Recordings in 16 bits or 24 bits
Is it preferable to listen to music recorded in 16 bits or 24 bits? Are there audible differences between 16-bit and 24-bit audio? 16 versus 24 bits, that’s the question.
I can tell you three practical things from the point of view of the musician with several hours of flight in recording studios and a couple of hundred tracks on Spotify, TIDAL and similar platforms:
1) If the audio is well recorded, with good microphones, in a good scope, it is important that the technology be 16 or 24 bits. And if it is defectively recorded, there are no 24 bits to save it.
2) If they record in 24 bits they have more margin of error later, when the recording is manipulated in any way, for example by adding reverberation (echo camera) or other effects, or cleaning unwanted noises. EVERY recording is manipulated afterwards, to tune it up. Even if it is only to match the volume, it is already a manipulation (and it is sensible to start from the highest possible resolution, to lose less along the way). This is more relevant to the technical process than to the listener.
3) Since the dynamic range of a 24-bit recording is about 144 dB (decibels), many people argue that it is irrelevant or nonsense to hear in 24 bits because you will never hear those extremes. This reasoning is a fallacy (if what mattered was the total dynamic range, recording in 4 or 8 bits would be more than enough). One thing is certain: for the listener, the ends of the dynamic range matter differently. But what matters are the degrees of thorough differentiation in the central range (that is, subtle dynamic nuances in the mezzoforte / mezzopiano). At both ends (mega strong or almost inaudible) one arrives very rarely. And those degrees of differentiation, those internal steps, are more using 24 bits.
Important clarification: the difference between 16 and 24 bits (or 8 or 32, of course) refers only and exclusively to the dynamics of the audio, that is, if it is strong or smooth. The differences in quality referring to the height of the sound (if it is serious or acute) and indirectly to the timbre (if it is brighter or more opaque) are measured in Hertz (or kiloHerz (kHz), for example 44100 Hz (the standard of the CD audio) vs. 48000 Hz or even 96000 Hz and above. We will talk about this another day, if there is interest.
