44.1 kHz or 48 kHz?

[osiris]

This has always confused me. I do know it sounds better at higher bitrates but the problem I've had is when you upconvert loops, then down covert they don't sound right and sometimes even the timing is off. It doesn't matter the equipment. It's done that in Soundforge. It does this in Audacity. So, what am I missing here?

[jamcat]

Use 96kHz to record, and use a DAW that can switch sample rates on the fly non-destructively. Studio One is one such DAW.

Audio near Nyquist must pass through a Nyquist filter before being converted from analog to digital. It is a steep analog filter that removes all the frequencies above the Nyquist frequency to prevent aliasing during recording.

It is not a linear-phase filter (because those only exist in the digital domain), so it distorts the phase of down to about an octave below its cutoff.

When you record at 96kHz, a Nyquist filter does not need to be applied first, and isn’t. You can then use a linphase or minphase resampler in the digital domain on your pristine 96kHz audio to get to 48kHz or 44.1kHz without the destructive effects of the Nyquist filter.

The best practice is to keep the audio at 96kHz and mix at 48kHz if you need the CPU, and mixdown at 96kHz then use a high quality resampler like r8brain PRO, iZotope SRC, or the ones found in Acon Digital Acoustica or Wavelab.

And by the way, Dan Worrall is a tool.

[El°HYM]

96 kHz with some clever use of ultrasonic filters.

[vurt]

the librarian, in the lego movie, her surname is katzenjammer.

[El°HYM]

Whats a libertarian?

[El°HYM]

Now we will never have a clue what the other message might have been?

*edit* ok, already gone.

[Ploki]

I always work at 48k

streaming services are 48k, youtube is 48k, nothing except CD is 44.1k
it just makes no sense to use 44.1k anymore. even if band plans on making a CD it's not primary target anymore.

[roman.i]

Airpods are 48khz.

[El°HYM]

Most sample packs still in 44.1 kHz though, which is a pity.

[osiris]

That's the fly in the ointment. I get too much grief when using upconverted samples.

[Ah_Dziz]

I switched to 48khz when I first started doing projects for video. I had only stuck with 44.1 before then to save on hard drive space as it was way less cheap back then. Never seen a negative performance impact between 44.1 and 48, if anything things seem happier at 48.

Now I use 96khz when recording live stuff for editing and mixing. I generally use 48khz when using my giant scoring setup. Never had any issues with converting between the two. Any music that's being mastered for release can be converted to whatever format is required.

Aside from the seemingly more stable and faster buffer at 96khz (just in my experience using my rme interface) I would guess that not having to oversample and then down sample in multiple plugins through a given processing chain adds up to better audio quality. For my ears I mostly hear a difference in drastic pitch effects (multiple octave shifts for sound design etc) that sound so much better when running at 96khz.

[MidnightRunner]

if you are using a fairly modern DAW and plugins and just making music. 44.1 is all you need. i work at 44.1/24.

[osiris]

I don't know about the streaming services. Soundcloud seems to convert songs to whatever format they use for playback so I always upload a wave and I don't think they take 24 bit (could be wrong).

[Ploki]

if you are using a fairly modern DAW and plugins and just making music. 44.1 is all you need. i work at 44.1/24.

why would you tho?
48k takes barely any more resources, is 100% video ready for all deliveries, it's compatible with High res streaming services etc.

[billcarroll]

if you are using a fairly modern DAW and plugins and just making music. 44.1 is all you need. i work at 44.1/24.

why would you tho?
48k takes barely any more resources, is 100% video ready for all deliveries, it's compatible with High res streaming services etc.

This. 48 kHz is where it's at these days.