> Professionals use 24 bit samples in recording and production [11] for headroom, noise floor, and convenience reasons.
...snip...
> Modern work flows may involve literally thousands of effects and operations. The quantization noise and noise floor of a 16 bit sample may be undetectable during playback, but multiplying that noise by a few thousand times eventually becomes noticeable. 24 bits keeps the accumulated noise at a very low level. Once the music is ready to distribute, there's no reason to keep more than 16 bits.
The original article does say that yes, during recording and production, 24 bit audio gives you a lot more room to play with. That doesn't mean that you can hear the difference between 16 and 24 bits for the final recording; just that 24 bits give you more room to keep out of trouble during production.
> Professionals use 24 bit samples in recording and production [11] for headroom, noise floor, and convenience reasons.
...snip...
> Modern work flows may involve literally thousands of effects and operations. The quantization noise and noise floor of a 16 bit sample may be undetectable during playback, but multiplying that noise by a few thousand times eventually becomes noticeable. 24 bits keeps the accumulated noise at a very low level. Once the music is ready to distribute, there's no reason to keep more than 16 bits.
The original article does say that yes, during recording and production, 24 bit audio gives you a lot more room to play with. That doesn't mean that you can hear the difference between 16 and 24 bits for the final recording; just that 24 bits give you more room to keep out of trouble during production.