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What are recommended parameter combinations for creating some demo CD?



All CD Audio *must* be made from 16/44.1KHz because that is what CD Audio standard is. They can't handle anything else.

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Then what is the point of recording at 48 kHz?



If you check all the other available sample rates, you will find that they are evenly divisible (48, 96, 192...)

That means no hairy math when converting from one to another. 44.1 is another story, we get into all sorts of decimals upon conversion, which is not a great "bit-for-bit" situation. Meaning it will therefore add a certain amount of undesirable artifact if converted from or to the higher bitrates. Doesn't mean anything much if you record at 44.1 in the first place.

There are also some Creative soundcards that use "native" 48KHz clocking. They try to do bitrate conversion "on the fly" but that usually is a recipe for syncing troubles sooner or later when multitracking. For those cards, we usually set the host recording program to 48 for that reason. The difference between 44.1 and 48 is so close as to be considered inaudible.

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What are the effects of selecting 16 or 24 bits with respect to the final objective of creating some audio CD?



The higher bit depth choice has more headroom. Easier to clip at 16. Less resolution across the amplitude scale also, which translates to less control over the overall dynamic range.

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Does recording at 48 kHz and 24 bit provide 'professional' sound quality when played back from a computer, which then needs to get converted to 41.1 kHz and 16 bit for some audio CD?



The conversion can get you into audio trouble here. Instead of mucking about with that, I think it much better to simply set up to record at 24/44.1 if your soundcard can handle the task. Last thing to do after mixdown is to convert to 16/44.1, which is not a lot of math at all. Then Master the result for 16 bit.

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What's the point of creating 48 kHz/24 bit data, when people hearing the results need to run those data from a computer. Most people use CDs anyway? I sure would appreciate any input here.



If they are telling you that they can hear the diff between 44.1 and 48 KHz sampling rate, they are fooling themselves.

Now, it is easy to hear the difference between 96KHz and either of the lower too, but that isn't really needed to create your CD either, because, as you know, you will only have to apply lots of math to bring the thing down to 44.1 at the end anyway.

So try 24/44.1 and if you have a Creative card and experience sync problems, try bumping it up to 24/48 and bite the bullet by getting your hands on an Audio Editor that does a good, no, great job of bitrate conversion dithering.


--Mac

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