User Manual

CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 490
we will never release an update unless it passes every test.
30.2 Neutral Operations
Procedures in Live that will cause absolutely no change in audio quality are referred to as
neutral operations. You can be sure that using these functions will never cause any signal
degradation. Applying neutral operations to audio that was recorded into Live ensures that
the audio will be unchanged from the point of analog-to-digital conversion. Applying neutral
operations to les imported into Live ensures that the imported audio will be identical to the
les saved on disk. Applying neutral operations to les being exported from Live ensures
that the quality of your output le will be at least as high as what you heard during playback.
The list of neutral operations found below is provided primarily as an abstract reference;
while all of these operations are, in fact, neutral, it is important to remember that each of
them may (and almost certainly will) occur within a context that also contains non-neutral
operations. For example, running an audio signal through an effects device is a non-neutral
operation. So any neutral operations that occur after it will, of course, still result in audio
that is altered in some way. Even a gain change is, technically, non-neutral.
Neutral operations include:
30.2.1 Undithered Rendering
The Export Audio/Video command renders Live's audio output to a le on disk. Rendering
is a neutral operation under certain conditions:
 the sample rate of the rendered le is the same as that set for the audio hardware in
Live's Preferences.
 no non-neutral operations have been applied.
Live's rendering performance is tested by loading three types of unprocessed audio les
(white noise, xed-frequency sine waves and sine sweeps) in 16-, 24- and 32-bit word lengths
and rendering these to output les, also with varying bit resolutions. Phase cancellation
testing of the original and output les shows the following: