Sample rates & bit resolutions

kinatas · Post by **kinatas** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 6:20 pm

Planning a cd burn (44.1/16), is it better to downmix/render the project file directly at 44.1/16 or go for 96/24 and downsample later?

tsod · Post by **tsod** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:31 pm

interesting question

Unclean · Post by **Unclean** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:17 am

I think it's better let sample rate be... 44,1/16....

Measax · Post by **Measax** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:49 am

not sure if I understand your question...but its better to keep something at as high a bit rate/sample possible because the higher rate captures more of the original sound (keeping the audio integrity) that way future processing won't effect it as much come final mix/down & burn...depending on what you are doing dithering is a good thing also...

kinatas · Post by **kinatas** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:23 am

Measax wrote:not sure if I understand your question...but its better to keep something at as high a bit rate/sample possible because the higher rate captures more of the original sound (keeping the audio integrity) that way future processing won't effect it as much come final mix/down & burn...depending on what you are doing dithering is a good thing also...

Yeah, in theory this is perfectly right... but there are some issues. In ableton (PC version) working on a project in (for example) 44.1 and rendering @96 gives strange results, like changing the pitch of certain VSTs (which is, I suppose, a VST project issue, not an ableton one).
The other "issue" is the resampling process... I noticed some added hi freq artifacts when downsampling in adobe audition, and this makes me wonder if I'm losing something in the process...
btw... what software do you use to downsample? is there anything highly suggested about this?

532nm · Post by **532nm** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:00 pm

i always thought its best to work in the highest sample rates until you are ready to save your final master. then use 16 bit dither as the final effect in you master fx chain, and save your file in 16 bit 44.1khz format.

also, do not apply any other effects after dithering.

Robot Criminal · Post by **Robot Criminal** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:54 pm

kinatas wrote:working on a project in (for example) 44.1 and rendering @96 gives strange results, like changing the pitch of certain VSTs (which is, I suppose, a VST project issue, not an ableton one).
btw... what software do you use to downsample? is there anything highly suggested about this?

dont render in ableton, instead resample - u get better results. And with downsampling - never downsample until before the final process, maximize - dither (for cd)

kinatas · Post by **kinatas** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:21 pm

thanks for your suggestions... the only problem is that until I get my hands on a macbook I'll be really limited in ableton... my average-aged PC barely manages a realtime play @44.1 khz... pretty impossible working at higher samplerates...
anyway I did some researches and SSRC (http://shibatch.sourceforge.net/) came out as the best resampler availiable for PCs. Looks like choosing PDF type is another challenge... I guess I'll do some experiments, keeping in mind that "no pdf" is the best choice for encoding in lossy formats, while triangular one could give best results in lossless... hmmm.. maybe someday netlabels will start selling flac/wavpack 96/24 files instead of mp3@320...