Message 13/29
Date: 10-Apr-01 @ 10:16 PM -
RE: what mixer should i buy?
Don't listen to numbers. Although I'll tell why not with a bunch of numbers. ;)
16-bit numbers give values from 0-65535 (actually usually read as -32768 to 32767 for samples, but that's irrelevant). Every time you add another bit to the number size, the total range doubles. A 17-bit number gives 0-131071, an 18-bit number gives 0-262143, and so on.
The final output of your music will be 16-bit. The reason that processors work in higher bit ranges is because if you restrict your calculations to 16-bit then your sounds are very likely to clip before you get the final result. So you have to scale everything down before you calculate and then go back
up again after you've got the answer, thus losing some resolution.
It's much better to leave the original values as they are, do the calculation and then scale
down to 16-bit.
The fact is that the difference between 20-bit and 24-bit isn't really a great deal as both ranges give a sizable enough value for you not to really lose too much resolution in the calculations.
The more the merrier of course, but in this case, 20-bit is easily enough, presuming they've done the corresponding maths functions (there are many different ways to do the same thing) so that the values don't exceed the 20-bit range (which of course they must have).
In summary...don't listen to numbers. A bigger number does
not equal better performance in all (most?) cases.
And the O1V's are great.
MikeC