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Is 192kHz hi-res audio recording in studio worth it?


Øyvind Skald

What do you record in?  

27 members have voted

  1. 1. What resolution?

    • 44.1 kHz
      9
    • 48 kHz
      4
    • 44.1/48 kHz
      8
    • 88.2 kHz
      2
    • 96 kHz
      4
    • 192 kHz
      0
  2. 2. Do you think there is a point of recording in more than 44.1KHz

    • Yes
      16
    • No
      11


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I have seen this video a couple of times. And to be honest I have Dream Theaters self-titled in 96/24 flac files and I cannot hear any different with the CD. But this guy did hear “better sound” in his DAW without knowing why. I don’t know really. I just want to hear what you thing about this so I can get a broader view.

 

 

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I don't think tracking audio higher than 44.1 gives any audible differences worth chewing memory up. The differences at 96 or higher are mostly in synths that benefit from oversampling. Craig did a good article on it a ways back: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/sonar-upsampling-plug-ins

I personally think audio people need to stop wasting time when they hear minor differences over expensive speaker systems in properly measured studios.

Why?... Because normal people aren't listening on speakers like that. That teenzy bit of extra high end detail isn't going to be heard by 99.99999999999999999% of people, so it's like peeing into the wind and thinking you're responsible for creating rain.

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From what I've read 96k can

  • bring out the best in some soft synths, think it has to do with reducing aliasing.
  • but some audio interfaces are far from flat at 96k (compared to lower resolutions)
  • it eats a lot more disk space.

and I'm not going to hear a difference for acoustic tracks - my ears don't hear 20k.

 

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22 minutes ago, pwalpwal said:

yeah but they're listening to the the master encoded to mp3/whatever, so pre-encoding should be as hi-res as possible, and avoid transcoding... having said that, we've always listened to, for example, abbey road mastered stuff on our cheap hi-fi's, so what's the difference really? that's why we check the final version on multiple systems :)

But the MP3 would sound so much better on vinyl.

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It really depends on how pro you are.

I make music on a laptop in my house with microphones that cost under €100. Will recording at over 44 make the blindest bit of difference? Not if my room is not treated, my guitar is not top grade, and quite frankly my playing is not the best.

If I was working in a studio with top grade equipment, balanced audio, peerless mics, and amazing musicians...yes, it might well be worth it, to capture all the delicate details of the session.

If you're working in the box with synths etc. It won't make a difference if you start the project at 44, because, as long as there is no wav data, you can switch up later. As long as it's MIDI, it doesn't matter. The issue comes with recording and bouncing tracks.

Ultimately, your audio will only be as good as the source, no matter the sample rate.

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5 minutes ago, James Argo said:

I'm always under assumption, your age determines your sampling rate.... The younger you are, the higher sampling rate you'll record with.
Those over 35yo will stick with whatever your interface telling you as default... Am I right? ?

Cheeky! ?

...and wrong. ?

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The funny thing with this kind of stuff is whenever an individual is administering their own tests, they say it's blind and then somehow wind up (mostly) accurately picking a difference. Yet when the tests are administered by a 3rd party and are truly blind. They somehow fail miserably, or pick a difference one day only to be fooled on another day with a similar actual blind test.

This is codswallop in its yawningest form.

I thought about ending it there but for those wondering why I consider this the yawningest? I consider it such because even the people who say that it is better to have the highest quality before it is mixed to mp3 are off base. As the only frequencies that are going to be effected by the oversampling are frequencies that cannot be played back in high quality by the POS listening devices that the end user is going to be using.

But please by all means impress your audio buddies with your 1TB project file.?

Which actually begs a question! Do these people try to share projects? "Yo dude I just sent you a link to my drop box, you're going to need to start downloading this morning if you hope to start adding to it this afternoon..."

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42 minutes ago, pwalpwal said:

mixing in your daw of choice, the more accurate the maths (ie, higher resolution) the more accurate your output will be, it's not an opinion, it's science

And when the human ear cannot accurately hear that difference it's called what exactly?

I have tried tracking at higher resolutions and at no point was I amazed by this accuracy or science that you speak of. The only things with audible differences are synths and fx that benefit by the higher resolution.  Which comes down to how they were coded. Tracking audio at higher resolution isn't science, it's a waste of disc space.

Upsampling plugs on render however is a different discussion.

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This is the other side...

Rick Beato : "In this video, we explore the differences between MP3s, WAV, FLAC (lossless), AAC and whether you can tell the difference? or if it even matters? Discussion on mixing, listening, monitors and audion file formats."

I bet she in this  test, has better ears than most of us.

In my mind i think that a "great/max ludness" mix can handle mp3 much better han  more live mixes with  more dynamic.

 

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23 minutes ago, Royal Yaksman said:

And when the human ear cannot accurately hear that difference it's called what exactly?

I have tried tracking at higher resolutions and at no point was I amazed by this accuracy or science that you speak of. The only things with audible differences are synths and fx that benefit by the higher resolution.  Which comes down to how they were coded. Tracking audio at higher resolution isn't science, it's a waste of disc space.

Upsampling plugs on render however is a different discussion.

Cakewalk and every other VST DAWs do oversample softsynths and FXs, don't they? Or how is this really?

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1 minute ago, ØSkald said:

Cakewalk and every other VST DAWs do oversample softsynths and FXs, don't they? Or how is this really?

They don't  by default. But you can select it. What I am talking about is dry audio recording. I can't hear a difference there. Sure add some plugs that benefit from upsampling and that changes, but tracking dry audio? I'm not convinced.

This is where confusion lies. People listen to 2 mixes, mixed at different resolutions and the mixes involve plugs. Of course they hear a difference. But what has that got to do with the dry audio?

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