The controversy about whether people can tell the difference on playback between audio recorded at 96 kHz that's played back at 44.1 kHz or a higher sample rate (such as 96 kHz) has never really been resolved. However, under some circumstances, recording at a higher sample rate can give an obvious, audible improvement in sound quality. In this week's tip we'll investigate why this happens, and in next week's tip, tell how to obtain the benefits of recording at a higher sample rate in Studio One with 44.1 and 48 kHz projects.
REALLY? CONVINCE ME!
A Song's sample rate can make a difference with sounds generated in the box, for instance using a virtual instrument plug-in that synthesizes a sound, or distortion created by an amp simulator. Any improvement heard with high sample rates comes from eliminating foldover distortion, also known as aliasing.
Theory time: A digital system can accurately represent audio at frequencies lower than half the sampling rate (e.g., 22.05 kHz in a 44.1 kHz project). If an algorithm within a plug-in generates harmonic content above this Nyquist limit-say, at 40 kHz-then you won't hear a 40 kHz tone, but you will hear the aliasing created when this tone folds down below the Nyquist limit (to 4.1 kHz, in this case). Aliasing thus appears within the audible range, but is harmonically unrelated to the original signal, and generally sounds pretty ugly.
Foldover distortion can happen with synthesized waveforms that are rich in harmonics, like pulse waves with sharp rise and fall times. (Amp sims can also be problematic; although their harmonics may be weak, if you're applying 60 dB of gain to create overdrive or distortion, the harmonics can be strong enough to cause audible aliasing).
SO IS IT A PROBLEM, OR NOT?
Not all plug-ins will exhibit these problems, for one of four reasons:
The audio isn't rich enough in harmonics to cause audible aliasing.
The plug-in itself can oversample, which means that as far as the plug-in is concerned, the sample rate is higher than that of the Song. So, any foldover distortion occurs outside the audio range.
The project sample rate is high enough to provide the same kind of environment as oversampling.
The plug-in designers have built appropriate anti-alias filtering in to the algorithms.
Many modern virtual instruments and amp sims oversample, and DAWs can handle higher sample rates, so you'd think that might be the end of it. Unfortunately, there can be limitations with oversampling and higher project sample rates.
Recording an entire project at a higher sample rate stresses out your computer more, reduces the number of audio channels you can stream, and won't allow you to run as many plug-ins.
Oversampling requires more CPU power, so even if all your instruments are oversampling internally, you may not be able to use as many instances of them.
Although some instruments may perform 2x oversampling, that still might not be sufficient to eliminate aliasing on harmonically rich sources-so oversampling an oversampled instrument can still make a difference.
Furthermore, with plug-ins that oversample, the sound quality will be influenced by the quality of the sample-rate conversion algorithms. It's not necessarily easy to perform high-quality sample-rate conversion: check out comparisons for various DAWs at http://src.infinitewave.ca (where, incidentally, Studio One rates as one of the best), and remember that the conversion algorithms for a plug-in might be more relaxed than what's used in a DAW.
So what's a musician to do? In next week's Friday Tip of the Week, we'll cover how to do upsampling in Studio One to reap the benefits of high-sample-rate recording at lower sample rates. Meanwhile, if you still need to be convinced recording at different sample rates makes a difference, check out this audio example of a synthesizer recorded in Studio One first at 44.1 kHz, and then at 96 kHz:
Most recent headlines
19/02/2019
Introducing its innovative optical products and solutions to the global broadcas...
19/02/2019
Masstech, the future-led technology company that provides the media and entertai...
19/02/2019
Insight TV, the world's leading 4K UHD HDR broadcaster and producer of native UHD content, has signed a distribution deal with major telecoms operator, T-Mo...
19/02/2019
Go everywhere and see everything exactly how you want it with the Atomos Shinobi...
19/02/2019
PlayBox Neo announces the completion of a large broadcast playout system for Nil...
19/02/2019
--
Los Angeles-based AR studio ARwall welcomes established digital artist Joy Lea as their inaugural Lead Environment Artist. She brings realism to her sci-f...
19/02/2019
19 February, 2019 - 08:03
Writing scripts isnt easy. But the good news is that many of the challenges are technical and technical skills can be learnt. All ...
19/02/2019
More than 88 per cent of European operators said they plan to offer new multi-screen pay-TV
Jenny Priestley 4 hours ago
More than 88 per cent of European...
19/02/2019
Facility has acquired two Leader LV7600 rasterising SDI/IP test instruments for its 4K/UHD and HDR capable grading and finishing areas
Jenny Priestley 3 hou...
19/02/2019
Hans Nipshagen will be responsible for EMEA channel strategy
Dan Meier 4 hours ago
Hans Nipshagen will be responsible for EMEA channel strategy
target=...
19/02/2019
Aims to finalise deal before summer
Dan Meier 3 hours ago
Aims to finalise deal before summer
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedi...
19/02/2019
New company based in Basingstoke
Jenny Priestley 3 hours ago
New company based in Basingstoke
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedi...
19/02/2019
Last year we used data from Inscape, the TV data company with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 10 million smart TVs and devices, to examine viewer...
19/02/2019
WRAL-TV's Justin Arner (left) & Shan Zhong with their newly won hardware at the 33rd MidSouth Regional Emmy Awards at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Na...
19/02/2019
Tokyo, February 6, 2019 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, Hitachi ) announced on Oct...
18/02/2019
View Newsletter...
