Hi, forum users, I am looking for advice on handling older file formats with newer recordings. I know various ways to convert files in Cubase (while importing audio into projects, or directly in the pool itself) and I believe the algorithms are intended to be as transparent as possible i.e. if changing up from 16 bit with 44.1 kHz to 24 bit with 48 kHz I can expect no artefacts from inter-sample points created, and minimal if any detectable audio artefacts going the other way.
For historic reasons, mainly, I run my projects at 44.1 khz and 16 bit. I have now added a bunch of (nice!) live drum / bass recordings for several of those projects, all captured at 48kHz / 24 bit.
From what I’ve read, 24 bit is a winner (headroom). I should be using it always now. But 48kHz is just a computer resource eater without benefits unless you work in video - which I don’t. Is it weird to be thinking of converting all the files to 24 bit / 44.1kHz and running like that for new projects?
This is a very subjective topic and everybody is going to have their own opinion, all valid from their own point of view.
But, there is one issue here that can be looked at objectively. That being how your specific plugins behave. There are some plugins out there that will actually exhibit nyquist folding and when used at 441 this can be audible.
When you run a project at 48k and use a plugin that does this, the aliasing will be higher up in frequency and should mostly get left out when rendering at 441.
Ive been a 44.1khz person for 25 years. The main reasoning is that the rate was settled there in the 90’s for music and video was 48khz. Mastering for music to CD was 44.1jhz all the way and so converting down from 48khz multitrack to 44.1khz wasnt good in terms of sound quality. There are master mixers like Jack Joseph Puig who concurred that 48khz never sounded right to him. Whether thats an audio truth or not it was just the norm to be at 44.1khz while CD was around.
Under my feet, the industry appears to have moved silently to 48khz. It appears that phones and all audio devices that we stream to now are happy to play back 48khz audio. Our delivery format is WAV and mp3. Atmos mixes are 48khz only (so I need to convert my multitracks if that needs to happen) and it also seems that plugins perform better at 48khz. All in margins, but that appears to be the case.
Still, I’m slow to make the change. Maybe I’m an old dog at this stage. I am still at 44.1khz for the most part
