[LAU] 48k vs. 44.1k

[David Olofson]

On Sunday 06 January 2013, at 04.38.01, "Len Ovens" <len at ovenwerks.net> wrote:
[...]
> I do wonder about samplers though. Are the samples mostly in 44.1k
> if they come on a CD? Would that make them off-key when used? Would they
> get rate-changed on the fly? Would that use more CPU? (questions,
> questions, questions)
[...]

A sampler (software or hardware) is typically resampling everything on the fly 
anyway, modulating the pitch in response to pitch bend events, LFOs, envelopes 
etc. It's one of the most fundamental features of sampling as a synthesis 
method. Traditionally, an instrument would only have one or a few samples per 
octave, so resampling was required to even implement note pitch at all.

These multi-gigabyte piano and orchestral sound disks may not make much use of 
that feature, but that's a special use case that came with live streaming from 
disk and machines with gigabytes of RAM. I'd think even samplers built 
specifically for this would still have the usual resampling features, and 
should work with any output sample rate - but of course, you're not getting 
any advantages from 48 kHz if you're still playing 44.1 kHz sample libraries 
of that kind.


-- 
//David Olofson - Consultant, Developer, Artist, Open Source Advocate

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