Poll: What samplerate do you use with jack?

[Lyberta]

Thank goodness for floating point lossless audio

You do understand that pretty much any operation on floating point is lossy? That's why there are no floating point lossless codecs. FLAC can only do integers.

[CrocoDuck]

There was someone in this thread stating that he doesn't hear anything above 16k on his notebook whatever gain he throws onto it.

That was me:

I personally cannot ear anything from my laptop headphone out beyond 16 kHz no matter how loud I play it.

In that I cut to the chase and just dropped a quick statement, but the same does happen if I stream, say, a 17 kHz out of my USB audio interface when operating it, say, at 192 kHz. I can use a mic and ensure that a 17 kHz is actually being reproduced by my headphone. However, I am essentially deaf to it. It is very common for most adult people to be very hard of hearing beyond some 16 kHz. High frequency sensitivity is the first one to go with aging and stress. I guess that playing at loud gigs during my teen years did not help. But all you say after does apply to my crappy onboard audio device for sure. That said, it has been 5 years since I had my last audiometric test, so I don't have any accurate upper threshold for my hearing.

@everybody, I don't think that what we ought to conclude is that 48 kHz is the perfect sample rate. Instead, I think that the reasonable conclusion is: for any parameter on which your work depends on (sample rate, bitrate, anything else...) just choose the best one for your task. And to choose, one has to know pros and cons, so to find the balance.

All reasons Markus added up for 48 kHz are very sound and make total sense.

For me, they are slightly different: I prefer 48 kHz because my hardware just so happens to work most reliably at that rate. That's it. From the point of view of someone that would like to use a laptop live (even though it has been almost 8 years since the last time) stability and reliability (when operating at low latency) is what I should aim to. For my task, I should choose that. For other tasks, I will maybe use another rate. I used ludicrously high rate to measure distortion, for example.

2/ And still no one reacts on my statement that most professional record companies and studio's demand at least 88/96khz rates? I keep insist that that's not for nothing and they have good reasons for that, and they are no fools doing so.

It is hard to react if we don't know why they do it. Even Albert Einstein was convinced that quantum mechanics was wrong. Good, professional, educated people can be wrong, very wrong sometimes. What matters is the reason why they chose to do so, not the mere fact that they choose to do so. Maybe you linked the reason for it earlier, but among deletions and the length of this topic I lost track of it. If I had to guess, I would say they do so because they are under the impression that downsampling from a high sample rate master to distribute the final product at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz comes with less degradation of quality, although I would politely disagree, given what I know about DSP. What happens is that when you downsample from a high sample rate from a low sample rate which is a submultiple of the original you can avoid interpolation, that's true. I don't think that's too important, though.

[Jack Winter]

Sigh..

My two cents. This is a contentious topic which has been discussed to death many times already. Most threads end up in similar train wrecks... IMO there is no right or wrong, and it's very much a question depending on opinion and circumstances...

I just recorded and released a CD, it was recorded at 44k1/24! I chose 44k1 as CD is 44k1 and the behringer X32 used as a soundcard only provides 44k1 or 48k. Now please don't tell me that I've done wrong and created something shitty due to my choice of samplerate..! I also didn't want to deal with the extra diskspace and cpu use needed for working at 88k2, which I could have done if I would have used a different soundcard.

I also note that the professional mastering engineer hired from http://realworldstudios.com/ in no way complained that the material was only 44k1/24. Like any true professional he just got on with the job and did a splendid job with it. It sounds awesome on any playback system I've used. Any professional would just do the job and would never start discussing with the client on the subject of project samplerate choosen..!

IMO the impact of samplerate used for a project is insignificant in comparison with details like arrangement, musicianship, instrument setup, mic choice and placement, preamps used etc... It's really one of the last things you ought to fret about.

I'm also 100% convinced that there are soundcards that actually sound worse at a higher samplerate due to just having a 48k/24 ADC and having some crappy SRC code in it's firmware...

Personally I'm convinced that this just one of those situation where there is no right or wrong. It's not a zero sum game where one person is right and anyone with a different opinion is wrong..! Trying to discuss it in such a manner and presenting ones own opinion as the absolute truth is simply ignorant and will lead to acrimonious discussions..

And face it, recording music is artisan work! There are many ways to get the job done, and many people will achieve good results with different gear and methods... What is important is to strive for better results, not buying the ultimate piece of gear or achieving the "truth". IMO that old adage, "if it sounds good it is good" is the plain simple truth...

Also my personal reflection for you 42low is, please just relax and take it easy. If you have a problem with someone then take it up with the person in question over PM or ask the moderators. These tantrums that you keep throwing are really boring to read and lead to nothing good... Please accept that there aren't absolute truths when it comes to producing art, the only thing that really counts is the result!

I went back to read the thread and as far as I can tell you are the one that started with the personal attacks..! Lyberta only called bullshit on one of your statements, and I have to say I agree.. What again annoyed me is that you have posted so much in the thread, and then after creating a conflict you simply go back and delete your own posts, how is anyone helped by this?

Please realize that we are a community here and that it's not your personal sandbox! Also if you present your "opinions" as the truth you are likely to run into people that disagree with you. That's just the nature of things and nothing to get upset about..!

Hopefully I'll be able keep my big mouth shut in the future, but it does feel good to vent some