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Old 08-12-2011, 07:16 AM   #1
Mutley
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Default Cool Edit 2000 and bit depth/sample rate

Hi
I record in 24/96 in REaper and use Cool Edit 2000 as my audio editor. Cool Edit 2000 does not appear to support 24 bit though, and when I open a file its reading it as '32 bit float'.

My question is, by opening and trimming my fils in Cool Edit, saving and then going back to Reaper, am I losing audio quality? Should I be using an editor that has proper 24 bit support?

Thanks
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Old 08-12-2011, 08:44 PM   #2
bennetng
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I am using Audition 1.5, don't know if Cool Edit 2000 has this option or not.
If you are only trimming, saving as type1 24-bit without dither should be lossless. If you've applied any effects (including volume change) then save as 32-bit normalized float should be the best.

In fact you can save 24-bit files in 32-bit without losing quality, the only side effect is bigger file size. It is just like saving a 8-bit gif as 24-bit bmp.

You can do a null test when in doubt.

Last edited by bennetng; 09-07-2013 at 09:26 AM.
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Old 08-12-2011, 10:00 PM   #3
detente
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I use Cool Edit 2000 also.

Cool Edit's engine works at 32-bit float in a special proprietary format. But you can use "Save As..." to downconvert to 24-bit (integer), 32-bit (integer), or 32-bit float. If you need to convert to 16-bit (integer), you have to use the sample rate conversion command. There are two different 32-bit float formats to choose from. You want the one that is "normalised" and not the one that says "16.8" or something like that. There are some other options, but just ignore them.

In order to speed things up, I changed the default keyboard commands so that Control-S brings up "Save As..." instead of "Save".

If you need program to convert 32-bit or 24-bit or 32-bit float to 16-bit rather quickly, use Wavosaur (freeware). But be warned that Wavosaur can only record at 16-bit.

By the way, CoolEdit 2000 also has a system data preferences setting which converts all opened files to 32-bit during opening. You can disable this if you like.

But to answer your question... if you open up a 24-bit file in CoolEdit 2000 and use the "Save As..." command to save as 24-bit again, no... you won't lose quality.
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Old 08-13-2011, 04:20 AM   #4
alanofoz
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The Cool Edit 32 bit format is not a proprietary format at all, it's quite common. In fact Reaper can read these files and render to this format.

(Actually, just remembered the older versions of CE used a slightly different format. Not sure if there are any circumstances where it makes much difference though.)

Totally agree with bennetng.
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Old 10-08-2011, 02:02 PM   #5
detente
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alanofoz View Post
The Cool Edit 32 bit format is not a proprietary format at all, it's quite common. In fact Reaper can read these files and render to this format.

(Actually, just remembered the older versions of CE used a slightly different format. Not sure if there are any circumstances where it makes much difference though.)

OK that's cool. I've had a lot of programs that could not open the 32-bit 16.8 float format. It's certainaly a bit more rare. Most programs seem to prefer 32-bit 0.24 Normalised float format. I think the other format at least used to be proprietary. So I use the 32-bit 0.24 Normalised float whenever I don't want to risk incompatibility.

There is of course, also the regular 32-bit integer format which is very common and compatible. And I suppose it's worth mentioning that Cool Edit 2000's 24-bit integer format might be slightly different than other programs' 24-bit integer format. 24-bit integer can be packed or non-packed. I forget which is which, but programs such as Goldwave and CDwav.exe do differentiate.

I also forgot to mention that Cool Edit 2000 displays (at the bottom of the screen) the bit resolution and sample rate of the currently opened file.

Be warned that it says 32-bit even if it's 24-bit or 32-bit float. That's just a limitation of how Cool Edit 2000 works. This also applies to the sample rate conversion command window. I think the choices are 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit. But actually the 32-bit one is the proprietary Cool Edit format (16.8 float). So you have to use "Save As..." to get to the other formats, like I explained before above.
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