16-bit.
65,536 steps from the quietest to the loudest. The depth of a CD, and what most upload forms and players expect.
SOLIPSIUM Super resolution audio engine
Free audio tool
Convert a WAV between 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit float.
Choose a recording and the depth to write. Your browser keeps its sample rate, writes a new WAV and adds dither when it goes down to 16 bits. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop a recording here
Your browser does the work on this device. Nothing is uploaded.
WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC, OGG, Opus and more, up to 30 minutes or 200 MB.
Bit depth
Converted
The result is longer than five minutes, so it is not played here. Save it to listen.
What bit depth is
How finely each sample is measured.
A sample rate says how often the sound is measured. Bit depth says how finely each measurement is written down.
24-bit.
Over 16 million steps. Recorders use it so a quiet take keeps its detail when it is turned up later.
32-bit floating point.
Numbers with a decimal point, which can go past full scale and come back. Editing programs work this way inside.
Which to choose
Match what the next step asks for.
A higher depth adds room, not detail: a 16-bit file written at 24 bits sounds exactly the same.
For a player, a CD or an upload form.
16-bit, with dither on.
For an editor or a mix.
24-bit or 32-bit floating point, so later changes have room.
For a brief that names one.
The depth it names, and the rate it names with the sample rate converter.
Questions
About bit depth.
What does dither do?
Rounding to 16 bits leaves small errors that follow the music, which can sound like a faint grit on quiet fades. Dither adds a very quiet, even noise first, so the errors become that noise instead. It matters only on the way down to 16 bits.
Will an MP3 turned into a 24-bit WAV sound better?
No. An MP3 is compressed; the WAV holds exactly what the MP3 decodes to, in a bigger file. The tool says when the file it opened was compressed.
Does it change the sample rate?
No. Your browser opens the file at its own rate, from 8 to 96 kHz, and the WAV keeps it. A file above 96 kHz is opened at 48 kHz. To change the rate, use the sample rate converter.
Why only WAV?
An MP3 has no bit depth of its own: the encoder throws the depth away. A WAV keeps the one you chose.
Can I see a file's depth first?
Yes. Audio file info reads a file's codec, sample rate and bit depth, and this tool says the depth its header names when it opens it.
Is my recording uploaded?
No. Your browser opens the file and does the work on this device; nothing is sent to Solipsium. Checking a recording for noise, hum and clipping is another page: the home page checks it in your browser too.
Free audio tools
Related free tools.
For the rest of a delivery.
- Sample rate converter
Change a recording's rate to 48, 44.1, 32, 22.05, 16 or 8 kHz.
- Audio file info
Read a file's codec, rate, depth and tags.
- Normalize audio
Set a recording to a loudness target.
- WAV to MP3
Make an MP3 copy for sharing.
- All free audio tools
Every free tool on one page.
Is the recording itself clean?
Changing the depth does not clean the sound. Drop the recording on the home page to check it for noise, hum and clipping, and hear its first 20 seconds repaired.
Check a recording
The check and the 20-second try need no account.