Wav Encoder Options

surfbear

Hello,

I'm using a licensed version of SoundTap 2.34 on OS/X 10.11. It works fine, does what it's supposed to do. But then ...

... in a experimental mood I tried various settings in Preferences --> General --> Change settings... for the output format wav. Went up step-by-step until the uppermost Sample Rate of 192000 and 32 Bits Per Sample. Recording through the system's Built-in Input from a FM Tuner. I am well aware that settings above CD quality make no sense in this case.

Still, when I look at the recorded samples, they show a maximum of 44100 and 24 Bits per Sample. Every setting above that will be ignored. So, what are the higher resolution settings good for, or under which circumstances can they be used?

surfbear

I am sorry the post appeared twice - that was not intended

Chris75

Hi Surfbear, I just tested this program's version 2.34 and created a recording from a youtube video, the audio recording was saved on 44.100 sample rate, 32 bits per sample and stereo. using .wav format and tested on Mp3 and it saved at 44.100 sample rate at two channels.

You may want to reinstall the program and restart the computer to make sure the right drivers gets installed and test again.

vapors

Higher resolution recording is often done when making field recordings for various reasons.

While I can't exactly answer your question regarding SoundTap's higher sample rate options, I think it would be good to consider that any internet/radio stream recorded via SoundTap on a computer will be mp3 in origin,

so while I will often set my streams to save as .wav 16/44.1, there is no sonic advantage to be expected. (I assume you already realize this per your above statement 'makes no sense...')

If the end use is playback on an mp3 player, it makes sense just to record as an mp3 (320 CBR is what I'd recommend, although most internet/radio streams are of lesser quality)

Chris75

Vapors, you are right, recording on higher resolution from a low resolution source is a waste. however, the topic was that the program cannot record using those settings, which it does. Now, if what you are recording has bad quality to start with (lets say mp3 at 128) then you cannot expect the program to change the quality even if you record it at studio quality.

surfbear

Thanks for the response.

I did re-install the program and reboot as suggested, however that doesn't make a difference.

SoundTap will still limit my recordings to 44100 / 24 bit, no matter how high the settings were.

While I'm still aware that it is not possible to make a lesser quality better through higher sampling rates, I was only wondering why SoundTap doesn't allow me to do such recordings.

[deleted]

Hi surfbear,

Thanks for the bug report, I have confirmed that the .wav format settings don't take effect straight away in SoundTap Mac 2.34. We'll fix this in the next release. In the mean time you can work around the problem by restarting SoundTap after you change the settings. Then you should be able to save to .wav at 192000Hz, though as you mentioned there's generally no need to record above 44100Hz.

Alex