Hi,
I was wondering if in Vegas 17 I set the audio bit depth at 24 bit in project settings (using of course 24 bit wav files) when I render my video to Magix MP4 with audio bit depth at 16 bit will the software automatically dither the audio part or it will just truncate it?
Thanks!
The (MP4, M4a, ect) AAC audio format is not like PCM audio files, so the 16, 24 or whatever bit depth and dither does not apply. What does matter is the bit rate and the encoder's overall quality. Many folks encode at 192kbs , which is a bit low IMO, I use 256 or 320kbs, Like most digital audio a higher setting yields better quality but affects file size. The mono/stereo x2 resolution factor with MP3s also applies to AAC. The best AAC encoders are allegedly from Fraunhofer FDK, FFMPEG, MainConcept and Nero AAC.. though my old and abused ears cannot hear any difference. I am not sure what audio encoder a Magix MP4/AVC video uses, but there are options in Happy Otter Scripts (HOS) for the above encoders as does Voukoder. An audio track could also be encoded separately and muxed in to an MP4 video.
Ok so I can set the bit depth of the project to 24 bit and then I am fine exporting with magix mp4 at 512 kbps, right?
The de facto standard for mp4/aac is 16 bit 48Khz.
All of the Magix AVC/AAC and HEVC/AAC rendering templates are 16 bit (Mainconcept, I believe). The output bit depth is not selectable, and it does not change in respect to your project settings. Dithering is handled internally as needed.
Usually only optical discs, and professional acquisition (not delivery) formats employ 24 bit audio. One example is XAVC-L, although you may not find it necessarily "playable" depending on your system.