Are These Good SETTINGS? -ACID Product Family - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Are These Good SETTINGS? Posted by: bflat Date:8/26/2004 12:58:48 AM This seems to work well -- SAMPLE RATE: 48,000 Hz BIT DEPTH: 16 AUDIO DEVICE TYPE: CREATIVE ASIO (default: WAVE / MP3 ) *** Is there any reason for me to increase sample rate / bit depth etc to improve fidelity? Oh: and I clicked the OPEN NEW PROJECTS using these settings box.
Subject:RE: Are These Good SETTINGS? Reply by: Vocalpoint Date:8/26/2004 4:46:50 AM Looks like you are using a Soundblaster here..these are the ONLY settings you can use. SB can't/done work at the standard 44000HZ rate of most pro cards. Increasing your rates will only balloon your file sizes...and with a Soundblaster product - you will never get increased fidelity much less hear it. Get a better card and truly improve your chances of fidelity. VP
Subject:RE: Are These Good SETTINGS? Reply by: Iacobus Date:8/26/2004 11:11:39 AM Get a better card as Vocalpoint mentioned. You'd notice an improvment in fidelity when increasing the bit-depth to 24-bit, especially on acoustic material. Increasing the sample rate is a matter of contention for a lot of people. Basically, the only way I can explain it (because I'm not an audio engineer), is that the more you increase the sample rate digitally, the more you closely resemble its analog waveform counterpart. There's that whole Nyquist theory thing too. In order to accurately reproduce a frequency digitally, you must double the sample rate used. Since apparently the average human ear can hear about up to 20 kHz, about 40 kHz or higher must be used. So 44.1 kHz would probably be fine for most situations. Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids
Subject:huh Reply by: bflat Date:8/26/2004 12:23:06 PM Isn't 48,000 Hz higher fidelity than 44,000 Hz? (you said I couldn't record at the standard 44; if 48,000 Hz is better quality, then this is okay.) -- And: eventho I CAN use 24 bit instead of my current 16 bit depth, you're saying I shouldn't 'cuz this wouldn't improve the sound at all?
Subject:RE: huh Reply by: Vocalpoint Date:8/26/2004 1:45:02 PM "Isn't 48,000 Hz higher fidelity than 44,000 Hz? (you said I couldn't record at the standard 44; if 48,000 Hz is better quality, then this is okay.)" Not by itself- read on (a quick summary courtesy of the ExtremeTech website): Sample Rate Sample rate refers to how many times per second the original waveform is translated into digital form. CD audio, for instance, is sampled at 44.1KHz. That means that the left and right channels are each sampled 44,100 times per second. Sampled into what? That's where Bit Depth comes in. Bit Depth This is how many bits are used to describe each of those samples. The more bits used to encode the file, the more accurate the sample. CD audio is sampled at 16 bits, so there is a 16-bit number to describe the amplitude of the sound wave for each of the 44,100 samples every second. According to the Nyquist Theorem, you need twice as many samples per second as the frequency you're trying to digitize. Human hearing peaks out at around 20-24KHz, so it would stand to reason that we need a sample rate of 40-48KHz to reproduce the entire range of human hearing. But that's only half the story. It may only take two samples per sound wave to reproduce it digitally, but the quality of taking this minimum approach is less than desirable. Bumping it up to four samples or more per wave, however, creates truly compelling audio. A sampling rate of 96KHz is used in the DVD-Audio standard and by most professional digital recording equipment. This allows four samples for each wave in the upper limit of human hearing, and six to twelve samples for waves in the 8-6KHz frequency range, where most of the music we hear is. Bit depth is pretty good at 16 bits per sample, which is most common, but most professional audio equipment and the DVD-A standard use 24 bits per sample. More bits are good in audio for the same reason they're good in graphics. 16-bit audio allows for 65,536 different "levels" per audio sample, while 24-bit boosts that fidelity to 16.7 million. This huge increase helps preserve nuances and overtones and prevents quantization errors when mixing tracks, in much the same way as 24-bit color on your monitor prevents the banding artifacts prevalent with 16-bit color. End article summary* In short - they are both important in high resolution reproduction. However - a Soundblaster product of any kind is simply not capable of producing the kind of audio quality that a pro level card can deliver. Also - don't forget that any recording - regardless of bit size or sample rate must be downsampled or "dithered" to be cut to a standard CD. Your CD is only capable of 44.1KHZ at a 16 bit sample rate....so it is logically preferrable to try and record your orginal stuff at the highest sample rate/bit depth so you preserve as much of the fidelity as possible when the track is mixed and "dithered" down to 44.1 @ 16bits. This is why most pro level cards offer a 96KHZ Sample rate (or higher) at a 24 bitrate (or higher). I stick with 44.1 and 24 bit for all my sessions....sounds pretty impressive in my studio. VP

Subject:Are These Good SETTINGS?

