| I think you're mixing up the effects of _sample rate_ and _bit depth_ here! Everything you said about sample rate applies more to bit depth. Higher bit depth (bits per sample) results in a lower noise floor. When audio is digitally processed or resampled, a small amount of noise ("quantization distortion") is added, which accumulates with further processing. This can be mitigated by working at higher bit depths - which is why professional grade audio processing routinely uses 24 bit formats (for storage) and 32-bit or 64-bit floating point internally (for processing), even if the final delivery format is only 16 bit. Sample rate, on the other hand, affects bandwidth. A higher sample rate recording will contain higher frequencies. It doesn't have any direct effect on the noise floor or level of distortion introduced by resampling, as I understand. (It could have an indirect effect - for example, if certain hardware or plugins work better at particular sample rates.) A survey of ~2,000 professional audio engineers done in May 2023 showed that 75% of those working in music use 41.1 kHz or 48 kHz, while 93% of those working in post production use 41.1 kHz or 48 kHz.[1] These are the basic CD-derived and video-derived sample rate standards. From this it's clear that even in professional audio, higher sample rates are a minority pursuit. Furthermore, the differences are extremely subjective. Some audio engineers swear by higher sample rates, while others say it's a waste of time unless you're recording for bats. It's very rare (and practically, quite difficult) to do proper tests to eliminate confirmation bias. [1] https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/sample... EDIT: add link to survey. |