Different frequencies aren't stored in different bits. It's all mixed together. If you mix -10dB of 100 Hz and -20db of 1000Hz, the composite will be the same at 8 bits, just much, much noisier. There is, curiously enough, nothing at all like "vertical resolution" in digital audio - resolution in the amplitude dimension.
24 bits is great for recording, but the end distribution medium only needs to be 16 bits, after you normalize the thing you tracked at 24 bits.
You can get libsndfile and FFTW and do the tests yourself.
24 bits is great for recording, but the end distribution medium only needs to be 16 bits, after you normalize the thing you tracked at 24 bits.
You can get libsndfile and FFTW and do the tests yourself.