A 16 & 24 Bit .wav file question...

[Themutant86]

A normal wav is like 1411 Kbps (16 Bits) I believe. If I were to convert a music file to 24 bits (2116 Kbps) instead of 16 bits would that be a better quality or worse. Because it for .6 or 150% for the compression ratio, and I found that on around half of audio players play 24 bit audio files (dbpoweramp does). I'm trying to figure out which suppose to be "better sounding." To me sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. What does everyone think??

[Spoon]

Re: A 16 & 24 Bit .wav file question...

Same quality, just a larger filesize, so no point.

[ChristinaS]

Re: A 16 & 24 Bit .wav file question...

A normal wav is like 1411 Kbps (16 Bits) I believe. If I were to convert a music file to 24 bits (2116 Kbps) instead of 16 bits would that be a better quality or worse. Because it for .6 or 150% for the compression ratio, and I found that on around half of audio players play 24 bit audio files (dbpoweramp does). I'm trying to figure out which suppose to be "better sounding." To me sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. What does everyone think??

You won't improve the quality by converting from 16-bit to 24-bit, or by increasing the bit-rate. A 24-bit higher bit-rate wav file may be better quality if it's the original recording and it would get worse when going down to 16-bit - relatively speaking, as 16-bit is actual cd-audio quality anyway.

This is akin to increasing the resolution on a photo that is already at low resolution - all you get is more of the same fuzziness. You may be able to apply a few functions which may smooth out the fuzziness, but that's artificial at best.

What I do with lo-fi audio files is I convert to 16-bit wav and then enhance them a bit by boosting the volume or widening the stereo effect. This doesn't always work well, but often it does improve a bit the quality (to my taste at least). Sometimes I may double up the tracks with a minute delay on the second set of tracks, which may result in a richer sound - all artificial of course, and most probably very far from the original hi-fi version. Again, all adjusted to my taste. For this I'm using a cheap (but nifty) recording program from Voyetra, Record Producer Deluxe, which allows track manipulation and various effects.

[Unregistered]

Re: A 16 & 24 Bit .wav file question...

So if it was the original recording 24 bit would be better. What if I make my own song using synth's on (for example) cakewalk's Plasma 2003. Would it be possible to somehow make it on 24 bit's, therefore achieving "the better" sound quality that I seek?? (sorry not sure it that made much sense)

[Themutant86]

Re: A 16 & 24 Bit .wav file question...

Sorry forgot to log in. That was me \/ (Below) though.