48hz

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if you are doing 10-15 track tunes and no extreme instruments/multi layered sounds...but maybe a few multi synth
sounds. would you use 44 or 48..??
When would you use 96hz..?
 
It's kHz, not Hz.

Those details don't really factor into what sample rate you use. You can do good work in anything from 44.1kHz up. Reasons for going to 96kHz or 192kHz might be that certain plugins or converters sound better at a higher sample rate, or that it impresses a client. My default is 48kHz because it's the norm for finished audio tracks in video, which I do a lot of, and it's higher than 44.1kHz and I don't mind downsampling for audio-only releases, and file sizes are more reasonable (half of 96kHz).
 
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I switched from using 88.2 down to 48 kHz, quite awhile ago...and TBH, I don't really hear any obvious differences, but I think maybe if you really do some analytical testing and listening, you might hear the differences in the tails of reverbs, or with music that has a lot of "air", where subtle fades are common...and yeah, like BSG said, there may be some plugs that sound a little better (or different) at the higher rates...but I've not found it to be critical enough go with the higher rates just for those occasions.

It think if you're in the pro commercial world...it's mostly a matter of using the best, the highest, the most whatever....simply because it's expected that you work at the state of the are limits as much as possible.

I went with 48 because I noticed that many of the VSTi stuff (synths, pianos, sampled drums) are done at 48 kHz...so it just made sense to work at that rate, get the bit of higher sampling quality...and also have direct compatibility with any video work, which uses 48 kHz as the default rate.
 
I use 44.1/24 unless I know I'm going to be doing stuff fir video. Theni I use 48/24 (when I remember).

I tried using that approach for a little bit...and it became too messy/confusing for me. I would have to remember to flip my master clock and all the converter boxes over...then if I was synchronizing to tape, I would have to change the settings on my DAW/Tape sync box, which sometimes leaves the box "unhappy", and I have to coax it a few times...:D...and then if I'm using any VSTi stuff, I would have do some conversions, or try to let if covert on the fly...etc...etc...

...so one day I asked myself what was I gaining by using 44.1 for some stuff, other than not needing to convert down for CDs or MP3 stuff...and I just decided to leave it at 48 kHz as my default project rate. :)

I figured that I spent most of the time at the 48 kHz rate during tracking, editing and mixing...and the conversion to 44.1 only happened at the end...plus, there were times where I was bouncing between two projects for some thing...one at 44.1 and the other at 48 kHz...and it was too messy.
Plus...I think I was always bothered by that 0.1 thing...the "unevenness" of it!!! :p

I still have some real old projects when I was using 88.2...and any time I want to open one, I have to go through the process of resetting my equipment. I keep planning to sit down and just convert the old ones all to 48 kHz one of these days...just so I wouldn't have to think about it anymore.
 
if you are doing 10-15 track tunes and no extreme instruments/multi layered sounds...but maybe a few multi synth
sounds. would you use 44 or 48..??
When would you use 96hz..?

To answer the 2nd question first, I would never use 96khz again. I did when I first started out and my equipment supported it. I thought I was on the cutting edge and that it would make a difference. It doesn't. There are soooo many other variables that affect your overall audio before the sample rate comes into play.

44.1khz for me, even if I'm doing video. You just simply cannot hear the difference, so why waste the bandwidth?

So, backing up a bit, a little history might help.

44.1khz is the sample rate for CDs. It is a standard. Every CD you listen to is 44.1khz. It is basically, double the highest frequency a human can theoretically hear, somewhere around 20khz. I'm sure you heard of that number before. I am under the impression that the industry settled on 44.1khz because it was derived from television broadcast. You don't really have issues with the audio quality of a CD, do you? Nah....

then came along video and the video industry came up with 48khz. I don't know why.

The common wisdom is if you are going to match audio up with a video track, you should record it at 48khz. Recording it at 44.1khz can cause some sync issues. I don't see it with my videos, but maybe I don't give each clip enough time to drift out of sync. IDK...
 
The only reason 44.1kHz would have not synced with video is if you used it without conversion on a system that treated it as 48kHz. In that case you'd have an obvious change in pitch and it would be out of sync right away.

If you're going to deliver video to a commercial broadcaster or for a theater, you're going to want the end product to be in 48kHz. For YouTube it's not so critical, they'll just convert it to their standard. Technically, there might be a minute measurable "loss" of quality but you probably won't hear it just from a sample rate conversion.

I use 48kHz because that means no sample rate conversion for video and there's just one conversion down to 44.1kHz for a CD quality audio release.

I don't know when 48kHz got attached to video, but when DAT came out it was 48kHz, though later machines had 44.1kHz as a selectable option. The record industry was paranoid that the ability to make perfect digital copies would cut into their profits so copy protection schemes were employed (SCMS). But pro decks could bypass it. Ironically, it was imperfect mp3 copies on Napster that turned out to be the real threat.
 
