mandatory audio processing on imported audio?, ah la levels/curves/sharpening to images? Options

[shmick23]

this link is down from my end http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti...cording_(Vinyl)

hi,

as a photographer i know that there are a few mandatory processes that must be applied to scanned film and digitised raw file images, such as levels adjustments and basic sharpening (well, assuming your intent is not to produce an abstract blurry image, etc) because of signal losses via scanning, etc.

does the same apply to digitised audio? Like film and raw files, i always import a wave/raw file to start with and in the past i have only ever applied a slight s-curve adjustment (light amplification) which in a photographic sense increases the contrast/saturation of the image, thereby reducing the amount of visual detail in shadows/highlights

my vinyl importation is simple and does not require 'headroom' (im not going to make large adjustments)

secondly, which ties in to headroom above, i've heard/read varying opinions on which bit rate to capture audio - photographically i could only compare this to editing an image which is 8 or 16 bits in depth - when making moderate/major adjustments, however, the clipping/loss of print information is substantial between the 2 files and can be seen when reviewing image levels (i don't know if it's better to visualise this in audio software or to just listen)

how does this tie into audio and which format is enough to capture/record and/or archive files given my requirements ?