d8b Forum

Changing from 16bit recording to 24bit mid song.
Hi all, here is another interesting bit of info not covered in the book.
ok.... if i have started a song of in 16 bit and done say 8 tracks.
Then when i come back to it i want to change it to 24 bit but still at 44.1.
so i change the song bit rate in the set up menu/sync to 24 bit
i can then add new tracks as 24bit tracks record or import.
it still plays the 16bit tracks ok, im not getting any static pops as you would expect.
so now my question is... if i render the old 16 bit files, ( and because i have changed the track set up to 24bit) will it then render them as 24bit so i can replace the 16bit ones ? not that they will sound better but just to keep them all at the same bit rate ?
i have done this and dragged the new rendered file out of the regions list to the play surface and replaced the old 16 bit track and it works perfect, but with out sending that file to my pc to measure the bit rate, is the new file 24 bit ?
im thinking it should be

Hey Funk;

This is a good questions although I'm not sure that it really matters?!?

Taking a wild guess, I would think that the HDR is not a sample rate / word length convertor. I would think it plays back or records whatever the recorded files is set at, or would drop zero's or adds zero's depending on what the files are. not sure it would change and save them though? Again just a quess. I would think if the HDR is set for 16 Bit, and had 24 Bit files, it would drop the LSB's. If set to 24 Bits it would add zero's (LSB's), to the 16 Bit to make up 24 bits.
One would think that if it could do that, convert digital word length, it would be mentioned in the HDR manual that Mackie (including Mike Rivers), had written. I have not read it from front to back mind you, but I don't recall that being written.
More research is needed on my part!
Cheers
Bruce

Cheers Bruce,
i just did a quick check took all of 2 mins,
so, i popped up a 16 bit track on the HDR, then rendered a file,
then changed the bit rate to 24 bit in setup/sync then rendered the same file
then just FTP'ed them both over to my lap top, and sure enough when i check the properties of each file
the 16 bit one = 705Kbps
the 24 bit one = 1058Kbps
so using this...
http://www.theaudioarchive.com/TAA_Reso ... e_Size.htm
for a mono file its showing that 1058 is indeed a 24 bit file.

So.... In answer to my own question, if you do change your song bit rate from 16 to 24 bit mid song,
the HDR will write all files as 24 bit and will also render any of your old 16 bit files to the new 24 bit format.
Cool ay ??

Hey Funk;

Just catching up here in the Forum (thanks for the link! It foxed it), and saw you got your answer.

Good to know that it does sample rate change!

I have yet to do any rendering! Haven't been too mauch since the spring of 2023. Moved and still haven't rebuilt!

Cheers and "good on ya" for getting the answer!
Bruce