Stupid NR encode/decode idea for digital recording.

[Kiljoy]

OK, this is maybe just me having too much time on a Monday afternoon to ponder stupid ideas but hear me out and let me know your thoughts. I read Michael Paul Stavrou's book Mixing With Your Mind a while back and remember thinking his analogy of analogue medium vs. digital medium was quite interesting (in this analogy he equated analogue to a photograph with most of the detail in the mid ground e.g. focus on the middle of the dynamic range and digital was equated to a photo with the focus on the foreground e.g. the top of the dynamic range). I know this is only analogy but it got me thinking about things.

My main thought was that as signal is captured at lower and lower levels, the resolution is becoming exponentially lower as well. Now I understand that for a 24bit signal to have the same apparent resolution as 16bit it would have to be down at -48dBfs, and 8bit would have to be 48dB lower again, but what say you used a dbx style companding NR system to capture the lower voltage signal and store it with higher resolution on a digital system....

Obviously no ITB proccessing could be undertaken without consideration for the NR 'decode' on the way out and the graphical display of recorded signal would look quite different....

Your thoughts?

Maybe I just have too much time on a Monday afternoon huh?

[projectMalamute]

μ-law algorithm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Kiljoy]

Thanks for the link, but do you know of anyone who has tried this for a music recording application? I know in this era of 24bit 96kHz and great converters the idea is nothing more than academic but I think it would be interesting to see how it sounds?