Choosing the Sample Rate and Bit Depth in REAPER

[@melodies_are_alive]

An exceptionally important video this was, explained with great clarity and brevity - thank you very much!

[@thiagocesaro]

Great, as always, Kenny! This video should be one of the firsts we see as Reaper beginners, like "DAW 101". It is really useful and saves a lot of researching time. Congrats!

[@southsideronnie]

A simple clear explanation of sample rate and bit depth. Thank you Kenny!!

[@REAPERMania]

I tried to keep it as simple as possible as I don't think 99% of people need much more. And that 1% probably knows more than me. :)

[@joeheukerott9186]

Thanks. It’s good to review this stuff and to get some confirmation that I have been doing this right.

[@chrisashworth7089]

Great explanations and advice...as usual. Cheers Kenny....you make such a difference. 👌

[@Xabi_MM]

You articulate everything so clearly. Great content, man.

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

Another stellar post.

[@APorTodas]

How is it that just when I was studying this same thing, you just made it 1000x easier? Thx Kenny.

[@Andy_1964]

I just started using a daw for the first time and reaper was an obvious choice because of its 60 day free evaluation period..thanks to this and your other excellent and informative videos I will be purchasing the full license and using reaper as my 'go to' daw from now on... I thank you 👍🤘✌️

[@jgabora]

Does anyone know if the free Reaper behaves differently than the paid version?

[@splimbo4877]

Great easy explained info as always Kenny. Thank you !

[@TKO-rf5no]

Thanks Kenny!

[@daviHuggMonster]

I changed mine to 48khz a while ago, had some modules in VCV rack that actually would not work without that seeting. I stick with that globally. Don't think I would personally use 96khz for my projects.

[@REAPERMania]

I stuck with 44.1kHz much longer than I should out of habit.

[@daviHuggMonster]

@@REAPERMania well it was standard for a long time :)

[@Together-Count]

Hello friend, I found your channel. I wonder how I import a video with 2 audio channels to reaper, since when importing it only a single audio track appears. thank you

[@Bluelagoonstudios]

For me as a mixer, I get all the multitracks in 24bit48k, because I don't do recording much, so I keep 24/48 and then render the stems or in 24bit/48Khz, or as one file (WAV) in 16bit 44100Khz. It's quite simple, in the academy we all work on 24bit 48K also on recordings. I think it's quite efficient in that mode, because a lot of people I know works this way. I noticed guys working in 32bit 192K, that's a choice in my humble opinion.

[@REAPERMania]

Makes sense. I did do a lot of testing with different convertors at higher rates and it didn't seem to be worth the trouble.

[@x-destinygunblade3683]

its still recording as distorted

[@dominique948]

thank you Kenny 🥰

[@wavewatchermedia]

Thanks for the video! Currently I'm working on the sound design and mix for a short film. For this I used all kind of .wav files (foley, dialog, synth sounds), without paying attention to the sample rate; Turns out my settings where 44100 and now I see that the standard for film is 48000. Can I just render the stereo mix (wav, 24bit PCM) for the film to 48000 or does that introduce problems in terms of quality?

[@kpaceh]

Hi Kenny, Can you explain a bit regarding this topic of Sample Rate and Bit Depth how it relates when you export a file, for example if I record with 48k 24bit, but the master file I export is 44.1k 16bit, how is it affecting the audio, and when and should be dithering used. Thank you!

[@REAPERMania]

Personally, I never use dither. But some people like it. But as far as rendering, if you render to anything different than the project sample rate and bit depth, REAPER will just convert it. Yes. It will affect the sound as it has to make the conversion. Will you hear it? Probably not. But as a rule, if you know you're going to need 44.1kHz, try to record at 44.1kHz or 88.2kHz if you like hi res audio. And if you need 48kHz try to record at 48kHz or 96kHz. But if you have to convert it, it's not the end of the world. Almost no chance you're going to hear a 24 bit file bounced to a 16 bit file as losing any quality.