Posted by: bflat

Date:8/26/2004 12:58:48 AM

This seems to work well --

SAMPLE RATE: 48,000 Hz
BIT DEPTH: 16
AUDIO DEVICE TYPE: CREATIVE ASIO
(default: WAVE / MP3 )

*** Is there any reason for me to increase sample rate / bit depth etc to improve fidelity?

Oh: and I clicked the OPEN NEW PROJECTS using these settings box.

Subject:RE: Are These Good SETTINGS?

Reply by: Vocalpoint

Date:8/26/2004 4:46:50 AM

Looks like you are using a Soundblaster here..these are the ONLY settings you can use. SB can't/done work at the standard 44000HZ rate of most pro cards.

Increasing your rates will only balloon your file sizes...and with a Soundblaster product - you will never get increased fidelity much less hear it.

Get a better card and truly improve your chances of fidelity.

VP

Subject:RE: Are These Good SETTINGS?

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:8/26/2004 11:11:39 AM

Get a better card as Vocalpoint mentioned.

You'd notice an improvment in fidelity when increasing the bit-depth to 24-bit, especially on acoustic material.

Increasing the sample rate is a matter of contention for a lot of people. Basically, the only way I can explain it (because I'm not an audio engineer), is that the more you increase the sample rate digitally, the more you closely resemble its analog waveform counterpart.

There's that whole Nyquist theory thing too. In order to accurately reproduce a frequency digitally, you must double the sample rate used. Since apparently the average human ear can hear about up to 20 kHz, about 40 kHz or higher must be used. So 44.1 kHz would probably be fine for most situations.

Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
mD's ACIDplanet Page
Guitars 4 Kids

Reply by: bflat

Date:8/26/2004 12:23:06 PM

Isn't 48,000 Hz higher fidelity than 44,000 Hz? (you said I couldn't record at the standard 44; if 48,000 Hz is better quality, then this is okay.)

-- And: eventho I CAN use 24 bit instead of my current 16 bit depth, you're saying I shouldn't 'cuz this wouldn't improve the sound at all?

Reply by: Vocalpoint

Date:8/26/2004 1:45:02 PM

"Isn't 48,000 Hz higher fidelity than 44,000 Hz? (you said I couldn't record at the standard 44; if 48,000 Hz is better quality, then this is okay.)"

Not by itself- read on (a quick summary courtesy of the ExtremeTech website):

Sample Rate

Sample rate refers to how many times per second the original waveform is translated into digital form. CD audio, for instance, is sampled at 44.1KHz. That means that the left and right channels are each sampled 44,100 times per second. Sampled into what? That's where Bit Depth comes in.

Bit Depth

This is how many bits are used to describe each of those samples. The more bits used to encode the file, the more accurate the sample. CD audio is sampled at 16 bits, so there is a 16-bit number to describe the amplitude of the sound wave for each of the 44,100 samples every second.

According to the Nyquist Theorem, you need twice as many samples per second as the frequency you're trying to digitize. Human hearing peaks out at around 20-24KHz, so it would stand to reason that we need a sample rate of 40-48KHz to reproduce the entire range of human hearing. But that's only half the story. It may only take two samples per sound wave to reproduce it digitally, but the quality of taking this minimum approach is less than desirable. Bumping it up to four samples or more per wave, however, creates truly compelling audio. A sampling rate of 96KHz is used in the DVD-Audio standard and by most professional digital recording equipment. This allows four samples for each wave in the upper limit of human hearing, and six to twelve samples for waves in the 8-6KHz frequency range, where most of the music we hear is. Bit depth is pretty good at 16 bits per sample, which is most common, but most professional audio equipment and the DVD-A standard use 24 bits per sample. More bits are good in audio for the same reason they're good in graphics. 16-bit audio allows for 65,536 different "levels" per audio sample, while 24-bit boosts that fidelity to 16.7 million. This huge increase helps preserve nuances and overtones and prevents quantization errors when mixing tracks, in much the same way as 24-bit color on your monitor prevents the banding artifacts prevalent with 16-bit color.

**End article summary***

In short - they are both important in high resolution reproduction. However - a Soundblaster product of any kind is simply not capable of producing the kind of audio quality that a pro level card can deliver.

Also - don't forget that any recording - regardless of bit size or sample rate must be downsampled or "dithered" to be cut to a standard CD. Your CD is only capable of 44.1KHZ at a 16 bit sample rate....so it is logically preferrable to try and record your orginal stuff at the highest sample rate/bit depth so you preserve as much of the fidelity as possible when the track is mixed and "dithered" down to 44.1 @ 16bits. This is why most pro level cards offer a 96KHZ Sample rate (or higher) at a 24 bitrate (or higher).

I stick with 44.1 and 24 bit for all my sessions....sounds pretty impressive in my studio.

VP