Topic: 48 khz vs. 44.1

[Josephine]

Grider mentioned in his Black Crowes thread that he recorded at "48 khz rather than my standard 44.1."  Can someone explain to me the difference between the two?  I have been recording @ 44.1.  Should I be doing it at 48?  Are there pros and cons and is there a sonic difference?
Thanks.

[leegeddy]

Grider mentioned in his Black Crowes thread that he recorded at "48 khz rather than my standard 44.1."  Can someone explain to me the difference between the two?  I have been recording @ 44.1.  Should I be doing it at 48?  Are there pros and cons and is there a sonic difference?
Thanks.

32kHz is best 

just kidding, josephine.

marc

[Nick Graham]

Well, if you're planning on going to CD, it's probably better to just stick with 44.1

Unless you listen to your DATs, there's no real reason to do 48khz.

Just my $.02

[Josephine]

Grider mentioned in his Black Crowes thread that he recorded at "48 khz rather than my standard 44.1."  Can someone explain to me the difference between the two?  I have been recording @ 44.1.  Should I be doing it at 48?  Are there pros and cons and is there a sonic difference?
Thanks.

32kHz is best 

just kidding, josephine.


marc

I most definitely had that one coming, Marc . . . . +t   

_{<edited for boo-boo>}

[leegeddy]

Grider mentioned in his Black Crowes thread that he recorded at "48 khz rather than my standard 44.1."  Can someone explain to me the difference between the two?  I have been recording @ 44.1.  Should I be doing it at 48?  Are there pros and cons and is there a sonic difference?
Thanks.

32kHz is best 

just kidding, josephine.

marc

I most definitely had that one coming, marc . . . . +t   

backatcha!!

hope ya scotch taped those switches down on your d100.

marc

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I always recorded at 48K because I argued that there was more frequency resolution.  However, the difference between 44.1K and 48K is arguably not audible and 44.1 goes straight to CD without the additional step of having to down sample.  So for most people going from DAT/JB3 to CCDA, I think 44.1 would be the most convenient rate to use.

On the other hand, I'm getting ready to go back and read all my old DAT masters for authoring to DVD and the DVDV format will only support 48K and 96K LPCM rates.  So I'm better off having 48K masters because I'd have to upsample 44.1k recordings to meet the format restrictions.  I guess it comes down to how much inconvenience you want today in exchange for flexibility later. 

[Nick Graham]

I guess it comes down to how much inconvenience you want today in exchange for flexibility later.

Agreed. Even though I was just extoling the virtues of recording at 44.1, all my tapes are at 48 

You should also make sure you have proper software for resampling if you tape at 48...I've got Soundforge, so no problems on my end - but others should be forewarned.

[leegeddy]

I always recorded at 48K because I argued that there was more frequency resolution.  However, the difference between 44.1K and 48K is arguably not audible and 44.1 goes straight to CD without the additional step of having to down sample.  So for most people going from DAT/JB3 to CCDA, I think 44.1 would be the most convenient rate to use.

On the other hand, I'm getting ready to go back and read all my old DAT masters for authoring to DVD and the DVDV format will only support 48K and 96K LPCM rates.  So I'm better off having 48K masters because I'd have to upsample 44.1k recordings to meet the format restrictions.  I guess it comes down to how much inconvenience you want today in exchange for flexibility later. 

well said.  i agree with you.

personally, i always record at 48k since i do listen to dats more often at home.

marc

[Josephine]

Thanks for the education, gentlemen.

[JackoRoses]

here was some chat on the r4 and sampling
that you may wish to reference
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=38490.15

[Swampy]

Also, somewhere there is a big 44.1 vs 48 thread somewhere... Lemmie see if I can find it...

[sml42]

As I recall there was some discussion as to whether the conversion 48>44.1 introduced any artefacts. At the very least, it is an extra step, and time consuming. The improvement in audio quality going from 44.1 to 48 is fairly small, and if you intended to master everything to audio CD I believe opinion is to just record at 44.1 and save yourself the bother of converting.

The difference between 16- and 24-bit, on the other hand, is as night and day

best regards,
stephen

[dgodwin]

I remember back in the day (1999) when I got my D7, I recorded everything at 48k (no choice) and it would take hours to adjust the sample rate on the computer (celeron 300...)  With the power of today's machines (athlon XP 3200+ 64 bit) it doesn't take nearly as long.  Just long enough to grab a coffee, or check the email on another machine.  Thanks to this thread, I may go back to recording at 48k.  Downsampling isn't nearly as problematic as it used to be. 

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I may go back to recording at 48k. Downsampling isn't nearly as problematic as it used to be.

Also, if you decide to go with 1648 on DVD in the future, you can use your masters as they were recorded.  If you record at 44.1, you will have to upsample to 48k to put LPCM to a DVDV.  I understand that there may be artifacts as a result of resampling.  I'd rather have those artifacts in the CDs I give away than the 1648 DVDs that I'll use as my ultimate longterm format. 

1648 LPCM on DVD is just over 6hours of music - so two shows or two opening sets and the main act all on one DVD instead of 5-6 CDs.

[JasonSobel]

while DVD-V can only handle 48kHz or 96KHz, DVD-Audio discs can be burned at 44.1kHz.

That said, I still do all of my DAT recording at 48kHz.  For me, although the difference is minimal, 48kHz is, theoretically, slightly better.  Given this, and the fairly easy and quick procedure to resample for CD's, 48kHz is for me.  I should note that prior to Dec. '03, I recorded everything at 44.1kHz, because my old crappy computer would take 12 hours to resample an hour of music.  then I got a new computer, and it takes about 15 min for the same hour of music to resample.