In article , Justin Ulysses
Morse writes:

I actually disagree about the need for more bits in the delivery
medium. I think 16 is enough to deliver the full fidelity of any
real-world finished production, even though 24 bits are needed during
tracking, mixdown, and mastering.

Yeah this is a good point IMO. The reason is that in the real world where
things are sometimes done in a hurry and levels are not always set to optimum,
having that overkill is a good thing. Not to mention the fact that tracks get
EQed and compressed all to hell which of course brings up the noise floor and
exposes low level signals more than they would be otherwise. I can think of a
session I did a week ago where the drummer used brushes on one song very
quietly and I didnt feel like resetting the levels of all ten tracks so I just
left them, knowing that I would be fine with my 24 bit system.

In the delivery medium you can be pretty sure (especially these days with the
"level wars") that the full potential of the medium is going to be exploited.

Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney