Mixing & racking at 96k verses 44k?

[glenn Taylor]

Hello there I have been recording in pro tools HD 2 system with a 192 interface for a few years now. Pop ,Rap, Blues bands and artists. I have been tracking everything at 44k 24 bit and going spdif digital to a 44 k mix down computer. If I were to record let,s say my blues band 1 song at 44k and mix it to a 44k master. Then retake the song and record it at 96k and mix it to 96k. Would I hear much of a difference? It has been a while since using a higher rate.
Glenn

[WinterSun]

there is a huge, ongoing discussion about this here: who feels 44 is equal or better than 192

[FETHead]

Apart from all the obvious quality debates, there is also a serious problem to consider while mixing at 44.1 and that is aliasing. If you use plugs to simulate tape saturation, tube saturation, and basically any process that generates additional harmonics, aliasing might occur and it's nasty!

Basically if an analog tube generates 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion of say a 10kHz signal (Sine) the harmonics would be at 20kHz and 30kHz respectively - no prob in analog - when that signal hits your A/D converters a special elleptical filter cuts off all the frequencies above 22.05kHz and all is good - can't hear the 30kHz signal in anyway!
But digital has a limited bandwidth - so what happens to the 30kHz signal?
It becomes a 7.95kHz signal!!! totally harmonically unrelated!

If you mix at 96kHz that 30kHz signal will stay 30kHz due to the fact that your bandwidth @96k is 48kHz!

Most good plugs try to avoid this by various techniques, but no system is perfect! So mixing at 96kHz goes quite a long way...
In my humble opinion.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by FETHead

Apart from all the obvious quality debates, there is also a serious problem to consider while mixing at 44.1 and that is aliasing. If you use plugs to simulate tape saturation, tube saturation, and basically any process that generates additional harmonics, aliasing might occur and it's nasty!

Basically if an analog tube generates 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion of say a 10kHz signal (Sine) the harmonics would be at 20kHz and 30kHz respectively - no prob in analog - when that signal hits your A/D converters a special elleptical filter cuts off all the frequencies above 22.05kHz and all is good - can't hear the 30kHz signal in anyway!
But digital has a limited bandwidth - so what happens to the 30kHz signal?
It becomes a 7.95kHz signal!!! totally harmonically unrelated!

If you mix at 96kHz that 30kHz signal will stay 30kHz due to the fact that your bandwidth @96k is 48kHz!

Most good plugs try to avoid this by various techniques, but no system is perfect! So mixing at 96kHz goes quite a long way...
In my humble opinion.

Nonsense.

I've used a lot of saturation plugins, and I've been on some pretty big projects where that's been the case too - all working at 44.1 Never had anyone complain. I see where you're coming from, but if what you're describing were true, every plugin bar the cleanest EQ and compressor would cause this.

[Audiop]

That's esy to test. Load a sine wave wav of suitable freq and run the plug. Save the processed file and load it into a FFT-program.

Compare the FFT-spectrum of the sine before and after the plug. Can also use dual or multiple sines to check for intermodulation.



/Peter