Pro 11 24 bit usage?

Hello all. I was browsing through some Impact Soundworks libraries. They say they are 24 bit. I know Cubase says 64 bit but I was wondering if anyone knew if these Impact Soundworks libraries can be used. Their 50% off sale ends tonight. Thanks in advance!

Those are different kinds of formats. There are four main kinds of formats for sample data these days (and a few more if you go looking)

  1. 16-bit integer – good old “CD standard,” a common distribution format and sometimes recording format.

  2. 24-bit integer – higher precision than 16-bit, also part of the 96/24 formats. A higher quality distribution format and recording format.

  3. 32-bit floating point – slightly better than 24-bit integer, and the default for processing on lower-end software/hardware. Being floating point, “clipping” inside the processing pipeline doesn’t happen (until you go back to integer for playing out.) However, stability of fancy filters/EQs/synths may be less, for nerdy mathy reasons. Can sometimes be used for recording, but almost never for distribution.

  4. 64-bit floating point. This is almost entirely an internal processing format. Again, being floating point, it doesn’t “clip” until you go back to integer for playout/export. Having a lot more precision than 32-bit, filters/EQs will generally be better behaved, again for mathy-nerdy reasons.

Cubase can load samples in any of these formats, although I have never in my life seen a 64-bit floating-point file. (Doesn’t mean they don’t exist, I guess?) It will convert them all to appropriate floating-point for processing, and then back to appropriate integer format for whatever your export format and listening interface is (probably 16, 20, or 24 bits.)

Thank you for the reply. I am new to home recording and wasn’t really sure but this definitely clarifies some things for me. I went ahead and bought the libraries. I’ve been playing guitar for 35 years but somehow just getting involved into the home recording aspect of things. I was using Cubase Artist 10.5 for the last year and just upgraded to Pro 11. I’m using a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 interface into some Adam Audio T7 monitors.
Thank you again!

The one case where they wouldn’t work, is if they are encrypted in some “DRM” format, and require custom software to be loaded into supported hosts. That used to be a real scourge in the past, but most sellers have realized that this loses them more legitimate customers than they might save from trying to thwart illegal copying, so it’s pretty rare these days AFAICT.
Good luck on the libraries and recording!