Nika Aldrich: Exploring Bit Depth

Following his talk in December on sample rate, Nika explores the other fundamental aspect of digital audio: Bit Depth. This talk will explore the myths and fallacies related to various aspects of bit depth in digital audio, including:

Whether 24 bits is enough for recording; whether we need greater than 16 bits for delivery; Floating point vs. Fixed point processing; When, why and how to apply dither; Noise-shaping; the correlation between bit depth and dynamic range; and alas, the benefits of DSD.

Nika Aldrich has had a strong presence in the audio industry for ten years. As a consultant at Sweetwater Sound he had 5000 clients including studios such as Disney, The Hit Factory and NPR; major artists in every genre including Creed, Shakira, Paul Simon, Madonna, and U2; and several major universities, corporations and other institutions. ÊHe has developed a strong online presence for writing and explaining advanced audio concepts in easy-to-understand language with clear and concise descriptions. ÊHis papers on dither, digital filters, and metering have been downloaded around the world by thousands of people in audio and other industries.

Nika’s latest book, Digital Audio Explained, builds upon his contributions to date, starting with basic understandings of the human ear and sound waves and advancing into complex topics such as noise-shaping, clock design, DSD, convolution, and much more. The book has already received wide industry praise from manufacturers and artists.