On Thursday, October 08, 2009 7:36 AM, Steven Smolian wrote:

> Is there a loss of data accuracy when reversing a sound 
> file?  In mono?  In stere?

Mathematically, no loss.

Implementation, possible loss.

Reversing the audio is relatively straight-forward, and 
is usually implemented correctly in most DAWs.

If your DAW has an "audio file compare" function, you 
can run a quick experiment to validate that the reversal
process is accurate:

   - select a file
   - make a copy of the file
   - reverse the copy and then reverse it again (reverse 2x)
   - save the "reverse 2x" copy
   - compare the original file and the "reverse 2x" copy

The two files should be absolutely identical.

I just ran this test on my Cube-Tec Audiocube (64-bit 
version of Wavelab 6.10) with a short 7-minute audio file, 
and the entire process above took less than 4 minutes.

The two files were indeed absolutely identical.

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