LP>CDR, 24bit/96kHz vs. 16bit/44.1kHz, downsampling, HELP!!!

[magicplastic]

I think I posted at the same time as macboy - but we are both saying roughly the same thing...

[tbrowne]

You might find this useful... I wrote it for this very purpose...

FinalCD

It's nowhere near as fast as CoolEdit in "HQ" mode due to the way it was written, but the quality is plenty good enough, IMOO.

- Tom.

[wa2ise]

Originally posted by Kuja


I won't use 24bit only because I can.

I know that 24bit contains more information and that theoretically I should do all editing in 24bit.

But I'm not staying in 24bit, because I will burn 16bit CDs.

Another advantage of using 24 bits to sample your vinyl is that you can have lots of headroom without sacraficing resolution. More specifically you could set the audio amplitude to half level. Which would normally yield 23 bit quality. But if there is a transient spike of loud music it won't get clipped. So in "post processing" you could normalize the digitized waveform so the loud spike is maintained and still adjust for 16 bit audio for CDs. In other words, you don't have to be as careful with analog level setting than if you were doing 16 bits directly.

[Werner]

Record in 24b (or rather '24' bit) and 88.2kHz.

Keep an eye on recording levels, because the true ADC accuracy of that M-Audio is slightly more than 16 bits. Definitely not 24.

Configure Audition to work in 32 bit mode, and disable default
dithering after every process step (dithering should only be applied
once, if at all!).

Then edit the clicks out.

Then apply your EQ together with gain change (if so desired).

When all is finished downsample to 24b/44.1kHz, and
only then requantize to 16b, using dither. (There is a chance you
don't want dither, as the LP input contains plenty of noise to be
self-dithering. Same for noise shaping.)


The reasons for the above procedure are that

1) the EQ works better if it is further removed
from the system's frequency limit and

2) the downsampling in Audition
is massively better than the decimation filter of that cheap ADC in the M-Audio. That ADC aliases like there is no tomorrow, and this will be triggered aplenty by the ultrasonic crap and distortion spuriae coming from every cartridge.

Since you are EQ'ing you may want to include a soft and smooth roll-off beyond 16kHz or so. Nothing drastic, just to -3dB at 22kHz or so.