need help regarding recording quality

[acute_right_flank]

I was using an M-audio 2496 soudcard to render my final mix into an audio cd. kaso nabenta ko na sya and default soundcard ulit gamit ko which has a 16 bit/44khz sampling frequency. ang tanong, if mag bburn ulit ako ng copy ng master mix ko using an onboard soundcard with 16 bit/44 khz, maaapektuhan ba quality nya?.

[abyssinianson]

no. if your material was recorded at 16bit/44, then it stays that way regardless of whether or not you have the card anymore as long as you do not alter the file in anyway. the only way you mix will be affected is if you edit the mixdown again without the m-audio and then mixdown using your present soundcard. because you do not have the benefit of the better converters, your mix will be off and more inaccurate.

[acute_right_flank]

no. if your material was recorded at 16bit/44, then it stays that way regardless of whether or not you have the card anymore as long as you do not alter the file in anyway. the only way you mix will be affected is if you edit the mixdown again without the m-audio and then mixdown using your present soundcard. because you do not have the benefit of the better converters, your mix will be off and more inaccurate.

thanks sir. the material was recorded @ 24bit/48. rendered as wma and wav @ 24bit/48. I want to burn a copy of the songs again but will the quality be affected now that I don't have a 24bit/48 khz or higher sampling frequency interface? thank you very much.

[KitC]

thanks sir. the material was recorded @ 24bit/48. rendered as wma and wav @ 24bit/48.

Always use the .wav for burning. Lossy compression algorithms like .wma and mp3 significantly affect sound quality regardless of compression settings. Another thing to consider is that you will have to sample rate convert to 44.1 KHz and 16-bit before you can burn to cd. Adding dither during the sample rate conversion process will minimize any digital artifacts; the POW-r or triangular algorithms are usually recommended.

[acute_right_flank]

Always use the .wav for burning. Lossy compression algorithms like .wma and mp3 significantly affect sound quality regardless of compression settings. Another thing to consider is that you will have to sample rate convert to 44.1 KHz and 16-bit before you can burn to cd. Adding dither during the sample rate conversion process will minimize any digital artifacts; the POW-r or triangular algorithms are usually recommended.

thanks sir kitc. If i understood you correctly, when exporting audio tracks to the final mixdown or into one final single track, I should export them as .wav file using 16bit 44 khz settings right? and then burn it to a cd?

hmm.. that brings me up to another question.

First. Taking it from your advice sir, can I still convert this wma files (which was rendered 24bit/48khz when i still have my m-audio 2496) into wav format using 16 bit/44khz and aplying dithers as you've recommended and burn this wav format into an audio cd? thanks. and will it not affect the quality taking into consideration that I am now using an onboard soundcard with a 16bit/44khz sampling frequency?

here 's what I will be doing. Please check if i'm on the right track and considering the fact that I'm using a cheap onboard soundcard.

      >Import this wma tracks that were previously rendered with a 24bit/48khz sampling rate into SONAR 7.
      >Export this tracks into .wav file using a 16bt/44khz sampling rate and applying dithers.
      >burn this .wav file into an audio cd and selecting the "normalize tracks option" of NERO CD express.
     


Second. what dithering is recommended?

thank you so much sir. I hope it's not yet late to make adjustments.

[KitC]

The "more correct" procedure would be to export your 'master' as .wav - for ex., I commonly export to 44.1 KHz/24-bit wav so that I have the highest resolution possible for my masters (you can also export to 48, 96 or even 192 KHz if that is your preference). If the Sonar project was recorded at 44.1 KHz 24-bit, I do not apply dither when generating the 44.1/24 wave master file, either through bouncing to a new track or exporting to wave. Dither will be applied when I convert the 24-bit file to 16-bit for cd burning. There is a time when I apply dither during exporting to 24-bit wav, and that is when the master will be converted using an external program such as r8brain (simply because r8brain does not have a dither function). When using editor programs such as Wavelab or Soundforge, I may apply their UV22 dither algorithm during sample rate conversions (I sometimes use these programs for conversion to .wav or .wma. as I find them more efficient for this purpose). Rule of thumb: it is better to record to 44/24 especially if the end product will be for cd replication.

For .wma or .mp3 encoding, I prefer to use the 16- or 24-bit master file since this has the highest possible resolution PRIOR to encoding, which is very important for the overall clarity of the file. I never export from Sonar direct to wma/mp3, then render the wma/mp3 back to .wav since there is already a conversion error when doing that procedure, specifically, certain frequencies are 'lost' because of the wma/mp3 encoding procedure.