KVR Audio

Caine123 · Post by **Caine123** » Sun Aug 11, 2024 6:47 pm

hi guys,
this is something i think about some times in a year, i discovered the following while working with 48khz vs. 44.1 khz
- a few projects/vsts sound different pitchwise, i also showcased it with some kontakt libraries for example. maybe this also solves some old different pitched sounding layers from the past, i need to check with other vsts
- a lot of audio samples are in 44.1khz, so using these in 48khz projects i dunno
- do streaming services not convert to 44.1khz anyway? i dunno about bandcamp now.
- the small extra headroom/frequency range you get i need to check if i really hear it
- i dunno how much performance impact 48 khz does but i think only few percentage.

so yeah i dunno yet what speaks for and against switching back.

open for discussion.

WackyZoundz · Post by **WackyZoundz** » Sun Aug 11, 2024 9:00 pm

48 kHz does not bring any real advantage compared to 44.1 kHz, especially if you work with 44.1 kHz samples anyway. I only go higher if I record to reduce aliasing, otherwise I stay at 44.1 kHz and oversample plugins if they need it.

FranklyFlawless · Post by **FranklyFlawless** » Sun Aug 11, 2024 11:30 pm

48 kHz is used for video projects, while 44.1 kHz is used for audio projects. The technical reason behind 48 kHz largely has to do with broadcasting standardization.

RirtualViot2013 · Post by **RirtualViot2013** » Sat Sep 14, 2024 11:27 am

FranklyFlawless wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 11:30 pm 48 kHz is used for video projects, while 44.1 kHz is used for audio projects. The technical reason behind 48 kHz largely has to do with broadcasting standardization.

To elaborate:
48 kHz is used for video projects, mainly because 24 fps is a standard framerate in cinema.
Divide 48.000 by 24 and you get exactly 2000 samples per frame. with 44.1 kHz divided by 24 fps you get 1.837,5 samples per frame, which means that it isn't exactly clear what happens to the "half" sample - does it get left behind in the last frame or is it already rendered in the next one?

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Sep 14, 2024 12:20 pm

If you use a lot of samples and they are at 44.1kHz then it may be beneficial to stay at that sample rate simply because your DAW will need to upsample them at 48kHz which in turn will slightly alter the way they sound. If you however mainly work with synthesized things (soft synths) or recording things into your computer then you do get tiny benefits from staying at 48kHz.

If you want to avoid aliasing as much as possible while still minimizing the "damage" to your samples from up sampling, then I highly recommend switching to 88.2kHz as your main sample rate.. however that also comes with some caveats as some plugins (very rare in this day and age) do not work correctly at that sample rate. Doubling the sample rate will help the up sampling. There's far less "damage" done to your 44.1kHz samples if the rate is a multiple of 2 and at 88.2kHz you are basically doing 2x oversampling "for free" to all your plugins without any up or down sampling, though you need to do one single step of down sampling at the end for distribution on modern platforms.

WackyZoundz · Post by **WackyZoundz** » Sat Sep 14, 2024 6:59 pm

bmanic wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 12:20 pm If you use a lot of samples and they are at 44.1kHz then it may be beneficial to stay at that sample rate simply because your DAW will need to upsample them at 48kHz which in turn will slightly alter the way they sound.

That's true. Or use at least exact multiples of 44.1 kHz (88.2 or 176.4 kHz) because this also reduces phase issues when downsampling.

bmanic wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 12:20 pm If you want to avoid aliasing as much as possible while still minimizing the "damage" to your samples from up sampling, then I highly recommend switching to 88.2kHz as your main sample rate.. however that also comes with some caveats as some plugins (very rare in this day and age) do not work correctly at that sample rate. Doubling the sample rate will help the up sampling. There's far less "damage" done to your 44.1kHz samples if the rate is a multiple of 2 and at 88.2kHz you are basically doing 2x oversampling "for free" to all your plugins without any up or down sampling, though you need to do one single step of down sampling at the end for distribution on modern platforms.

Alternatively you can also use a host samplerate of 44.1 kHz and only use oversampling on plugins which require it. Saves a lot of CPU and RAM.

electro · Post by **electro** » Sat Sep 14, 2024 8:02 pm

Something like Akai MPC can only connect to audio interfaces in class compliant mode at 44.1Khz. That is another reason to stick with 44.1Khz

Serato DJ Pro is locked to 48Khz

electro · Post by **electro** » Sat Sep 14, 2024 8:42 pm

44.1Khz Only

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon Sep 16, 2024 10:03 pm

Speaking of that kind of setup for the MPC Live/One ecosystem, the soon to be released Zoom L6 looks absolutely awesome!

WackyZoundz · Post by **WackyZoundz** » Mon Sep 16, 2024 10:16 pm

12 channels at 96 kHz is okay for that price. Though I would prefer support for 88.2 kHz. Multiples of 44.1 kHz are better to work with when it comes to downsampling and synchronizing.

mjolnir · Post by **mjolnir** » Thu Oct 17, 2024 8:20 am

If you ever need to swap files with hardware, it's good to know which rates and resolutions are supported.
That can have an influence on your project decisions.

Go back to 44.1khz from 48khz? i use samples which are 44.1khz etc.