Hi guys just a question I know I don't need 24-bit and that's not why I'm asking about this. My buddy who is collaborating (engineering co production) on my upcoming CD tells me that there is a "premium" version of biab audiophile that exports multiple tracks as 24-bit. I don't believe that's true I think audiophile is the top of the line. Am I mistaken?
New to BIAB 2020 when you use the render to audio file function, in addition to the basic 16 bit WAV, you can also export as 24 bit or 32 bit. You can also change the sample rate.
Since the realtracks are all recorded as a 16 bit wav, if you select 24 bit the extra bits will not have any information, is that not true?
That being the case what is the purpose of having that option?
If you are exporting to wave then it is probably because you intend to use the exports in another application or hard ware. So it could be down to the requirement of that application or hardware.
Also I understand folks use high bit depths e.g. 24 as opposed to 16 to give more headroom for the mix thus increasing the dynamic range (level) between the quietest and loudest parts of the music, as if you think about the stack of bits is taller allowing more steps. Note we are talking bit depth here 16 24 32 bit not sample rate which is the number of samples taken . Hope someone can explain that a bit better. As that is a rather simple explanation.
Yes, I understand why higher bit depth is a good thing when you are mixing.
But realtracks are only 16 bit, so my question is why does BIAB allow you to select 24 (or 32) bits when exporting to individual WAV files when the realtrack itself is only 16 bits. Even though the file would now be 24 bit, there is no information in the extra 8 bits, so no difference than if I exported at 16 bits AFAIK.
This was something just added to BIAB 2020 I think.
Steve & Dave: Mike, Pipeline and you are all correct.
The BIAB Audiophile version is 16-bit. Yes, requests have been made for a 24-bit version but to my knowledge, there is nothing announced by PG Music. I have a vague recollection of some forum discussion here about how the RealTracks were recorded and it MAY have said 24-bit, but if so, that's the format PG Music MAY have and not what they have made available to us.
When you save a 16-bit file to a format of 24-bit, you gain nothing in quality and lose some file space on your drive. The only reason you might want to do that I can think of is if you want to mix files of different bit rates and the DAW you use doesn't do that. Most DAWs I am aware of will make the conversion internally, and most people have (or should have) their DAW set to work internally in 24-bit for the added mix headroom reason given by Mike.
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If you are just mixing BB tracks then 16bit is what you can leave them as. If you want to add vocals or other instruments then the session will be at a higher resolution. BB needs this feature for the Biab Plugin so it can render tracks at the same resolution for the BB Plugin as to what the DAW is set to, so when it sync plays back the generated rendered wav files in the local folders, then when you drag them into the DAW it's not having to up sample them and have another copy.
The only reason I could think of exporting the Audio files as 24 bit would be if you were planning on recording something in your DAW at 24 bit, and there MIGHT be a compatibility issue in rendering to the final wave file. For most home studio setups, I really can't think of a reason to use 24 bit, unless you have a totally professional studio AND you're going to have an unbelievable dynamic range in your music. Most home setups can get away with 16-bit recording.
Finally, I suspect there is a practical consideration. I just downloaded the UltraPak+ version of BIAB 2018. It took me like three days and was about 170 gigabytes of data. This WASN'T the Audiophile version, the standard version uses compressed files. The Audiophile version does not. If you went to 24 bit, the actual file sizes would be astronomical. Imagine a one terabyte drive to hold all of your files, and then trying to install them on your computer.
I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
...Imagine a one terabyte drive to hold all of your files, and then trying to install them on your computer.
Not braggin', but all I can say is that I already have been doing this with multiple 2TB drives - and more, for a long time now.
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