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

[Chuckk Hubbard]

On 2/22/07, Tim Orford <orford at zonnet.nl> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 04:04:34PM -0500, Paul Davis wrote:
> > 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.
>
> Unfortunately digital processing has completely different set of
> problems than analogue.
>
> 32 bit seems to be plenty for us mere mortals with more practical
> problems, but I wouldnt dismiss the esoteric benefits of increased
> resolution for complicated processing tasks so easily when quality
> is the prime concern. The maths is very tricky.

Yes, in my experience 32-bit audio isn't necessary for listening so
much as it is for processing.  Csound is available with 32- or 64-bit
calculations, and the usual recommendation is to use 32 for composing
and producing and making all decisions, and 64-bit for final
rendering, simply because, if you have a dozen or so filters all
making little round-off errors, sine wave tables that are accurate to
so many bits all being scaled and time-shifted, Fourier transforms
converting from time to frequency representations, and a thousand
other things being calculated and rounded off, having twice the bit
depth could change the final outcome, even if the eventual delivery
method will be 16 bits.  I'm sure it's the same idea with graphics.

BTW, I thought 24-bit graphics were sometimes implemented as 32-bit,
with an alpha channel?  What a brilliant idea.
I wouldn't make the comparison, though, that 48 bit graphics is like
16 bits with 3 channels, because I don't see red, green, and blue
separately.  If you change the value in one channel, I don't say "hey
that looks bluer, but about the same red and green", I say "It's a
different color".

-Chuckk

-- 
http://www.badmuthahubbard.com