[Ardour-Users] Saving disk space

[Axel 'the C.L.A.' Müller]

On Sat, 1 Oct 2016 13:18:22 +0200
Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 1 Oct 2016 12:58:14 +0200, Axel 'the C.L.A.' Müller wrote:
> >On Sat, 1 Oct 2016 12:43:43 +0200
> >Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> >
> >> On Sat, 1 Oct 2016 12:27:16 +0200, Gunter Königsmann wrote:  
> >> >That would mean that ardour is in fact quite intelligent and that
> >> >saving 16-bit-data as 16 bit in most places does in fact do nothing
> >> >but saving disk space.  
> >> 
> >> True, but since saving disk space nowadays isn't an issue,...  
> >
> >I disagree. I tend to record long sessions with quite a few tracks.
> >For example the last session was well over 15 GB at 24 bit setting. And
> >especially when moving a few sessions to the laptop with only a small
> >SSD in it, disk space starts to matter to me again.
> >
> >> you shouldn't risk to run into an issue that at least wastes time.  
> >
> >What issues? I never ran into a single issue when using lower bit depth
> >than 32 bit float.
> 
> If you process a track there's no issue. If you record the processed
> track by integer instead of floating point and then continue editing
> the recorded track, then you could experience issues.
> 
> However, there already is a difference between mixing a big band for
> broadcasting and recording songs from a CD and mixing it with radio
> host vocals.
> 
> In short, floating point for the file format allows you not to think
> about your work-flow, while using integer for the file format could
> cause issues, you need to care about your work-flow.

As noted earlier you could still swich to a float format after the
import has been done. A more elegant solution would be if the import
dialog had a "keep bit depth" option - wich possibly would be
automatically disabled when SRC is used and the project is set to using
float files.

> Wrongheaded hard ware solutions are not a valid argument. Disk space
> nowadays is not an issue, if you chose your hardware task-oriented.

Well... using a SSD to have a completely silent system isn't a bad idea
for audio work, either.