Christmas Poll

[Carlos Mills]

What bit-depth and sampling rate do you record in studio?

[Dave Labrecque]

What bit-depth and sampling rate do you record in studio?

24/44.1 dithering to 16-bit output for most audio projects.
24/48 dithering to 16-bit output for most audio-for-video projects.

[TotalSonic]

My usual recording work for audio is at 24bit/44.1kHz - but I am recording tracks for my new string quartet's CD at 88.2kHz (which you didn't give any choices for). My reason for this is that I feel that the PTHD192 converters used at one of the studios I am tracking at sound a teeny tiny bit less grainy at 88.2

If work comes in that is primarily destined for delivery on video or DVD-V then I work at 48kHz.

When mastering I'll usually play out to my analog process chain at whatever sample rate I've been given (hires stuff like 96kHz has been getting more common) and then capture back at 24bit/44.1kHz for final edits and then use either the Sonoris or Waves IDR dithers to convert to 16bit/44.1kHz.

There are a number of ME's like Bob Katz, Brad Blackwood, Michael Fossenkemper, etc., that feel they get better end results by upsampling to 88.2 or 96kHz prior to any digital processing and then downsampling afterwords - but I haven't done enough testing with this to draw any conclusions yet as to whether the supposedly smoother digital processing at 2xfs makes up for any artifacts brought in when you convert back to 1xfs.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Sean McCoy]

24/44.1 for all music projects; 16/44.1 (dithered) for audio destined for radio; 16/48 (dithered) for all audio destined for video or TV unless otherwise requested. I've had a couple of animation and ADR voice sessions where they requested 24/48.

[AudioAstronomer]

16/44.1 if no objections. Otherwise I just do what the "smarter" guy tells me to. There's a difference, but I rarely ever care... and everyday with projects getting bigger and guitars getting more distorted and singers screaming more, and folks wanting more plugins... I just dont care. Makes more sense to use less space and resources

[TotalSonic]

. I just dont care. Makes more sense to use less space and resources

Honestly - how much more drive space and cpu power is required for 24bit vs. 16bit though? I've never had problems with 30 some 24bit tracks with plenty of processing going on - and as far as archiving with DVD-R's it just doesn't seem to be much of an added expense.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[AudioAstronomer]

1/3rd the space.

Im generally dealing with projects that are extremely large, talking 10s of gigs at times. The different between a 40gb backup and 60gb can be pretty substantial :cool:

Have any of my clients ever noticed if I dont tell them? Nope. Not even when I use 24/96 do I rarely hear comments. In the end the difference is often negligable. When it can even be remotely though that the different will make a noticable difference though, I always shoot high as possible.. but my "line" of work changes depending on the day. Food is good to have :)

[TotalSonic]

1/3rd the space.

Im generally dealing with projects that are extremely large, talking 10s of gigs at times. The different between a 40gb backup and 60gb can be pretty substantial :cool:


I guess for me if the session archive is around that amount I'd have the client purchase a hard drive - in which case the cost amount & back up creation time between 40gigs and 60gigs is pretty minimal. Obviously ommv.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[spiritman]

24/44.1 Only because Saw Studio doen't support DSD. Yet!!

Oh ya. I don't have any DSD D/A-A/D's yet ether....http://www.sawstudiouser.net/forums/images/icons/icon11.gif

[AudioAstronomer]

I guess for me if the session archive is around that amount I'd have the client purchase a hard drive - in which case the cost amount & back up creation time between 40gigs and 60gigs is pretty minimal. Obviously ommv.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

I do this for all projects, but I make my own safety copy. Customer service is priority number one!

Given I have a pretty high-end adda chain 90% of the time im "in the studio" I have no problem rockin with 16/44.1. Live is a different story but for reasons some people know I dont do live anymore...

[bcorkery]

I'm with Robert. 16-44.1 is my standard unless otherwise instrucked.

[studio-c]

Yep. 44 / 16.
I think I did a rant about this earlier today. ;)

[Naturally Digital]

48/24 for me most of the time. Some of my clients demand it (they track here and mix elsewhere) and somehow, it became a sort of 'standard' from the days of DA88's... BTW: Anyone want to buy one???

