Topic: Does Audacity automatically dither to 16bit?

[Jeremy Lykins]

I usually record in 16bit but I decided to tape a band on Wednesday night at 24/44.1.  I amplified the recording in Audacity like I usually do with my 16bit recordings, but when I went to dither it in r8brain I got an error message.  To answer my own question, it looks like Audacity does dither down to 16bit when you export the file as a .wav (I looked at each file's Properties to see).  I checked on the drop-down menu in Audacity and it doesn't look like you can export as 24bit, so what does that mean?  Is Audacity's dither a good-quality one, or should I dither before I do any amplification? 

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

From what I remember  you click 24 bit PCM in the drop down menu in save preferences?  Haven't used it in awhile but I think that's right.

[Brian Skalinder]

This should explain how to export 24-bit:  http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,71191.0.html

[JasonSobel]

I think the other issue here is r8brain.  the primary prupose of r8brain is to resample audio, and while it does apply dither after resampling, I don't think you can use it to only apply dither without resampling.  in your case, the original files are 24/44.1, so you aren't doing any resampling, you only need to bring it down to 16 bit to get to 16/44.1.

[Jeremy Lykins]

From what I remember  you click 24 bit PCM in the drop down menu in save preferences?

Thanks, I just found it.  It's not on the first drop-down menu, so you have to click on "Other" to get that option.

This should explain how to export 24-bit:  http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,71191.0.html

Thanks.

I think the other issue here is r8brain.

Is there a better free program to use?