Firepod 10 and 96k vs. 192k??

[MetallyGuitarded]

I was looking at the Firepod and it seems like a pretty good piece of gear but I am wary of the fact that it's only 96k. I've seen a lot of cheaper AND more expensive stuff that's 192k and I know with an MP3 audio playback the difference is quite significant. Have any of you ever compared units that were the same or similar except for that spec and could you hear a difference?

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your responses.

 

[Metaltastic]

Almost everyone here, from the amateurs to the pros, record at 44.1k/24-bit, so I wouldn't worry

 

[AdamWathan]

Yeah, don't get confused between the terminology used for recording and the bitrate of a rendered mp3 file. Yeah a 96k mp3 sounds like shit, but that's not what we're talking about. I record at 44.1k and I don't even intend on recording at a sample rate any higher because everything ends up on CD anyways and CD is 44.1k/16-bit. All of the 192k mp3 files you hear that sound so much better than 96k mp3 files are still rendered from 44.1k/16-bit WAV files. Any mp3 is worse in quality than a 44.1k/16-bit WAV, so you're all good.

 

[Metaltastic]

Hahahaha, oh wow, THAT'S what you meant Metally? Ok, now I get what you mean with the mp3 thing - yeah, with an mp3, it's kbps (kilobits per second), so the more there are (192 instead of 96, for example), the higher the quality. But with recording to digital audio, it's a 96 khz/192 khz (kilohertz) sample rate - meaning it takes samples 96,000/192,000 times per second. However, the usefulness of this is pretty limited, because the sample rate only determines how high of a frequency you can record digitally, and this is explained by something called the Nyquist Theorem, which states that the highest frequency that can be reproduced is equal to around half of the sample rate - in other words, standard CD-quality audio at 44.1 khz can still get up to around 22 khz. Thus, since we as humans can only hear up to 20 khz, it doesn't really make sense to go any higher, unless you're doing like really airy music with tons of acoustic instruments, like a symphony orchestra.

 

[MetallyGuitarded]

Good info guys, thanks. I think if I hang around this board long enough I might not be so Guitarded for so long.

 

[Where She Wept]

Hahahaha, oh wow, THAT'S what you meant Metally? Ok, now I get what you mean with the mp3 thing - yeah, with an mp3, it's kbps (kilobits per second), so the more there are (192 instead of 96, for example), the higher the quality. But with recording to digital audio, it's a 96 khz/192 khz (kilohertz) sample rate - meaning it takes samples 96,000/192,000 times per second. However, the usefulness of this is pretty limited, because the sample rate only determines how high of a frequency you can record digitally, and this is explained by something called the Nyquist Theorem, which states that the highest frequency that can be reproduced is equal to around half of the sample rate - in other words, standard CD-quality audio at 44.1 khz can still get up to around 22 khz. Thus, since we as humans can only hear up to 20 khz, it doesn't really make sense to go any higher, unless you're doing like really airy music with tons of acoustic instruments, like a symphony orchestra.

+1 on bring up the Nyquist Theorem. Going higher than 88.2 or 96k is redundant becasue you've already captured all the audio info.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

It takes up more space anyhow (to go higher than 44.1).

 

[LydonB]

If you believe in all of the psychoacoustic stuff it might make sense to record at 96kHz or 192kHz. 44.1kHz/24 bit works well for me.

 

[Machinated]

I don't personally record at anything higher than 44100 and 24 bit. For DVD stuff 48kHz would be understandable too, but for me 44100 is fine and I can also save on hard drive and processing resources.

 

[deLuther]

I`m using 96k when recording sound for creating impulses (for accuracy).
Got slightly better results than using 44.1. But usually record audio at 44.1.
Nyquist theorem defines minimal bound for sampling frequency.
As for mp3 bitrate, even highest bitrate still at least 4 times smaller than CD-Audio bitrate
(320 vs 1411)