I can't SEE the difference?!

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by Harvey Gerst

Yeah, at my age, I have a hard time hearing a 5K simple sine wave, let alone the overtones of a 7,500 Hz square wave, but it is a theoretical problem - in theory anyway, if not really in practice. But the idea of it still bugs me just a little.

Agreed. I just ticked over the half-century mark myself, and doubt I can hear much of anything above about 16k these days, to be honest.

And I completely understand your (and others) apprehension about that potential for missing overtones. But I tend to look at it this way; there are so many mitigating reality factors of greater magnitude, that to me worrying about sample rate (other than picking the speed my piece of gear likes best) is like worrying about whether my windows are cracked open or not when it's about to get hit by a tornado.

Between the limited response characteristics of the human ear - (even the good ones , the limited response characteristics of the recoding chain, the natural geometric decrease in energy as one climbs the frequency ladder, the natural lack of high-frequency complex waves like squares, sawtooths and such, and the other distortions natural to the music production process, sample rate seems so far down the list of factors as to be something I personally don't lose any sleep over.

If I worked for Telarc and recorded a lot of high-dynamic acoustic pieces, perhaps I might err on the side of caution, but working with mostly blues/rock./jazz stuff, it seems kind of pointless. And even if I were doing Sejji Ozawa conducting Yo Yo Ma, I'd probably have Top Shelf house clocking and conversion anyway, and not my li'l ol' MOTU 2408 .

G.

[noisewreck]

You guys are old

But I am older

[miroslav]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

.

And I completely understand your (and others) apprehension about that potential for missing overtones. But I tend to look at it this way; there are so many mitigating reality factors of greater magnitude, that to me worrying about sample rate (other than picking the speed my piece of gear likes best) is like worrying about whether my windows are cracked open or not when it's about to get hit by a tornado.

I agree with you...it can be silly focusing too much on one variable when you are faced with a plethora of variables in a typical recording environment!
Though still, my thought has always been to always try and squeeze as much as possible out of everything even if at times it seems like the effort is not worth it.
I guess it's the notion that the sum of a lot of small, almost insignificant choices might add up to give you maybe an extra 5%-10% improvement for the end product.
Sometimes...yeah, the decisions are almost made on faith that they will contribute positively even if it's hard to isolate that one variable and prove if it’s worth it or not.

I think much of that comes from the somewhat anal nature of recording, especially for people who've spent a lot of time with all the processes and minutia over the years, and it's never about looking for less work and shortcuts, as you become somewhat of a slave to your goal for the highest possible perfection as you see it.
Yeah...at times it does seem like a LOT of work for some “shadow of improvement”...but if you don't do it, it nags at you!!!
There is certainly an OCD quality to many recording processes.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by miroslav

I agree with you...

WHAT???
What's the matter with you! You're supposed to disagree with Glen. Meh, you're getting soft

[miroslav]

Glen and I don't disagree....occasionally we just don't agree.

[Farview]

I haven't read through the rest of the post yet, so if there is any repetition, I apologize.

Originally Posted by icanhasanswers

What I know: sample-rate means how often a sample is taken; because samples cannot be taken infinitely quickly, it seems to me that the more often a sample is taken, the more 'accurate' the representative waveform.

It depends on how you define 'accurate'. What the increased sample rate does for you is allow you to record higher frequencies. To the extent that what you are recording has frequency content above 20k, it will be present in the 96k sampled version and not the 44.1k version. If your audio doesn't have any content up there, there is nothing for the added samples to capture.

Originally Posted by icanhasanswers

And the higher the bit-depth, the greater the dynamic range (and consequently, signal-to-noise ratio). I understand that each bit affords ~6dB in dynamic range.

Yes, but it adds dynamic range at the bottom. It pushes the theoretical noise floor down. If you wanted to see any changes, you would have to look close to the zero crossing point below -96db FS.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by miroslav

Glen and I don't disagree....occasionally we just don't agree.

With those kinds of lines, you could run for a political office and get elected... I'll vote for you.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by noisewreck

With those kinds of lines, you could run for a political office and get elected... I'll vote for you.

Awww, George, you're missing out on a deal. I'm from Chicago, you could vote for me twice! And so could your dead aunt! Your cat can only vote once though....

BTW, everybody, George is so old, he started recording with a chisel on stone. He couldn't record too hot because they hadn't invented fire yet. He's so old, that on the seventh day, God downloaded George's MP3s. His first client wasn't T Rex, it was a *real* T Rex.

[Me] He's so old...

[Everybody at once] How old is he?

[Me] He's so old his first percussion track was the Big Bang!

I could keep going but it's 1am here, I just came home from a live gig, I'm tired and I have nasty headache. But I'm here all week, matinee on Sundays...





G.

[miroslav]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

I just came home from a live gig, I'm tired and I have nasty headache.

So I guess the gig went well.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

Awww, George, you're missing out on a deal. I'm from Chicago, you could vote for me twice! And so could your dead aunt! Your cat can only vote once though....

BTW, everybody, George is so old, he started recording with a chisel on stone. He couldn't record too hot because they hadn't invented fire yet. He's so old, that on the seventh day, God downloaded George's MP3s. His first client wasn't T Rex, it was a *real* T Rex.

[Me] He's so old...

[Everybody at once] How old is he?

[Me] He's so old his first percussion track was the Big Bang!

I could keep going but it's 1am here, I just came home from a live gig, I'm tired and I have nasty headache. But I'm here all week, matinee on Sundays...





G.

LMAO! Somebody help me! I... can't... stop... laughing!

My belly is actually aching. Showed my wife, she almost pissed her pants.

I guess the gig did go well

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by miroslav

Glen and I don't disagree....occasionally we just don't agree.

I disagree!



---

Hey, Moses...I mean George...take it easy on the laughing conniption; your ancient heart can't take it .

G.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

Hey, Moses...I mean George...take it easy on the laughing conniption; your ancient heart can't take it .

Meh, you must have a pretty bad hangover.

The previous post was funny, this one... well, blah.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by noisewreck

Meh, you must have a pretty bad hangover.

Nah, I don't really drink. The headache was all sinus related. I think I'm allergic to the north side.

G.