So I produce my music at 48 kHz sample rate and 24 bit, and would like to downsample back to 44.1 for distribution purposes.
What is the best way to downsample a track down to 44.1 kHz? Is selecting 44.1 in the Export window enough, or does this cause aliasing in the exported file?
Or should I import the audio into another project file set to 44.1, and then convert it to 44.1 when Cubase gives me the prompt to do so?
Since version 10, Cubase has some of the best sample rate conversion in the DAW industry. You can safely use File > Export > Audio Mixdown to export your final mixdown. No external tools needed.
Exporting your mixdown at the original sample rate first for archival isn’t a bad idea though.
So I just choose 44.1 in the export window then export the mixdown?
You would usually put a dithering plugin (cubase’s is named lin dither for example) as last insert to your stereo out bus. It reduces conversion artifacts between sample rates and bit rates with a noise algorithm. You configure it to your conversion settings, set them also in the export options and that’s basically it, yes.
regards
Strictly speaking, dithering is only necessary for bit depth reduction, not for sample rate conversion. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have it generally as the last plugin on your master bus.
Down sampling with sample rate converter can cause lot of aliasing artefacts.
There is a site https://src.infinitewave.ca/ that show measurement of different SRC software.
Some newer and older cubase version are there too. Cubase 10 is handling it excellent in the case for mixdown. Older than 10 is not good, and I think Cubase still have a lot of aliasing issues with the built in sampler and many plugins.
VST plugins have to output audio at the DAW’s sample rate, so sample rate conversion is done internally by the plugins themselves using real-time, typically low latency algorithms.
The Sampler Track can use different resampling/interpolation quality settings just like Halion 6. The default Standard quality uses less CPU and leaves the high end mostly untouched, which may be desirable.
Cubase 9.5 and earlier had far worse SRC than Cubase 10, sure, but they were by no means terrible. If you look at the charts, you’ll notice that most of the aliasing was far below the digital noise floor of a 16 bit file. The FAQ page of that site also points that out.
It is quite annoying since many plugin vendors does not handle aliasing well. Some DAW vendors address this audio quality issue with separate oversampling and a proper SRC filter for plugins that does not do this them self. (reaper)