Is it ok to render to a different sample rate than your DAW session?

[MaxC]

If I'm working at 48 kHz in my DAW, is it possible to render to 96 kHz without introducing distortion? Or does the session need to be running at 96 kHz first?

Similarly, is it necessary to upsample 48 kHz files before working in a 96 kHz session, or can most DAWs handle this natively?

Thanks!

[jamcat]

What I do is record audio at 96kHz then I change the song’s samplerate to 48kHz for mixing in Studio One. I’ll put it back to 96kHz to mixdown.

If I want a lower samplerate for distribution, I’ll use a high quality minphase SRC. Some good ones are Acon Digital, Wavelab crystal resampler, and r8brain PRO.

I don’t know if all DAWs can do non-destructive resampling on the fly, but Studio One can. Last time I checked Cubase could not.

[sQeetz]

I go with "what you hear is what you get"... I do everything @44.1kHz. Composing, recording, mixing, rendering... who gives a crap?

[Nug Wrangler]

I go with "what you hear is what you get"... I do everything @44.1kHz. Composing, recording, mixing, rendering... who gives a crap?

This.

[El°HYM]

Depends on your DAW, as some can render out at different Samplerates than your Session. Generelly upsampling from 48 to 96 should be no problem. But why would you want to run your Session lower than the rendering anyway, the other way around it would make sense, though.

[sQeetz]

Still no crap given. It just does not matter. The difference is neglegtable

[CrystalWizard]

Depends on your DAW, as some can render out at different Samplerates than your Session. Generelly upsampling from 48 to 96 should be no problem. But why would you want to run your Session lower than the rendering anyway, the other way around it would make sense, though.

You will get more tracks, plug ins, etc while working at 48, then you render it out non real time at higher resolution. that is, if you care to have the higher resolution. Definitely recording i do at 96k, then i mix at 48. I often render out a 48k, a 96k, and an mp3.

[jamcat]

That^

[sQeetz]

You will get more tracks, plug ins, etc while working at 48, then you render it out non real time at higher resolution. that is, if you care to have the higher resolution. Definitely recording i do at 96k, then i mix at 48. I often render out a 48k, a 96k, and an mp3.

What for actually if the end result for anyone to listen will be 44.1k anyway?
It's resources wasted on the wrong end, if you ask me....

[Logga]

If I'm working at 48 kHz in my DAW, is it possible to render to 96 kHz without introducing distortion? Or does the session need to be running at 96 kHz first?

Similarly, is it necessary to upsample 48 kHz files before working in a 96 kHz session, or can most DAWs handle this natively?

Thanks!

DAWs can do all the resampling automatically, but the quality can be anything from kinda bad to excellent.
The "kinda bad" quality might still sound okay. But if you want to make sure, render at the working sample rate and then use a high quality SRC in the end, to deliver whatever other sample rates you need. Something like r8brain free, for example.

Also, rendering at different sample rates can change the sound in undesirable ways, especially with some old plugins.

[jamcat]

Right. It's best to render at 96kHz then do an offline conversion to lower samplerates as needed with a high quality converter. This way you're not baking aliasing into your mixdown, and a high quality SRC will minimize artifacts better than your DAW would.

[sQeetz]

Plugins nowadays have internal oversampling where needed. All that stuff is redundant.
But ok. Do whatever you believe is right

[jamcat]

The law of internal oversampling: whatever goes up must come down.

And much like gravity, it's the impact of packing it back in to 44.1 or 48kHz over and over again that kills.

Rendering at 96kHz avoids that, and then you do a single high quality offline minphase conversion on your mixdown with a dedicated SRC of far greater quality than the plugin's internal conversion.

[sQeetz]

double

[sQeetz]

But - will anyone ever hear the minuscule difference?