[@mateuszzawocki1405]

Kenny, but what if release has to be both (CD and streaming). It seems to be obvious that you don't record two different takes (one for CD one for streaming). I assume that you record 48k/24bit and in the end you render from that two versions - first 48k/24bit for streaming and second 44.1/16bit for CD. Am I correct or maybe is there some better way? Gr8 video as always, thanks!

[@REAPERMania]

@@mateuszzawocki1405 Yes. You are correct. If you know you're going to need both just choose 48kHz 24 bit and convert to what you need for each format when rendering. It's not perfect, but like you said, no one is going to record two versions just for sample rate.

[@mateuszzawocki1405]

@@REAPERMania glad to hear that. Thanks so much.

[@checkmatenate]

48khz and 24 bit depth, got it! I have a feeling that maybe sending audio for films may need to be higher but that is just a hunch!

[@AzurBaumi]

Interestingly most sample packs I have bought (as I am mainly interested in producing electronic music using just a DAW and a MIDI keyboard) are in 44,1 kHz/16 Bit, some are at a higher resolution, only very few are at 48 kHz/24 Bit. This means I am wasting space when using these at 48 kHz/24 bit, but it seems to me like the future proof standard setting I was looking for, with a nice explanation going with it.

[@homestudioculture]

Great video, I stumbled upon it because I was having issues with my recorded audio. I'm recording distorted guitars, when monitoring the sound is perfect, after recording, reaper is introducing mudiness and making the low end uneven. I verified that with a spectrum analyser. Any ideas on what might be causing this? Thanks again! Love your channel😁😁😁

[@rj7257]

This was very helpful, thank you!

[@soulyah144k]

Hi there , guys im trying to run Reaper with my windows sound card but when sound plays back weather a sample or vst instrument it starts to make an awfull feedback noise any idea as why this is happening and how i might be abke to fix it? thank you in advance.

[@insertanynameyouwant5311]

Saw your old video about Vital, do you know if there`s a way to make notes sliding to each other? Glide doesn`t do it

[@KevinWayne]

Isn't there supposedly a thing about 32FP that gives more "headroom" or something? I thought that was supposed to be a better starting point for a project you could dither down to 44.1/16 for sites like CD Baby that ask for that.

[@REAPERMania]

32 floating point does give you more headroom but it's not usually needed. It's mostly used for audio for video where you want to avoid accidentally recording too hot and clipping or recording too low. This can happen if you don't pay attention to your recording levels. So 32 point floating solves this with a ton of headroom and no need to set recording levels. The tradeoff is that the files are much bigger. In recording music, this shouldn't be needed if you just set correct recording levels. On location, 32 floating point can be a lifesaver though. But more importantly, this only works if your audio interface supports it. Most music interfaces don't. So setting it to 32 floating point won't do anything without an interface that supports it. 32 floating is usually a feature in location audio recorders. You can't just choose it in REAPER.

[@arvidkuipers4176]

Your video's are a great help. Thank you 🙂

[@RadiantLag]

You ate that!

[@isaacgr9209]

Hi Kenny, I just recently upgraded from my pc to a Mac and want to move my projects over but I am struggling, is there any way that you recommend doing that, thank you for the great videos and all the help

[@atibakojo3478]

Does Reaper use a any kind of sound suppression. When u bring in a sample. It seems to sound a lot clearer and cleaner than my other DAW. The samples sound just like they should and processing like reverb just sound so good. I tried to learn reaper when i fii got into production a few years ago didn't know enough about DAWs to make the learning curve worth it ,But with experience im back and i love the sound of it since most my work had a lot of sampled sounds. Reaper seems to deal with EDM style music easier than Cubase because of the way it imports samples. The drag and drop is really nice.

[@Timanator]

Do you offer a class for Reaper recording metal guitars? These videos are amazing!

[@burning_KFC]

As always writing a comment to support the channel

[@marceloharguindey159]

Hey Kenny!! Please: how must I set the Master Meter?

