[Robe]

Hello All,

I do some basic recording at home and I have a question about the above parameters. When I finish recording I mix the tracks to a file - it saves it as AIFF (so far so good). There are options in this dialogue box that I never use such as changing the Sample Rate from 44 Khz to 96 Khz and the bits from 12 to 16 or 24 etc.... Can someone please explain these things? I am sure it has to do with quality and size of the file. What would you suggest I use?

[Mark E]

the amount of "bits" (16 bit, 24 bit) defines the number of voltage steps used in the sampling process. for example a 16-bit audio file uses just over 65,000 voltage steps to represent your sound, while a 24-bit file uses over 16,000,000! (so basically: more bits = a more accurate representation of the sound you originally recorded.)

the sample rate is the number of times per second that the voltage steps are recorded.

standard CD audio is 44.1kHz, 16-bit, while DVD audio is either 48kHz or 96kHz and 16- or 24-bit.

as for what you should use... well, there's nothing wrong with CD quality! (16-bit, 44.1kHz).

obviously if you plan to ever make surround-sound mixes of whatever it is you're recording, to be played on a DVD player, you'd be better off with 48kHz. but there's no reason why you can't re-sample your existing audio at 48kHz.

hope that was helpful..

-Mark