A quick question about IRs

John_A

I have some Redwirez IRs that come in different formats 44.1khz 96khz etc. should these be matched to my DAW project settings? They are all 24 bit, and I usually just work in 16 bit, they seem to sound fine, but just wanted to check if I'm using them correctly.

John_A

Quick bump, anyone know the answer?

dudu

Bit depth is used to represent amplitude, so if the IR plugin outputs 24 bit audio and the project is only 16 bit, you can get weird sounding artifacts. Your DAW may apply dithering to the plugin's output to work around that, but YMMV. It's best to bump your project to 24 bit depth (it will still dither when rendering the mix in 16 bit).

John_A

Cheers @dudu much appreciated

octatonic

Your DAW can probably deal with 16bit and 24 bit files in a single session, most can.

Why are you recording in 16 bit?

You have a much better dynamic range in 24 bit- even if your final product only uses 6-10db (like most rock music) it is going to sound better if you are recording in 24bit- especially dynamic sounds like cymbal crashes as well as fades.

John_A

I be honest I don't really know why I'm using 16 bit, I'll use 24 for my next project and see how it compares. Thanks for the tip

octatonic

No worries.