Reference Guide

847
System Configuration
Improving Audio Performance
Bit Depth column.
The following topics show you how and why to choose bit depths for various operations.
See:
Bit Depths for Playback
Bit Depths for Recording
Bit Depths for Importing Audio
Bit Depths for Exporting Audio
Bit Depths for Rendering Audio
Bit Depths for Playback
Most sound cards can play audio at 16-bit or 24-bit resolution, with a few sound cards supporting 18-
bit and 20-bit resolution. When your project contains files with different bit depths SONAR plays
them at the bit depth that your sound card is currently set to. 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. If you’re playing 64-bit, 32-bit, or 24-bit files at 16
bits, you can turn dithering on in the Audio Options dialog to compensate for the truncated data.
When you first install SONAR, the Wave Profiler profiles your sound card at all the bit depths that the
sound card supports, so when you change the playback bit depth, you don’t need to run the Wave
Profiler again (you do need to relaunch SONAR).
Here’s how to change the playback bit depth for a project:
To Change Playback Bit Depth
1. Use the Options-Audio command to open the Audio Options dialog.
2. On the General tab, choose the bit depth you want to use in the Audio Driver Bit Depth field.
3. Click OK.
Note:
• If you choose to play back at greater than 16 bits, you may need to pick a bit format for your
data on the Driver Profiles tab of the Audio Options dialog box in the Stream > 16 Bit
Data As field. You may need to consult your sound card’s documentation to find the
optimum setting.
• Some audio devices, especially USB devices that use WDM drivers, can not operate in 24-
bit mode unless a variable in SONAR’s Aud.ini file is set to 1. The variable is
Use24BitExtensible=<0 or 1>, which goes in the [name of your audio device (‘n’
in, ‘n’ out)] section of the Aud.ini file.
• SONAR 4 does not play back projects that contain files with different bit depths (SONAR 5
and later), so if you want to open a multiple bit depth project in SONAR 4, see the following
procedure or a conversion procedure.