Re: [microsound] High sampling rates/Bit depths

[John Nowak <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 16, 2004, at 9:27 PM, Michael Wright wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I've been looking into the pros and cons of working with audio at 24 
> bit/96 khz/192 khz etc...
>
> There seems to be a lot of mixed opinions by recording engineers and 
> producers who are predominantly in favour but little talk by sound 
> artists or experimental electronic musicians.
>
> Does anyone work with their audio at these kinds of rates/depths?  Is 
> there a dramatic difference?  Has anyone utilized "super audio" or 
> "dvd audio" as a platform for their work?  I'd be extremely interested 
> to hear some opinions on the matter.

For playback, 24-bit audio is not going to give any benefit over a 
properly dithered 16-bit recording (except maybe in the case of 
genitally-challanged audiophiles with $50,000+ in equipment). And of 
course, 44100 is more than sufficient for playback as well, nyquist 
rules in effect, etc.

So to answer your question, at least when it comes to playback (working 
with the audio in the "production" phase is a different story), putting 
high-res audio on a DVD is a waste of money IMO. 99% of people are 
happy with properly encoded AAC/MP3 files, so I really don't think the 
DVD-audio thing will ever catch on. I suppose I should never 
underestimate capitalism's ability to make people want what they don't 
need though...

- John Nowak


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