Sound formats

[Stephen Barncard]

>Recently, Scott Rossi  wrote:
>
>11k is pretty low; anything under that is usually reserved for voice-only
>situations since voice audio is usually more forgiving than music. 11k is
>workable for short sound effects, but 22k is better and pretty common for
>music.  If, as you say, you don't have any filesize restrictions, you might
>want to consider 44k which is closer to CD quality.

44.1/16 bit < is > CD quality. The sampling rate is just above the 
lowest allowable Nyquist frequency to allow response to 20khz (two 
samples per).The downsides of such a low point were not understood 
for years and the  low rate was why many thought analog sounded 
better; it was true. It always made me cringe when devices were 
promoted as being 'Digital' = 'better' when in fact the signal was 
often degraded. It took years for the mastering industry to make 
tolerable CDs.

Today 96k sampling is the rate most used for source masters, where it 
has much more resolution, then down-sampled and SRC'd to 44.1. The CD 
standard was set to the limits of the technology at the time; the CD 
specs were frozen in 1978.

sqb