18/02/2019
ZAYAN Anjur Perlawanan Futsal Hijabista Pertama di Malaysia
Date Released:18 Feb 2019
Share
Tweet
ZAYAN, destinasi gaya hidup Muslim moden, telah mengaju...
18/02/2019
The double BAFTA nominated and Broadcast Award winning UKTV Original series Taskmaster returns to Dave and welcomes a new group of candidates placing themselves...
18/02/2019
Festival Box and Route66 Standard take centre stage
German fibre network associates, Optocore and BroaMan, combined their resources to great effect at the rece...
18/02/2019
At NAB 2019 (Stand SL7606), media and entertainment industry software company VS...
18/02/2019
Posted: Monday, February 18, 2019
--...
18/02/2019
A group of hijackers who were on the police's radar met a gruesome end on Monday afternoon, after their bid to escape the authorities was brought to a fatal...
18/02/2019
Okay, so we know that the legislation regarding dagga is a little up in the air...
18/02/2019
Tonight on Generations The Legacy: Tshidi isn't about to let her own flesh and blood pull a fast one on her. Lesedi offers up her time and energy only to be...
18/02/2019
On tonight's episode: Lehasa has numerous rude surprises in store for Lelo. The learners perform their poems in front of the teachers and are all too keen f...
18/02/2019
In today's episode of Uzalo: The church is facing financial troubles but they are not about to give up. Sibonelo feels he should honour the promise he made ...
18/02/2019
Broadpeak Business Grows in the APAC Region, Kenth Andersson Appointed Director ...
18/02/2019
In Their Own Words Premieres February 18, 2019
This article is sourced from/originally appeared in Realscreen:
National Geographic readies In Their Own ...
18/02/2019
Global creator, distributor and producer Endemol Shine Group today announces tha...
18/02/2019
Best practice in digital transformation shared at regional workshop in Georgia...
18/02/2019
Published: Mon 18 Feb 2019
Marty Adelstein's Tomorrow Studios travels to In...
18/02/2019
Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) employees across the country this week are celebrating National Engineers Week (EWeek) by participating in more than 80 events foc...
18/02/2019
The German company filed for insolvency in December
Dan Meier 3 hours ago
The German company filed for insolvency in December
target=_blank title=Share...
18/02/2019
Until March 29th, upgrade any prior release for one low price and you get:...
18/02/2019
Hirschers amazing race secured an Austrian triple posted: 18/02/2019
Marcel Hirscher
Marcel Hirscher was not about to have anyone take the slalom gold fr...
18/02/2019
re 2019 Inspired the World to Ski posted: 18/02/2019
Closing ceremony in re
The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships re 2019 concluded Sunday, 17 Februar...
18/02/2019
ProAudio Technology on growth track under new management posted: 18/02/2019
Dipl.-Ing. [graduate engineer] Udo Hoellstern, Managing Director ProAudio Techno...
18/02/2019
Atomos Shinobi - the new super bright, super light 5 1920x1080 HDMI monitor tha...
18/02/2019
TURNER APAC PARTNERS WITH TV ASAHI ON SUPER SHIRO SERIES Monday, February 18, 2019
Country: Asia Pacific, Brand: Turner Corporate
TOKYO/HONG KONG (Febru...
18/02/2019
play
SHARE VIDEO
Andrew Upshorn of Maverick AV Solutions and Patrick Murray of Catch Technologies talk with Paul Milligan - editor of InAVate EMEA magazine - ...
18/02/2019
play
SHARE VIDEO
Paul Milligan speaks to Don Shaver of the SDVoE Alliance to discover how AV over IP technology can replace the matrix switch....
18/02/2019
L-R: Nick Clark of TFG and James Gibson of Ortana
Event hire, staging & conferencing provider Torpedo Factory Group has acquired a 24% stake in Ortana Media Gr...
18/02/2019
Media player manufacturer BrightSign has announced a partnership with audience intelligence company AdMobilize.
BrightSign Series 3 and 4 XT, XD and HD expand...
18/02/2019
AV distributor ScanSource is expanding its footprint in the UK, opening a new distribution centre in Southampton and a new office in Winnersh Triangle, Berkshir...
18/02/2019
TIG (Technological Innovations Group) has appointed Steven Dullaert as sales director. Dullaert is responsible for directing sales strategy in EMEA, and identif...
18/02/2019
Panasonic Business has opened the doors to its new Customer Experience Centre in Bracknell, UK, showcasing its range of B2B products.
Situated at the new UK h...
18/02/2019
ISE 2019 was the largest ever ISE show, with a total attendance figure of 81,268. This was a rise of just 345 people on last years figure of 80,923. Despite tha...
18/02/2019
Mobile oberators around the world are begining to run tests of 5G networks. One such pilot is being run for the Odeon cinema chain, which has begun using 5G in ...
18/02/2019
ITV could partner with BBC and Channel 4 to create a British Netflix'
Dan Meier 3 hours ago
ITV could partner with BBC and Channel 4 to create a Br...
The controversy about whether people can tell the difference on playback between audio recorded at 96 kHz that's played back at 44.1 kHz or a higher sample rate (such as 96 kHz) has never really been resolved. However, under some circumstances, recording at a higher sample rate can give an obvious, audible improvement in sound quality. In this week's tip we'll investigate why this happens, and in next week's tip, tell how to obtain the benefits of recording at a higher sample rate in Studio One with 44.1 and 48 kHz projects.
