I wondered. The UR-22C is advertised as a 32-bit, 192KHz interface. But now I’m surprised that I can’t set the interface to 32-bit. In Windows system settings (sound) it only shows me 24-bit for playback and recording. However, I know that Windows also displays 32-bit if the device is actually 32-bit.
I can’t set the bits in the Yamaha ASIO settings, there I can only change the KHz, the buffer size, and the mode from “Low Latency” to “Standard” and “Stable”. None of these settings cause 32-bit to be enabled (already tried).
I also installed the latest driver from the Steinberg website, the interface is on a USB 3 port.
Is it possible that the interface doesn’t support real 32-bit?
To take full advantage of the 32 bit resolution of your Steinberg interface, please check the settings for your DAW or other recording software: Make sure that it’s set to use the Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO driver, and set the bit depth for recorded files to either 32 bit (integer) or 64 bit float.
In Cubase, you can select the bit depth of recorded audio in the Project Setup dialog.
As far as I know, it’s not possible to set the basic Windows driver to 32 bit. In most use cases, this is not an issue since this driver is generally only used for playback. In order to hear the difference between 24 bit and 32 bit playback, you would have to play your audio loud enough to cause a small earthquake.
Please note that even when the ASIO driver isn’t being used, everything that passes through the UR22C’s converters is still being processed at 32 bit integer precision.
Yeah it was a bad marketing decision to advertise it as 32bit. Nobody understands how it works.
It converts the audio signal with 32bit converters and sends the converted signal to the driver.
The driver decides how the 32bit are stored/recorded/streamed. Most software uses only 24bit. But to be fair, that’s more than enough dynamic range (144dB) for popular music.
Windows can’t use the 32bit with the old DirectMusic. You need to use WDM, WASAPI or ASIO for true 32bit. And the application has to support it.
That’s an interesting way to put it but in fact, whatever the level, not even an alien with perfect hearing would be able to hear any difference!
In this case (32-bit integer), using 32-bit mode just gives 8 more bits of random noise over using the 24-bit mode. It’s pure marketing fluff.
but in fact, whatever the level, not even an alien with perfect hearing would be able to hear any difference!