I’ve always recorded at 44.1 sample rate, but recently was reading some compelling reasons to be using 48k. Not to start a “which sample rate” debate again,… but I’d already started an album with a client when I came to this conclusion.
I’m only 2 songs in, and have recorded guitars and drums so far. I plan on using 48k on the rest of the album, but my question is, should I upsample the tracks already recorded? Or I guess a better question would be, do you think I will do harm to my 44.1k tracks if I upsample them to 48k?
I personally can’t hear any difference between audio recorded at 44.1khz up to 96khz…
Record a guitar take and play it back with no processing I couldn’t tell them apart…
But for me The BIG difference that is immediately obvious though is if you use any VST instruments or lots of processing/fx/saturation etc on your recorded takes
To me the main benefit of higher sample rates is that plugins and virtual instruments sound so much better.
I personally use 88.2k for most projects, and only downsample to 44.1 during mastering in wavelab
Your question though… I would first take backup of your 44.1 files them upsample them and check yourself… I don’t think it will cause any issues (I’ve upsampled 44.1 to 88.2 before just to get the benefits of better processing) and in doing so didn’t hear any noticeable artifacts.
If you notice anything go back to your backup version
The quickest way of effectively forking your Cubase project is via the menu option File > Backup Project into an entirely new folder for the project and allow Cubase to make copies of everything. It’s a delightfully fast way of having a spare copy you can return to, if needed. I’ve used that many times when I was about to do some major destructive editing on audio materials.
In general terms, I’ve found the sample rate conversion in Cubase outstanding for numerous versions/years already. But I don’t want to assume that someone with more sensitive ears than mine may hear artifacts that I don’t. That’s why backing up the project is such a nice no-risk option.
to further build on what everyone has said () - the (theoretical) advantages to 48khz recording over 44.1khz will almost certainly be outweighed by the sample rate conversion on the already recorded tracks.
I would be more likely to be influenced by the final delivery format
Just copying the folder will work fine, there are just a couple of differences that I know of:
Cubase seems to hard code at least some of the path of the project in the .cpr file, so when opening a copied folder it needs to re-find some file locations and throws up a prompt when that happens. This works perfectly fine every time I’ve tried it, it’s just one little extra step.
There are a couple of extra options in the “Backup Project” dialog allowing Cubase to do some extra work (if desired). - This part is probably less interesting for the situation discussed in this particular thread, but I’ve found it quite convenient for some other use cases.
p.s. I love your nickname (both languages!) - and admire your depth of knowledge and helpful advice all over many threads! - Would have previously said so in a DM, but your profile is super private. My identity is more semi-private - in that I use it for some of my music making activities.
) - the (theoretical) advantages to 48khz recording over 44.1khz will almost certainly be outweighed by the sample rate conversion on the already recorded tracks.