Bit depth/sample rate question

[alexhedleymusic]

Hi,

 

I recently had a drummer send me over some drum tracks but I realised when after he'd sent them over that he'd recorded/exported at 48khz 24 bit. I'm just wondering now does that mean that I need to record everything else at that sample rate? main problem being that the guy who is going to mix it has requested that I make 44khz 24 bit files (don't know why he likes working that way). so now I'm wondering what the best route to go is... should I convert the 48khz drum files to 44khz? will this lose quality on the drums. or shall I justified continue the whole project in 48khz and just state that to the producer and we'l just continue that way. this brings me to the next question.... do I need to change recording settings to 48khz 24 bit? because in logic when I look at this it just says 24 bit and I can't see anywhere about the 48khz in the recording side of things.... I can see 48khz 24 bit when exporting but I just need to find out really if I need to change actual recording settings as well ?

 

thanks hopefully this makes sense

[Kolzing]

I think you should get a popup window asking if you want to change your project sample rate or change the sample rate of files when you drag them into a project (if the sample rate of the files does not match the setting for the current project).

If you have audio files with a different sample rate than the one the project is set to, they might play back faster/slower/different than expected, so they need to be matched one way or the other, at least.

No expert on this, but I don't think going down in sample rate will be any worse for your files than recording them in 44.1 in the first place, so I guess that is a safe option.

If the mixer guy only works in 44.1, then I guess he will probably convert the files when he gets them anyway, if you send them in 48.

What you want to do is in the end up to you!

 

I think Pro Tools might still (or at some point/some version) have 48 as it's lowest sample rate setting, so if the drums were recorded in Pro Tools, that could be one reason for them being 48. But this might be wrong.

 

You can set (and see the current) sample rate for the project either:

- under Record > Recording settings and then click the Audio tab

- or in the transport display, if you have activated the sample rate checkbox (can be found under the little arrow on the right side of the display, first choosing "custom", then clicking the arrow again and then clicking on "customize control bar and display", and then on the sample rate checkbox on the menu that appears)

[MikeHalloran]

You have two (ok, three) choices.

 

1) Logic has Preferences settings for Automatic Conversion that will convert the Sample Rate and Bit Depth automatically upon sample import. Properly set up, every track you drag in from any source will match your project from 96k 32bit float to mp3. Speed and pitch will not change so you need to do this.

 

2) Unless you are mastering CDs, the industry standard for deliverables is pretty much 48k/24. Some AV projects are asking for 96k/24 but that's an easy export. It's really easy to convert your project before importing those tracks. Still have Automatic Conversions set to On, however.

 

The extra bits in 24bit give you a lower noise floor and greater headroom for effects processing.

 

3) Logic processes 32bit float normally, btw (some DAWs are now processing 48bit and 64bit float). If you move to 32bit float and lower your levels so that you stay out of the red, it's impossible to clip your signal — those extra bits give 1500x more head room. Many of us have switched to this for that reason. Again, with Automatic Conversions on, importing tracks takes a little longer and Bounce to Disk is noticeably slower. Eliminating clipping in really dense mixes is worth it for me but you are unlikely to notice it otherwise. Of course, you'll bounce to 48k/24 for AV and 44.1k/16 for CD mastering.

 

I have oversimplified this by a great deal but those are the basics. Modern Macs with enough storage can easily handle the horsepower required for higher sampling rates and bit depth so that's no longer an issue.

[fisherking]

depends on where the music is headed. for applemusic's lossless format (and spotify accepts this as well), the current standard is 44/24 (44/16 also works, but... why bother?)