| Interesting topic that I'm just now jumping into...this is what I was told before...what are your thoughts on this:
"24-bit integer processing can introduce progressive deterioration, (as will any integer system) whereas 32-bit floating point won't. This is why programs like Adobe Audition can outperform ProTools in its internal processing.
It's only called 32-bit because it is 23-bit mantissa + sign bit + 8-bit exponent, which is effectively 24-bit. The reason for working like this (32 bit floating point) is to retain the resolution when audio has any sort of amplitude-related operation carried out on it - which it can do over about a 1500dB range. If Audition worked in 24-bit integer mode, this range would be restricted to about 144dB.
Your DAC is operating in 24-bit integer mode because it has to - it's a hardware device. Audition has no such limitation, and is accordingly engineered to take the best advantage possible from it. And there's no such thing as a 'standard' 24-bit file anyway - there are several formats, and everybody uses their own 'standard'. That's why there are translators available. Mind you, I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a good idea to have a proper standard for audio file transfer - but if there was one, nobody would accept the ProTools 24-bit integer one anyway, because it's too limiting. The IEEE 32-bit standard that Audition uses would be a far better bet.
There are a few other issues about operating in 32-bit mode, but they're all good things, not bad ones. Probably the most important is that as long as it sounds good, you really don't have to worry about the mixdown level, even if its way undermodded, or even overloaded slightly, because normalising the FP mixdown will restore everything to the correct peak levels without any loss of resolution at all - this is the magic of Floating Point, and that's something that you just can't achieve with a 24-bit integer system. Mind you, if you have an overloaded mix running, it doesn't usually sound too good when you monitor it, because at that stage, the soundcard can't cope with it - this is ultimately why the mixdown needs to be normalised so that the peaks don't exceed 0dBFS, or slightly below. This way, it converts back to integer levels that the card can cope with.
Pro Tools claim of 48-bit precision mixing with nearly 300dB of dynamic range implies that this is integer-based, not Floating Point arithmetic. The actual dynamic range this gives is 289dB, which is presumably what they mean by "nearly 300dB." Now, compare this to Audition. 32-bit Floating Point internal processing gives nearly 1500dB of internal dynamic range. The Pro Tools system is inherently dated architecture."
What's everyone's thoughts on that? |