Hello forum,
I have a question:
Since Renoise’s stock samples are FLAC, will there be any issue with mixing different file formats into my project? Am I actually supposed to convert Renoise’s samples to WAV? Are there technical consequences to not doing so?
Thanks! I’m still checking out the demo version of Renoise, and would like a little clarification on this.
LM
No. No. No.
You are mixing “sounds” (audio waves, the content), not file formats (the container). Do not confuse the content with the container.
Another issue is the recorded quality of each sample, which is also not directly related to the format. On the other hand, certain audio formats have certain quality limitations, as the MP3 format.
Since most samples are short-lived, it is very reasonable to always work with FLAC (compression without loss of quality), and throw away MP3 format samples (compression with quality loss). The WAV format is like FLAC but without compression (same format quality).
To understand all this, investigate what an audio wave is, how it is saved digitally and on what factors it depends to preserve its quality.
Thanks for clearing that up!
With that in mind, is it alright to mix bit depths and sample rates if the “content” is satisfactory to my ears? I ask because for years I’ve been hearing that the bit depth and sample rate of everything is supposed to be the same.
It’s fine. In the end Renoise will render it out as a single file with the settings you assign (e.g 16-bit, or 24-bit).
If you like the sound, go for it.
I’ve mixed in all sorts of stuff, and what you can hear when a file is played in isolation is different when part of a mix.
Thanks!