Bit Depths For Recording; Bit Depths For Importing Audio; Bit Depths For Exporting Audio - CAKEWALK SONAR User Manual

To Rewrite Audio Files at Different Bit Depths
1. Use the Tools-Change Audio Format command to open the Change Audio Format dialog.
2. Choose a new bit depth in the New Bit Depth field.
3. If you're changing to 16 bits, you can check or uncheck the Apply Dither checkbox. Dithering
means to add a certain audio signal to 16 bit audio to make it sound more like it did as a higher-bit
signal.
4. Click OK.
SONAR rewrites the audio tracks in your project at the new bit depth.

Bit Depths for Recording

You can choose the bit depth of newly-recorded files in SONAR, and you can change this value at any
time. The Status Bar shows the project sampling rate and the current record bit depth setting.
The choices for the recording bit depth setting are 16, 24, and 32. At present, no devices can record at
32-bit resolution, so you don't need to choose this option yet. 24-bit files give greater dynamic range
than 16-bit files, so 24 is a good choice for music that gets very soft, as well as loud. 16-bit recording is
efficient for many recording projects, especially louder projects.
To Choose a Recording Bit Depth
1. Use the Options-Global command to open the Global Options dialog.
2. On the Audio Data tab, under File Bit Depths, change the Record Bit Depth field to the desired
number.
3. Click OK.

Bit Depths for Importing Audio

You can choose the bit depth of imported files in SONAR, and you can also import files at their current
bit depth. If a file uses 32 bits, importing it at 32 bits makes sense because you can choose to do your
audio processing in SONAR at 32 bits, to preserve the precision of any audio processing that was done
to the files. You don't have to choose 32 bits as an import option though, because SONAR will import
files at whatever their current bit depth is if you choose the Original option in the Import Bit Depth
field. Because SONAR can play projects that contain files of different bit depths, you don't have to
convert 16-bit files to 24 bits to play them with other 24-bit files, saving significant storage space.
To Choose an Importing Bit Depth
1. Use the Options-Global command to open the Global Options dialog.
2. On the Audio Data tab, under File Bit Depths, change the Import Bit Depth field to the desired
number. You can choose the Original option to import the files at their current bit depth.
3. Click OK.
This process changes the default import bit depth, which appears in the Import Audio dialog. You can
override this value for one import process at a time by changing the value in the Import Audio dialog.

Bit Depths for Exporting Audio

You can choose the bit depth of exported files from SONAR. Unless you are burning a CD or DVD, or are
concerned about storage space, you can export files at 32 bits to preserve the precision of any audio
processing that was done to the files.
To Choose an Exporting Bit Depth
1. Use the File-Export-Audio command to open the Export Audio dialog.
2. In the Bit Depth field, select the desired number.
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