Audio Bit-Depth Confusion [Solved]

[Bill Phillips]

I'm working on a mix of this old (2010) project and noticed that the audio file bit-rate is 1411 kbps (32-bit at 44.1 ksps). That's a surprise to me.  At least I thought that I always keep recorded clips as recorded (1058 kbps or 24-bit at 44.1 ksps) for archive purposes. I've checked every take of all tracks. They're all at 44.1 kbps.  The only explanation I can come up with is I bounced all the clips to the default 32-bit bit-depth. Take a look at the gif below. Is there another explanation?

Edited March 24, 2021 by Bill Phillips
Solved

[scook]

49 minutes ago, Bill Phillips said:

Assuming the preferences shown are those for the project and not the current ones. The project date modified is 3/20/2010.

Bad assumption.

The only items in preferences stored in the project are listed under Preferences > Project.

The rest of the preferences are the current global settings.

The project modified date does not mean much WRT audio clip data as they are stored separately from the project file.

The clip depth shown in the image is the result of either recording or rendering at 32bit.

[scook]

Audio Driver Bit Depth has nothing to do with Record or Render Bit Depth

Driver bit depth is what the driver will send to the DAW.

Record bit depth is what the DAW  will use for recording.

Render bit depth is what the DAW will use for bounce, freeze and export.

Note all of these effect how the DAW will operate in the future. They have no effect on existing data.

 

Most ASIO drivers work a one bit depth. This is why the setting is disabled in the video above.

[Bill Phillips]

34 minutes ago, scook said:

Audio Driver Bit depth has nothing to do with Record or Render Bit Depth

Thanks @scook I'd forgot about that but I don't think that's the problem here.  Assuming the preferences shown are those for the project and not the current ones. The project date modified is 3/20/2010.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Bill Phillips

[Bill Phillips]

11 minutes ago, scook said:

The clip depth shown in the image is the result of either recording or rendering at 32bit.

Thanks again.

[Bill Phillips]

27 minutes ago, scook said:

The project modified date does not mean much WRT audio clip data as they are stored separately from the project file.

After partially digesting your last comment, I checked the modified dates for all the original audio clips and they were also all 3/20/2010, the day the song was recorded. So it looks like I recorded them at 32 bits using my 24 bit interface. I guess that doesn't hurt anything. Each sample just has 8 extra 0's at the top.