Articles

Repair FAQ

Sound Devices is proud to offer an incredibly capable, high-quality Service department and Tech Support group staffed by knowledgeable, highly trained professionals. As we cater to professionals who depend on our equipment to make their living, we offer a premium service experience – by professionals, for professionals. Every unit that comes in for on-premises repair […]

MixPre II Comparison Chart

Low Level Signals: 32-bit Float versus 24-bit

The most well-known benefit of 32-bit float files is that they have vast headroom, such that signal levels in excess of 0 dBFS do not clip. However there is an important fidelity benefit for very low signal levels too. We set up the following exaggerated scenario to highlight the differences between 32-bit float and 24-bit […]

Over/Under in 32-Bit Float

The MixPre II recorders includes a new 32-bit float recording mode. To an experienced audio person, the promise of this “gain independent” type of recording seems too good to be true. For years, we’ve all been trained to set the gain high enough to get over the noise floor of the A-to-D converter (or the […]

Sample 32-bit float and 24-bit fixed WAV files

These samples were recorded on a MixPre-3 II to demonstrate the advantage of using 32-bit float WAV files for recording. We split a signal from a MKH40 mic into two MixPre-3 IIs, one recording 24-bit fixed WAVs, and the other 32-bit float WAVs. We then applied too much gain to loud dialogue. Low-cut was set […]

32-Bit Float Files Explained

The MixPre II models introduce the ability to record 32-bit floating point WAV files.  For ultra-high-dynamic-range recording, 32-bit float is an ideal recording format. The primary benefit of these files is their ability to record signals exceeding 0 dBFS. There is in fact so much headroom that from a fidelity standpoint, it doesn’t matter where […]