I pretty much ran 24/44.1 w/my 24bit rig...after years of 24/48 or higher.
can't hear a difference really, and the ease of making redbook discs just won me over.
Really downsampling is that much more work? You already have to dither to make redbook so whats the problem with sampling?
I use the batch feature in wavlab and it doesn't take more than 8 minutes (24/96 > 16.44.1) I would say for a full 2+ hour show to process. Were you downsampling than dithering before? Could that be the difference?
I have been thinking for recording soley 24/88.2 for the math if nothing else.
I like 24/96 just to have a high resolution recording for archival purposes alone.
24/192 would be even better for archiving as an argument yet I'm still not sold on CF being able to keep up at least my cards even though they claim to be able to..
I have an acoustic grand piano recording duet with a world class violinist concert recording done with DSM baffled mics into external pre/microtrack (24/88.2 mode) at ~12 foot distance/height that clearly shows violin sounds exceeding 35,000 cycles being recorded. While difference from 16 bit over 24 bit seems easily heard, I have yet with my hearing to tell the difference from 24 bit/44.1 over master quality 24/88.2.
Thanks for that input, Guy! I guess I haven't wanted to thread hijack this thread, but to me the question isn't whether to record at 24bits, it's whether to record at something higher than 44.1k sampling. I do my listening using a Squeezebox which can only do 44k or 48k, though it does play 24bit. Since 48k is the most I can listen at and since 44k is what I'd need for CD distributing, to make my life easier and to keep post processing down, I've been recording at 44.1k. Been wondering if the folks recording at 88k or 96k feel they hear a significant improvement over 44k or 48k....
I have not done any blind tests on the different sample rates in 24 bit. I was able to tell the difference in 16 bit between 44.1 and 48 by the highs. At this point as I mentioned above the higher sampling is more archival than for listening pleasure.