How to set Audio Driver Bit Depth to 24 bit?

[Marcello]

Hi there!

I have a steinberg UR12 audio interface which supports 24 bit, but as an idiot I basically recorded all my songs in Cakewalk with the Audio Driver Bit Depth at 16 bits.

Now I'm wondering if I change that to 24 bits after I recorded everything, will it work for the overall audio quality? 

Or is something you need to set before recording?

 

[John]

It will have no effect on all ready recorded audio. That is recorded at 16 bits. However. after you change the bit depth in Driver Setting and in Audio Data to 24 bits all recordings will be recorded at 24 bits. 

 

[Marcello]

1 hour ago, John said:

It will have no effect on all ready recorded audio. That is recorded at 16 bits. However. after you change the bit depth in Driver Setting and in Audio Data to 24 bits all recordings will be recorded at 24 bits. 

 

Damn it!

Is it a big difference in audio quality between 16 and 24 bits?

[John]

It depends. The short answer is yes. What you get with 24 bits is a huge increase of headroom and very low noise.  If you record at 16 bits very carefully watching your levels closely it will sound great. If you record in 24 bits and use as much care your noise level will be so low that practically you wont have any noise.  If you are a little sloppy while recording 24 bits it still will be good enough. 24 bits is very forgiving. 16 bits is not.  

The biggest increase in over all quality for me was going from 16 bits to 24 bits. This was a very long time ago.  But keep in mind that CDs are 16 bit only. That doesn't mean that they were recorded in 16 bits but the early ones were.  

I wouldn't worry about what you have already recorded.  Just from now on got for 24 bits. It really makes recording so much easier. 

[Marcello]

1 hour ago, John said:

It depends. The short answer is yes. What you get with 24 bits is a huge increase of headroom and very low noise.  If you record at 16 bits very carefully watching your levels closely it will sound great. If you record in 24 bits and use as much care your noise level will be so low that practically you wont have any noise.  If you are a little sloppy while recording 24 bits it still will be good enough. 24 bits is very forgiving. 16 bits is not.  

The biggest increase in over all quality for me was going from 16 bits to 24 bits. This was a very long time ago.  But keep in mind that CDs are 16 bit only. That doesn't mean that they were recorded in 16 bits but the early ones were.  

I wouldn't worry about what you have already recorded.  Just from now on got for 24 bits. It really makes recording so much easier. 

MMM ok, what do you mean with noise exactly?

What should be noisy in 16 bits?

[John]

 

I hope this will answer all your questions.