Fruity loops and 24 bit

[Death Adder]

Hi everybody, an Italian KVR noob here!

I own a terratec phase 22 and i wonder if I can render in 24 bit in FL (version 4, bundled with the card. I did the update to five, but I'm too used to version 4...).

Otherwise, I will render using acid!

Next question: is there a real gap between 16 and 24 bit renderings?

[C00kie]

Hmmm, try it Can you select properties on a project or on rendering/exporting? (this shows you I don't know anything about FL)

As for the gap between 16 and 24 bits... I've worked happily with 16-bits only projects. Internally in the host everything is handled in 32 bits (that IS really important!) and the quality I put in is the same as what comes out.

Any audio CD I own is 16-bits and you won't hear me complaining that the quality is insufficient. If there is something to complain about, that is never due to the limitations of only 16 bits

Oh, and welcome to KVR and a Happy New Year !!

[Death Adder]

thanks!

well, when you render to wav you can only choose between 16 bit and 32 float.

Sometimes I notice (but maybe I'm wrong) that the rendered thing doesn't sound good as the host thing.

[C00kie]

The only audible difference between 16bits and 32bit float is in extreme soft and extreme loud material.

Very soft material like reverb trails on the end of a song will benefit from the extra detail. And in 16bits anything louder than 0dB is clipped, while it still is OK in 32bits float. You can avoid clipping by using a limiter or carefully watching the sound levels during mixing.

I advice you to do the following for optimal results:
* render in FL as 32bit float
* use a proper audio editor to normalise to 0dB
* save there as 16bits with some dithering

[Death Adder]

Thanks C00kie, that's exactly what I wanted to know!