Yes, it does sound crazy.
I'm not sure I understand the first step:
save the original Wave file to Aiff 24 bit/48.000 (using Audacity) to my desktop
Are you recording directly to Audacity? If so, then it makes sense to me. But if you're recording to a recorder of some type (not your computer w/ Audacity), then I don't get it. I assume the former (recording directly with Audacity), so just make sure you have Audacity configured to record and save (export) in the same format as the ADC in your recording chain. And don't perform any edits without first confirming Audacity's configured properly for your goals.
As for the rest, I'd just make sure you know how Sound Studio and your tracking / fading application work. For example, does SS perform all edits at 24-bit, or does it edit with 32bfp precision and then automatically dither back down to the file's initial bit-depth (24-bit) as part of each operation? And if it's capable of 32bfp edits, and maintaining the file in 32bfp format until you're done editing, it may make sense to do so - the greater precision may yield better results over multiple edits.