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Question: Hi. If I add an MP3 file to a Reaper project, does it remain in the same format, or is it converted to WAV somewhere in the cache? When exporting the project as MP3, will this file undergo a second conversion, or will it remain untouched? P.S. q=8185s is still untouchable)
Asked by Andrey (192.76.x.y) on August 19 2026, 8:41pm
Reply on August 20 2026, 2:05am:
    it gets decoded on the fly, and if you render the project it gets re-encoded.

Comments:
  • Posted by Andrey (192.76.x.y) on August 20 2026, 4:48am:
    It’s decoded into WAV on the fly, and when rendering the project, it’s encoded from WAV into MP3, right?

  • Posted by Justin on August 20 2026, 11:15am:
    decoded into PCM (64-bit floating point samples), yes. Not to .WAV (which is a file format) specifically.

  • Posted by Andrey (192.42.x.y) on August 21 2026, 12:41am:
    One more question. When we record, for example, vocals with a microphone and the recording option is set to 24‑bit, does the file immediately become 24‑bit, or does it first have the internal processing value of 32‑bit float, and then it’s downsampled to 24‑bit?

  • Posted by Justin on August 21 2026, 3:05am:
    It comes in from the interface at 16-24 bit or (32bit float), then is converted to 64 bit float, then converted down to 24-bit integer. Note that if the interface is 24-bit, then the conversion from 24->64->24 is lossless.

  • Posted by Andrey (194.32.x.y) on August 21 2026, 7:17am:
    Is the 24‑bit interface essentially any sound card or the audio controller built into the system board that supports 24‑bit recording?

  • Posted by Justin on August 21 2026, 11:42am:
    either built-in audio hardware or USB etc, yeah. It could be 24-bit or 16-bit, or sometimes 32-bit float if very modern.

  • Posted by Andrey (192.42.x.y) on August 21 2026, 7:20pm:
    Hmm, and if the interface is 24-bit or even 32-bit float, but we record vocals in 16-bit, will there be losses when converting 16->64->16?

  • Posted by wasereb4 (176.1.x.y) on August 22 2026, 12:08am:
    @Andrey If the interface is 24(+) bit capable why would you record in 16 bit?

  • Posted by Mespotine (37.4.x.y) on August 22 2026, 2:01pm:
    It should be lossless, but you'll loose possibilities in the postproduction/mixing process when working with fx like compressor. So best is to stay with 24bit or higher for vocals, unless it's just for quick demo purposes. But even then, you might like the demo and would like to use it further and regret, you recorded it only in 16 bit.

  • Posted by Justin on August 22 2026, 2:21pm:
    The biggest advantage of 24-bit of 16-bit is that you don't have to worry about getting the gain levels as right... if you record 16-bit and carefully get the levels right, you'd probably never run into issues as your room's noise floor is probably way above -90dB anyway?

  • Posted by Andrey (185.220.x.y) on August 22 2026, 10:32pm:
    I agree. Thanks for the info, it was interesting.

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