andy_simpson wrote on Tue, 27 September 2005 09:09 |
I have been considering recently the idea that if I record two mono tracks at say 44.1/16, and mix them together (still in mono) - if they are both recordings of the same source, made at the same time, which interact with eachother when mixed - there is some argument that the output will need to be higher resolution than the recording was made at, to maintain the extra information.
If this is valid, are there any digital mixing engines which allow for mixing and output at a higher resolution than the recording rate, where the extra information will be preserved?
Any thoughts?
Andy
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I'm assuming you're talking about digital mixing. For example, ProTools mixes at either 32-bit float (LE) or 48-bit fixed (TDM, HD.) And, yes, (almost) any mixing or processing you do will increase word length so you actually have useful information at greater bit depth than the 16 you started with. You can either record your mix file at 24 bit or 16 bit, and you should use dither to preserve information below the cutoff point in either case (which some configurations do automatically.)
In answer to your question, all or almost all of the current digital mix engines allow this, and it would fairly difficult to find one that doesn't.
I'm not sure why you specify that they should be recordings of the same source, at the same time. That part shouldn't make any difference -- I believe any two files, unless they are bit-identical (in which case it would just be a gain change,) will mix together to create a new file with greater bit depth than either of the originals had.