16 bit fostex ADAT recorder and octopre..

NorseHorse · 2nd December 2008

No need to apoligize for the Octopre LE. According to Focusrite, the preamps actually distort less at higher gain than the regular Octopre preamps. It's mainly called "LE" because it has consumer-friendly outputs/inputs more suitable for home studios.

Sorry I can't enlighten the bit situation. Good luck!

Oli_W · 2nd December 2008

Looks like the normal Octopre can dither to 16bits, but not the LE

I'll have to do some tests and see how bad the 24-16 truncation sounds on quiet material.

d_fu · 2nd December 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oli_W

I'll have to do some tests and see how bad the 24-16 truncation sounds on quiet material.

Don't worry, you won't hear it. Your "quiet material" is way above the converters' noise floor, and then there is also the ambient noise from the hall, which acts as a kind of "natural dither". I sometimes set my PC to record 16 bit only (no dither is applied during recording), and there is no audible problem due to truncation.

If the D-90 is too loud, you might want to read this.

Oli_W · 2nd December 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by d_fu

Don't worry, you won't hear it. Your "quiet material" is way above the converters' noise floor, and then there is also the ambient noise from the hall, which acts as a kind of "natural dither". I sometimes set my PC to record 16 bit only (no dither is applied during recording), and there is no audible problem due to truncation.

If the D-90 is too loud, you might want to read this.

Thanks for the positive response!

i think recording to 16bit is different from truncating (as the 16bit conversion happens at the converters, not in the digital domain)...

Also, i've interpretted from bob katz's book that the audience noise floor acts differently from dither, as dither oscillates perfectly around the zero-crossing (average level of 0) and background noise doesn't... Could be wrong about that...

huub · 2nd December 2008

But the ambient noisefloor is soooo much higher than dither would be, for sure the effects of dither would be masked.
I do not think adding dither will make an audible difference in live recordings..

In broadcasting, the most common machine (sony digibeta) is 16 bits, and most engineers don't bother to dither their 24 bit mixer outputs, all live recordings have so much noise anyway, the truncation is inaudible..