Re: [Jack-Devel] word length and bit depth

On 06/07/2013 04:56 AM, Justin Marcus wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am new to this list and fairly new to Jack. I see that in the setup
> page of Jack Control the "word length" if using some devices (Portaudio
> for example) is set to 16 and is not changeable. I also notice that if
> sun or ssl are selected the word length can be changed but only to 32 or 64.
> In my host application (Reaper in this case) it is showing 48k 24bit
> wav. I am a little confused. Is Jack actually streaming 16 bit or 24 bit
> audio ?
> As the standard for professional audio is 24bit these days I am hoping
> that is the case here.
> I couldn't see anything about this in FAQ and I couldn't see a separate
> forum so I'm emailing. Hope that's OK

hi justin,

JACK will always use 32bit floats internally, which is roughly the same 
as 24bit fixed point, but with the added benefit that it does not ever clip.
what actually goes down to your hardware depends on the hardware and 
driver capabilities. most interfaces these days will nominally operate 
at 24 bits, even though the least significant couple of bits will 
usually contain noise only.

best,


jörn




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