so what bitrate is best to record with at home?

[rusmannx]

my delta 44 can go up to 96k, but i've always worked at 44.1.
i never figured anything higher would be an more benefit, but maybe i'm wrong?

[Ray Salamon]

I always tried to do at least 128kbps @ 44.1KHz. I don't actually know for sure what's best, but I know that when one of my bands got our recording back from a studio, the bitrate was ridiculously high.


Ray

[rusmannx]

well i guess the delta is a 24bit card, so i'll start going to 44/24bit.

thanks guys.

[nemo]

You can record and edit with 44.1 kHz at 24 bit. Then at the end, convert it down to 44/16 for general CD standard.
No point of going higher than 44/24.
Even 48 kHz is not advised, as you have to get it later back to 44, and 48>44 conversion may cause artifacts.

Eventually you can go for 88 kHz at 24 bit (later 88>44 conversion will be trouble free), but only benefit you will get is better capture of very high frequencies like 20kHz and above.. Downside is double size of audio files.

So I think you can stick with 44.1 and maybe go from 16 to 24 bit. Good luck.

Edit: rusmannx, I did edits and reposted my post and you were quicker and jumped with your reply on front of my post , well, sort of time loop here..

[msquared]

I generally record, do all my processing, and mix down in 24/48k. I'll then pull the mixed track into Soundforge to do any rough mastering and after all that's finished, save it both as 24/48k and 16/44.1k. When I listen to the final product, I listen on expensive headphones with a decent headphone amp (among other things) and am very nitpicky about the result. I have yet to experience any sonic artifacts as a result of doing all the work in 48k.

Remember, a lot of things that people recommended not doing with digital were written back when 16/44.1k was the coolest thing ever. Standards have gotten better and so has the software.

To the original poster: the best way to answer these questions is always experimentation. Try messing with recording and mixing with different bitrates and pick what you think sounds the best. You'll end up learning more from a night of playing with bitrates and mixdowns than you will from a week of responses to a thread like this.

[DougP]

Also, by recording at 48k vice 41k you get a little better S/N ratio. ** perhaps i am thinking of 24 bit depth vice 16 bits...*** The noise floor is a little lower at the higher rate. if you check out Izotopes website and read the manual for their product Ozone there is a lot of info there. its very well written and very digestible. Also it is not a propoganda soapbox for them even though it was written for their product.

HTH