[linux-audio-user] 44.1, 48 or 96?

[Greg Wilder]

On Sun, 2005-09-11 at 18:54 -0400, Joseph Dell'Orfano wrote:
> After a discussion
> with a friend, I´m not so sure anymore. He is recording his album at
> 44.1 kHz, arguing that this will avoid downsampling when finally
> pressing a CD. So, are there any opinions about this? 

The quality of the dithering algorithms can make very a noticeable
difference in your final product if you have to down-sample - but that
doesn't necessarily mean that you're relegated to life at 44.1.

IMO, the best solution is to work at 88.2khz whenever possible.  This
way, you can down-sample to CD quality without quantization errors.  I'm
no DSP guru - but as I understand it, sampling at a multiple of 44.1
(88.2, 176.4, etc.) is the cleanest way to go outside of DSD.

FWIW - I haven't heard a software dither (with quantization) that I
thought was decent - FOSS or otherwise.  The best down-sampling I ever
heard came out of a $3,500 Apogee box.

Hope this helps,
Greg

www.steeprockmedia.com