24 bit dithered is safer than 24 bit non-dithered.
Especially for quietest parts.
32 bit float is minimum for processing.
It is also safer for clipping protection and wider dynamic range.
No need to render 16 and 24 bits and spoil quality, because it will be reconverted into 32 float or 64 float automatically with any first processor used (even gain).
So 32 bit float. It is the only correct answer.

 

I think people in this thread are getting bit depth and sample rate confused. It's completely pointless to render 32bit float VSTs since you have full offline control even after putting the midi data in. The whole point of 32bit is being able to recover data over 0db. Furthermore, even 16bit already has infinite headroom once it's in your DAW. There's literally no reason to export 32bit if you already have the audio or midi printed in your DAW. Why do you need MORE headroom? It doesn't help anything with quality, because that headroom is exactly the same in 16bit or 24bit. If there's nothing under the audible threshold and nothing to recover over digital clipping, the rest of the data is identical.

 

If anybody can correctly state the bitrate that this musical passage reveals they will win an all expense paid trip to Saturn's lovely and posh resort moon of Saturn, Titan, a prize worth €345,000,000,000.23.

 

It's really funny to read discussions about quality. Friends, even 16-bit is enough for you if you’re not using levels around -60 to -70 dBFS. All these 24-bit sample libraries are just marketing, based on the fact that you don’t pay a high price for them in terms of HDD space, but they don’t give you any real improvement in sound quality (unlike higher sample rates). It makes sense to use 24-bit everywhere and nothing more—32-bit float is meant for internal processing in algorithms.

 

Considering as funny as the intent is that the F# is at the frequency of approximately 739.99hz, the potential bitrate = Low 2,596 and High 4,928 at 60fps

So with that I guess I get the 23c.

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2025

Nope, not even close. Play the notes, put the lyrics to it and voila...the answer! It might not be culturally relevant to you, but give it a try and listen to the melody.

 

If

If there isn't anybody gonna give it a try...the lyric is...Shave and a haircut, 2 bits!

 

thread reminds me too much of the late 90s when digidesign was pushing interfaces for the 192khz future, "academic arguments" about sample quantization, dither, quantization, truncation, dither up, dither down, reducing number of any change in bitrate conversions, 32bit float plugins in 24bit DAWs, "what if my recording only is listened to by people vs by dogs who can hear this sdifferences" and so on. A purely technical question vs a matter of practicality. On and On, ad infinitum. Like a Time Machine.

But now deliberately Lo-Fi music is a popular tactic. I would set the "DAW" to 44.1, 16 bit, dither plugins everywhere you can, TAL-DAC everywhere you can put it. Orange Clip on every bus. Make Jaycen Joshua happy and make it sound like FRUITY LOOPS. Swing the flag!

If it wasn't already, destination: Fostertown.

 

Always bear in mind too, everybody's tying themselves up in sonic knots so that people can listen to the end result on their phone. Probably from the 128kbs MP3 they downloaded.

 

Btw.
vst romplers like the UVI ones seem to playback FLAC files?
Look at their specs here:
https://www.uvi.net/en/orchestral/augmented-orchestra.html#specs

18.44 GB (FLAC lossless encoding, was 36.81 GB in WAV)
44.1 kHz. (Recording at 88.2 kHz)

 

UVI - FALCON: SUPPORTED FILE FORMATS

SSoundbanks (.ufs), AIFF, FLAC, MP3, MP4 (with QuickTime installed under Windows for MP3/MP4), REX1, REX2, SDII (for Mac), WAV, WAV64, SFZ, SND, CAF, EXS

DIRECT CONVERSION
Regardless of your project settings, you can import almost any audio file, regardless of the format, bit depth or sample rate.
Falcon converts them into the appropriate format and simplifies the use of samples.

 

I didn't mean loading files into plugins.
I meant using the UVI romplers. They say in the specs that they recorded in wav format, and then it seems like e.g. Augmented Orchestra plays the recording using internally FLAC files... so I guess their libraries/romplers playback 16bit FLAC files?

 

You have to be clear. There are only 2 products: UVI - Falcon Hybrid Synthesizer and UVI - Workstation.

The Uvi Hybrid also plays samples and sound libraries, but you can also play the synth with it, it's a workstation. It eats up almost all formats. If you put Flac in, Flac comes out.

 

I'm talking about using UVI libraries (like Augmented Orchestra, etc) inside Falcon.
On the Augmented Orchestra page, there's spec page:
https://www.uvi.net/en/orchestral/augmented-orchestra.html#specs
18.44 GB (FLAC lossless encoding, was 36.81 GB in WAV)

Do I understand correctly that UVI recorded all the string instruments in wav, and then they compressed them into 16bit FLAC? This means when we use Augmented Orchestra (or other UVI romplers) we really play UVI's recordings in 16bit FLAC quality?

 

Yes, you understand correctly.

Based on the specifications of the Augmented Orchestra page (1), UVI records the string instruments at 88.2 kHz and then compresses them into 16-bit FLAC at 44.1 kHz. When you use Augmented Orchestra or other UVI compliers, you are actually playing back UVI recordings in 16-bit FLAC quality.

UVI has had one of the best sample engines on the market for ages, it is very high quality and loads samples faster than others. Even Spectrasonics Atmosphere ran on a UVI engine.

 

Not sure about Augmented Orchestra, but other libraries are 24 bit. What makes you think it's 16?

 

It was just a guess that it might be 16bit.
You have some info inside the UVI libraries that it's 24bit FLAC?

 

MDL014 - JD-X Leads - UVI Falcon ( 75 presets )

For recording, we used a Ferrofish Pulse 16 MX + RME Madiface USB audio interface, WAV format 192 kHz/24-Bit, resampled to 48kHz/24-Bit.

Product Details:

• 48kHz/24-Bit
• 75 Patches for UVI Falcon
• Total File Size: 7 GB

www.synthcloud.net/products/mdl014-jd-x-leads-uvi-falcon-75-sounds

 

If romplers (like e.g. UVI libraries) use 24bit FLAC recordings, does it make sense to render such romplers to 32bit float wavs?
FL Studio internally processes in 32bits, so I'd have the truncation efect (from internal 32bits to 24bit without dither wav) but the truncation will be rather inaudible?

 

@a1000 please use allways 24 bit for WAV !
You'll be on the safe side if you always use 24 dB. The format works very well in the Falcon VSTi!

The original quality of the 24-bit samples is already very high and offers a dynamic range of 144 dB,
It is more efficient to work with the original 24-bit samples.

The following image with 24 bit is from my soundset:
The Tone Adventure Expansion by HO for the UVI - Falcon VSTi

 

Last edited: Feb 26, 2025 at 4:11 PM