Sample Rate and Bit Depth

Regardless of whether your current Pro Tools session document is 16 or 24 bit, the Bounce dialog box allows you to choose 24-, 16-, or 8-bit bit depths for the bounced file. If you’re going to burn a standard audio CD, for example, the source files for many CD-burning programs should be dithered down to 16 bits (although some, like WaveLab, Jam, and WaveBurner, offer their own dithering options for reducing from 24 to 16 bits during the CD-writing process). Audio files at 8-bit resolution have a characteristic fizzy or crunchy quality, much associated with older computer applications, inexpensive video games, and toys. This is due to the high degree of quantization error—a kind of angular, digital distortion of the original waveform due to its true amplitude variations being rounded off to only 256 possible values. If you are ever required to create 8-bit files, by all means make sure that you maximize your gain first by using compression or some other dynamics processing. You should also select the Squeezer option in the Bounce dialog box to optimize conversions to 8-bit resolution, especially if your source is a voice-over file.