[@Marcos_Franciosi]

Thanks Kenny. I have a problem, when I record, the frequency cuts to 10k. My seting is correct and I have followed all the steps. I tried introducing white noise into the track and the spectrum is correct. It only happens to me in Reaper when I record, either by line or mic. I tried the same settings in Ableton and the spectrum is complete. My system is Mac M2 max and my interface is Apollo Quad. Do you have any idea what the problem could be? Thank you!

[@higltypig]

I was under the impression that 24bit took the same amount of space as 32bit because in the computer they're stored in 32bit registers?

[@REAPERMania]

I've never heard that.

[@higltypig]

@@REAPERMania ok so Bard says - "A 24-bit number is packed to fit in to a 32-bit register, but the extra 8 bits are not stored in the file. This is because the extra 8 bits are not necessary to represent the audio signal. A 24-bit audio file uses 24 bits to represent the amplitude of each audio sample. This means that there are 2^24 = 16,777,216 possible values for each sample. Even the quietest sounds that can be heard by humans have an amplitude of at least 16 bits. This means that the top 8 bits of each sample are not needed to represent the audio signal. For this reason, 24-bit audio files are smaller than 32-bit audio files. The extra 8 bits in a 32-bit audio file are not used to store any additional information about the audio signal, so they are simply wasted space. In practice, the difference in file size between 24-bit and 32-bit audio files is not very large. A 1-minute, 48kHz, stereo audio file will be about 10.5MB in 24-bit format, and about 14MB in 32-bit format. This is a difference of about 33%, which is not insignificant, but it is not a huge difference either. For most people, the extra file size of 32-bit audio files is not worth the benefits of the extra precision. 24-bit audio is considered to be the highest quality audio format that is still widely supported, and it is more than enough for most people's needs."

[@REAPERMania]

@@higltypig That all makes sense to me.

[@luancardoso6896]

Thank u so much!

[@sentientmonolith-official1301]

Hey Kenny, I have to do some minor EQ'ing on a track that someone sent me. It's 16 bit and 44.1 kHz, and I want the output to be the same. Should I: 1) set the project bit depth to 16 bit while processing so I wouldn't dither the final output? Or 2) leave the project bit depth at 24 bit and then dither the output? Or 3) set the project bit depth at 24 bit and then NOT dither the output?

[@DonBernhard]

To be clear, bit depth refers to file size only. Kenny mentions that briefly. He doesn't explain that internally REAPER uses floating point.

[@juliengoodlife]

Ok, but then the streaming platforms want the song in 44.1 kHz, so at what point do we transition from 48kHz to 44.1 kHz? Because I've heard/read it's not so inocuous to transition from one to the other... Thanks for the video anyway!

[@BryWy]

Would changing from 44.1k to 48k mid project after some tracks have already been recorded affect anything?

[@MrHamit64]

What is the highest sample rate and bit depth reaper does support though? SoundForge now does 768 KHZ 64 Bits floating point.

[@KWNelsonVO]

Excellent video Kenny! Quick question, if I am exporting the final file (I do VO work, render out of reaper in 24bit/48k, and plug into RX10 for mouth declick and denoise) as a .mp3 file, will it sound wonky or weird, or hopefully, better if I make that switch? Or will it not really be noticable? I have been recording in 16 bit/44.1k and most of my work ends up on various youtube channels.

[@REAPERMania]

Not sure what switch you're asking about. But I would avoid mp3 as much as possible until the end of the process if that's needed.

[@KWNelsonVO]

@@REAPERMania sorry my phrasing might be a bit off, I meant switching from my usual 16bit/44.1k recording and rendering to recording and rendering in 24bit/48k with the final audio the client getting in .mp3 format. Idk if that makes any more sense.

[@REAPERMania]

@@KWNelsonVO It shouldn't make it worse. Better although you probably won't notice.

[@KWNelsonVO]

@@REAPERMania awesome!! Thanks! You’re the man, Kenny!!

[@TKOthunder]

So then why is it that there are Boom bap producers who love the sp1200 sampler which is 12bit when the sound quality is severely diminished? I love that 90s sound of sampling, but i want to have modern audio levels.