[Carlos Mills]

Hi Robert,


Live is a different story but for reasons some people know I dont do live anymore...

Would you share with us why you don't do live anymore...?

[Ollie]

Hello,
My preferred recording choice is not on your list. I find that 24/88.2k is closest to what I want to hear. Especially from material that I transfer from 2 inch tape. 88.2 does more for the bass and highs on my system. I have recorded 24/44.1k quite a bit, but 88.2k is my preferred.

[Tim Miskimon]

My default is 24/44.1 for multi-track & 24/88.2 for 2 track.
If I could I'd do everything at 24/88.2 because I like the way it sounds but at this point I don't have enough 24/88.2 converters to output 24 channels to my analog board - so for now 24/44.1 is my default.

[Ian Alexander]

16 bit here all the time, 44 for radio, 44 or 48 for tv, depending on how the post house is set up. Never had a complaint, but I'm not a studio for hire. I think most of my clients or end users wouldn't know what to do with more bits or samples.

[UpTilDawn]

In the studio and for my own work, I've been using 44.1/24 lately.
Live multitrack, I tend to go with 44.1/16 more often than not.
Live 2-track, I like 44.1/24.

I have my doubts as to how much benefit one has over the other when the end result is 44.1/16 audio, played on everything under the sun.
Music style has a lot to do with my decision as well.

DanT

[soundtrack2life]

What is the big advatage of the 24 bits over the 16 bits at 44.1? Is is really worth the difference for Rock / Dance music? and what do you use to get it back to CD 44.1 / 16? Are there audiable artifacts after the conversion?
Joe

[Cary B. Cornett]

What is the big advatage of the 24 bits over the 16 bits at 44.1? Is is really worth the difference for Rock / Dance music? and what do you use to get it back to CD 44.1 / 16? Are there audiable artifacts after the conversion?
Joe
This is one of those topics that come around again and again.

Tell me, when you do your personal accounts, do you start by dropping everything to the right of the decimal point, recording the dollars but not the cents? If you do this long enough, what happens to the overall accuracy of your accounts? Would you want your BANK to do this?

Now if you are only talking about a single very large purchase, say a new car or a house, the "cents" part of the figure may not "count" for much, and so it is, perhaps, with a CD.

Think of the released CD as the final result of a long series of calculations (which, in fact, it IS). If you ask ANY top mastering engineer whether he would prefer to get the mix files at 16 or 24 bits, he will ask for 24 bit files EVERY TIME. This is because the more "detail" there is in the numbers you give him, the better the final result he is able to give you (all other things being equal).

Overall, you want to preserve all intermediate results with the highest possible precision in order to avoid cumulative error in your processing, much as you don't want the bank to "drop the cents" in every line item in your monthly statements.

Rock and Pop music are just as "worthy" of maximum precision in your calculations as any other music. Bob did not code SAW with an alternate set of "lower precision" settings just for Rock or Pop, so why should you impose such limits?

Reduction to 16 bit should be the LAST step in the process, and if your mixes will be professionally mastered you should leave that step to the mastering engineer. Now, if you are concerned about the extra hard drive space to record original tracks 24 bit, you could do those tracks as 16 bit to save space, but when you are ready to start mixing set the output resolution to 24 bit, and if you "pre-process" any tracks save the processed files at 24 bit.

HTH

[Microstudio]

this thread may help you understand Sample rate better.

http://www.sawstudiouser.com/forums/showthread.php?p=40636#post40636

[soundtrack2life]

Thanks for the input. I will do 44.1 / 24 on my next tune.
Joe

[antiClick]

My turn! :)

16/44.1 when recording non-comercially at home
24/44.1 most of the clients studio time
24/48 if it's for DVD
24/88.2 when recording 2 tracks or jazz/classical/acoustic ensembles

men, what a mess! XD

Anyway... in terms of sound quality, there are a thousand things more important than that.
But it's quite important to avoid 48->44.1 conversions

[tomasino]

48K/24 bit.

Keeps me ready for DVD.
No problems dithering down to 44K/16bit.
Plenty ways to upsample if needed.