16/44 vs. 24/96

[jlhoward504]

what is the best to record with and mixdown to.
i use fruity loops to make my tracks
with 44100 sample rate it says audio cd
with 96000 sample rate it says dvd
in mixing book i read it said that you should do 96000
because it is studio quality is this true are not somebody get t me on this.

 

[audiotecnicality]

For *any* audio production, you want to use 24bit during the production stage. If you are sending your work on to a mastering engineer, keep it in 24bit when you mix down. If not, Audio CD requires that it be 16bit (make sure you dither). I believe DVD Audio is 24bit, but I'm not sure.

Sample rates are a matter of resources and target medium. If you have abundant processing power, then go for the highest sample rate you can afford. That said, your target medium plays a big role in choosing which rate. You want to use multiples of your target. For example, Audio CD uses 44100 samples/sec. During production-for-CD, use 44100, 88200, etc. DVD audio uses 48000 samples/sec. During production-for-DVD, use 48000, 96000, etc.

I've spared the technical details/explanations as to why this is the best way to go. If you'd like to know why, I can post a full explanation...but basically it comes down to cleanly downsampling from higher bitrates to lower ones. (It's much more difficult, in terms of processing, to go from 48kHz or 96kHz to 44.1kHz for CD than it is to go from 88.2kHz to 44.1kHz).