[Anahata]

Ty Roberts wrote:
I want to experiment with different bit depths and sample rates,
to get a feeling for how the sound qualities vary as the bit depths
and sample rates get down into the low end (below 16 bit sound).

I took a look at Audacity, but it seems to only support 32 bit, 24 bit,
and 16 bit.

Have a look at sox. It's a commmand line "Swiss army knife" tool for
converting between different audio file formats. You should be able to
convert at least to 8 bit depth, with or without dither (which you
should certainly investigate if you want to learn something useful) and
will convert between different sampling rates.

You can also get bit depth reduction by reducing the level, storing
e.g. as .WAV, reloading and increasing the level back to original. You
lose 1 bit per 6 dB level reduction. you can do that with Audacity using
the "amplification" tool.

Anahata