Audio files of a different sample rates and bit depths in one project. Is it a problem?

[Wojtek Stecyszyn]

Hi

Consultation and advice needed!

Im finishing my mixes and preparing them for pro mastering. My first album is on it's way!

One issue arrived:

The master engineer to whom I will send it requires 24 bit depth files.

Now situation in all my project is this:

Some tracks were recorded in 24/48 and others in different time and place were recorded in 16/41 and in the end all recordings ended mixed in projects with default 16/41

Now I wonder if that might be a problem...

Question nr1:

What Cakewalk does when its feeded with audio files of a different bit depth and sample rate? (knowing that default for all projects is 16/41)

Does it automatically applies dithering when going down from 24 to 16? What about sample rate?

Question nr2:

What now, when sending for mastering (24 bit depth required) - render them in 16(project bit depth)and convert to 24, or render straight to 24?

I have 2 weeks to sort it out before deadline.

Thanks in advance for your time and help

[reginaldStjohn]

https://gaga.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.05.html

According to the documentation the sample rate of imported files is converted to the project sample rate. 

It appears that you can have files with different bit depths in the project, but there is a setting to set the bit depth of imported audio

http://gaga.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.06.html

http://gaga.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.09.html

If your project is at 16/44.1K then I would export directly to 24 bits. Internally Cakewalk is using 32 or 64 bit floats. So if it converts the floats to 16 bit and then exports to 24 then it doesn't matter the order you export in. If it goes directly from the float to 24 then a direct export to 24 bits would be recommended.

Edited August 18, 2023 by reginaldStjohn

[Bass Guitar]

The export dialogue allows you to choose any combination of Sample and bit depth. It doesn't matter what the project was recorded at. To bad you ended up with 44.1, that sucks. But there's nothing stopping you from exporting it at 48/24. I think it's brain dead that Cakewalk seems to set the default recording to 44.1? It's like a 12 years ago concept. Almost nobody uses CD's anymore. Everything is on video now and that is 48. 

[Wojtek Stecyszyn]

9 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

 I think it's brain dead that Cakewalk seems to set the default recording to 44.1? It's like a 12 years ago concept. 

We can set it in preferences. I chose to work in 16/44.1  because I have only 222GB SSDrive and Im struggling  for every free GB.

9 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

 To bad you ended up with 44.1, that sucks. 

Why that sucks? Would you hear the difference?

Edited August 19, 2023 by Wojtek Stecyszyn

[Wojtek Stecyszyn]

11 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

https://gaga.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.05.html

According to the documentation the sample rate of imported files is converted to the project sample rate. 

It appears that you can have files with different bit depths in the project, but there is a setting to set the bit depth of imported audio

http://gaga.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.06.html

http://gaga.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.09.html

If your project is at 16/44.1K then I would export directly to 24 bits. Internally Cakewalk is using 32 or 64 bit floats. So if it converts the floats to 16 bit and then exports to 24 then it doesn't matter the order you export in. If it goes directly from the float to 24 then a direct export to 24 bits would be recommended.

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated

[JnTuneTech]

Your mileage may vary - or actually will vary depending on what sound interface, drivers, and settings you use, to answer the general question topic posed here. CbB converts things within a project to match - as per your choices. -Then - for your specific end scenario, upsampling from CbB on an export is also quite easy. Or, you can do that with other software after the fact, before sending it to your mastering engineer. Everyone finds their own favorite workflow there.

FWIW - In my recent CbB & SONAR project cleanups & consolidation efforts,  I have found that CbB seems to primarily base the stated overall project bit-depth, determined, in my experiments anyway, by the highest bit-rate audio clip in the project - mostly. -So, for instance, when I actually want to change the overall CbB project bit-depth, I use that as a guidepost.   In my system, sometimes I seem to get better performance, -but not always audio quality (but it's very hard to tell), by matching the overall project bit depth to my audio interface recording capability (which for me is currently 24-bit). And if I have a 32-bit or higher audio source I want to use, I back it up (just in case, in practice CbB doesn't resample destructively anyway), and then have the import dialog convert it for me, -most of the time. -Then viola, the project rate changes to whatever I wanted.   But that's only what I choose to do, -there are many good choices.

I find that CbB does a great job of using mixed bit-level files, at almost any sample rate, with my systems over the years.  But the actual sound quality of the overall output, and exports to be sure, changes individually depending on settings used, and the hardware interface & driver performance combined.   -You should experiment to find the combination of project settings, file bit-levels, and then of course sample rate base, and dithering that you find works & sounds best with your system. That part varies widely.  But otherwise, mixing audio file bit-rates within a project, and exporting at another has never been a problem within CbB for me.  And with plugins, internally I suppose that's a whole other story, but again, Cakewalk seems to handle it all "under the hood" quite well so far for me.

Edited August 19, 2023 by JnTuneTech
clarifying - hopefully!

[Bass Guitar]

18 hours ago, Wojtek Stecyszyn said:

Why that sucks? Would you hear the difference?

Yes defiantly.  I don't hear any difference when you go higher than that but I have always preferred 48 since I bought my first DAT recorder in the 90's. And FYI I just upgraded all my 240 SSD drives to  500 GB on both my main DAW and 2 Laptops. Under $50  each for Samsung Evo's > Samsung has a Magician app that allowed me to clone the old drives to the new ones in less than 20 minutes. It was the simplest and cheapest upgrade I've ever done.  I actually read about that on the forum here a few months ago and I was thinking new drives were a lot more and no way did I want to have to re install Windows and all that Crud..  Go for it. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Bass Guitar