I don't know when 48kHz got attached to video, but when DAT came out it was 48kHz, though later machines had 44.1kHz as a selectable option. The record industry was paranoid that the ability to make perfect digital copies would cut into their profits so copy protection schemes were employed (SCMS). But pro decks could bypass it. Ironically, it was imperfect mp3 copies on Napster that turned out to be the real threat.

I can't recall either about the video audio...but AFA I can recall back, it was 48 kHz...and yeah, that stuff with the DATs when they first came out...yeah, big buzz that people would use them to make commercial quality copies...but it never really happened.
 
I think the present sample rate jungle goes back a century to whichever burk chose 24 frames p/s for movies! Then because early TV had to have the field rate locked to the mains frequency we get the 50/60Hz split.

I have read that the CD size was set because they had an eye on ICE and to get the playing time and the frequency response with a linear system they could not quite go to 48kHz?

Another tale is that crystals with a multiple of 44.1kHz were readily available and cheap!

The copy protection scheme was always a non-starter. The sort of people that wanted to rip off CDs would not care if they made an analogue to digital copy and, if they used half decent kit for a One Time copy I doubt anyone could tell?

Dave.
 
It's so satisfying to hear consensus. I too, decided that going higher than 48K was pointless, and 48 is my standard now, with 44.1 for some specific projects, but not once have I ever listened to a track and been able to say, ah, 44.1! Music just doesn't work like that.
 
I've read that about the 48kHz being for 24fps sync, but most of the video I see these days is from a phone, and that's 30fps. And this one guy I watch on YT who does a lot of FCPX vids has is projects set up to 23.957. Those (~24fps) are for "cinematic" types of rendering, which I take is supposed to give that slightly blurred effect to more rapid movements, since your brain has to fill in more of the missing parts. (I don't use it because changing from the video's fps is just going to add to render time.)

Anyway, 48kHz here, too.
 
The only reason 44.1kHz would have not synced with video is if you used it without conversion on a system that treated it as 48kHz.

yeah, Vegas probably does the conversion when I pull an audio file into a project. Maybe I'll just switch over to 48khz. Maybe I might have said that once before and never did!!! :D

Another tale is that crystals with a multiple of 44.1kHz were readily available and cheap!

I've heard that too, and I remember seeing a 44.1khz clock crystal in a TV when my dad was fixing one back when I was a youngster. Don't know what it was for.
 
I thought when I qualified I wanted to fix TVs - I didn't, thank God, but the colour subcarrier frequency in British TVs was 4.433MHz - I don't think this is linked to digital sampling, which of course hadn't been invented then.
 
I've read that about the 48kHz being for 24fps sync, but most of the video I see these days is from a phone, and that's 30fps.

Back before there were DAWs, and when I was just synchronizing my tape deck to the original Cubase sequencing program, I use to set it at 30fps.
It just made the most sense since it was comparable to real time.
Then I started working in a TV/video production job...when video was still done to tape, Sony Betacams, etc...and that's when all the oddball frame rate stuff really came into the picture for me...especially since we were also doing a lot of audio recording (narrations, etc) to add to the video.

That was right about the time the first Avid video workstations were coming out. A couple of us spent a week up in the Boston area at the Avid training center getting familiar with the editing capabilities...because no one had used any computer based editing before were I was working, but it was pretty simple for me, since I had gotten my first DAW setup like 1-2 years before that, so the editing concepts and application of FX/processing was already familiar.That's when I moved away from the Cubase sequencer, though for a short time I had the tape deck, the DAW and the Cubase system all locked up and running together.
I think that's about the last time I used 30 fps for sync purposes.
Now days I have my master clock box timed off of NTSC video blackburst, which is 59.94 (which is also tied to my Microlynx sync box)...so then 29.97 is my standard fps now, and that's what I set on the DAW for SMPTE.
It bugged me for awhile...not having that perfect division breakdown against my DAW timeline like the 30 fps did...but I don't even pay attention to it anymore. :)
 
I have got it ALL wrong! 44.1kHz comes about because the first A/D converters recorded to video tape.
The product of the ACTIVE number of lines and the field rate works out at 44.1kHz for both EU (PAL) and US TV systems and mains frequencies.

AFAICT 48kHz started with DAT? No idea why.

Dave.
 
This article is interesting, and gives an explanation of 44.1 as being derived from video

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/audio/44.1.html

Edit: I see Dave found the connection with video already

I actually did know this already. Hugh Robjohns at SoS forum went through it in depth some months ago but this old, meds ridden dodo had forgotten!

All this talk of 'standards converters' reminded me of the very first NTSC to PAL converter developed by ITA engineers I believe? Was the size of a decent wardrobe. Now it is built in to a phone!

Dave.
 
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