[linux-audio-user] Linux music editor, greater than 32-bit ?

[Paul Davis]

On Thu, 2007-02-22 at 15:53 -0500, Rick Wright wrote:

> This is true, but as Folderol wrote, 32 bits should be *plenty* of 
> dynamic range for audio.  In fact, it has been argued that ~22bits is 
> sufficient as beyond this you get into the h/w noise floor, hearing 
> limits, etc.

32 bits of resolution gets you close to the *thermal* noise floor. i.e.
your recording contains noise contained by brownian motion. not very
useful.

32 bits of IEEE floating point gives you 24 bits of resolution and a
bunch of bits for an exponent to allow summing without clipping.

--p