio signal are done.

OK, so you now understand the need to record at a much higher bit depth. So what is the standard? It all depends on the following:

1.) Sound card – you need to ensure that your sound card is capable of recording at a much higher than CD bit depth. For example, the industry standard has been 24 bits.

Quality inexpensive sound card can do this job, for example Audiophile 2496, which can record at 24 bits, 96 KHz:

Of course, it is not possible to get this kind of recording bit depth using onboard sound card or other types of sound cards not designed for professional music production.

2.) Recording software – Pro tools for example is capable of processing 24 bit audio. Adobe Audition is using 32 bit float, but is essentially a 24 bit audio processing engine internally. You need to make sure that your recording software can record at a much higher resolution than CD audio, to take advantage of increased audio resolution.

So how you are going to record 24 or 32 bits? If you are using Adobe Audition 1.5 (similar procedure can be found using other digital audio workstation), you can configure it as follows:

Step1: Install a high end sound card capable of recording high resolution audio.
Step2: Launched Adobe Audition.
Step3: Go to multi-track view tab.
Step4: Go to “Options” – “Settings” – Multitrack
Step5: Make sure that the “Track Record” is set to 32 bit
Step6. It is important also to mix down to 32 or 24 bit, so make sure that mix down is set to 32 bit audio.

Actually, for best audio quality that you can get from your music production, you need to ensure that:
1.) You are recording either 24bit or 32 bit.
2.) Mixdown to 24 bit or 32 bit.
3.) Mastering at 24 bit or 32 bit.

Finally once your work has been completed, you can then dither 24bit or 32bit audio wav to 16 bit CD audio in preparation for your CD audio replication/duplication process. This is done in the mastering stage of your music production.