Cubase project recording format?

[Robin Gardner]

Hello Toontrack!
I noticed Superior Drummer 3 use sounds in 44,1k Hz “Sample Rate”, like below information from your website:

FEATURES – AT A GLANCE.

In excess of 230 GB of raw, unprocessed sounds in 44.1 kHz/24 bit

So then, would it be a better idea to record my Projects in the same format? (I usually record in 48k Hz/24Bit).

//Best Regards from Robin Gardner

• This post was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by Robin Gardner.

Topic

[George Piazza]

Robin,

I’m just another SD3 user, I also use Cubase. I do mastering and have researched Sample Rates & SRC in depth. And I also have the same question, since I typically record in 48 kHz / 24 bit. **

It depends on where the Sample Rate conversion happens and the quality of that Sample Rate Conversion.

If Superior Drummer does the SRC before sending the audio to Cubase, the question is: How good is the SD3 SRC?

If Cubase does the Sample Rate Conversion, unfortunately that is one of the weaknesses in Cubase, unless you are using Cubase 10.

For an analysis of SRC quality in DAWs and standalone SRCs, see here: http://src.infinitewave.ca/

The sweep analysis on this site for Cubase demonstrates the mediocre SRC of all versions of Cubase before version 10; they all have a fair amount of aliasing. Some DAWs are worse; some are better. Cubase is about in the middle. Bitwig, Ableton Live 7, Reason 6.5, Sadie, Sequoia 8, Vegas 9, Soundblade, Soundforge (arguably), Traktor Pro 2.6.4 are all worse. Most of the other DAWs are better. Some DAWs running on a MAC OS apparently use the MAC SRC, so the SRC quality is dictated by that version of the MAC OS. Logic is one example. (Cubase uses the Cubase SRC on both platforms, so it makes no difference).

Wavelab’s SRC is far better (every version from 6 on).

iZotope RX is also superior.

Voxengo makes a free SRC 9R8Brain Free) that is excellent.

But none of these can be used in real time or export mode in Cubase.

** (A good converter can make excellent recordings in 44.1 kHz; it is largely a question of how good the anti-aliasing filter is. That is by far the biggest difference between A/D converters and Sample Rates. The ‘recording at higher sample rates is better because there are more dots to connect’ argument is bogus, but that is another topic. But there are some good reasons to choose 48 kHz over 44.1 kHz, the main ones being auditory filters – anti-aliasing filter interactions, possible reduced A/D filter ringing and better processing during the mix process – see Bob Katz’ ‘Mastering Audio’ book.).

FWIW, I also question the idea of recording at a lower Sample Rate, then exporting at a higher one. Some people assume that the processing throughout the audio chain (including plugins) will take place at the higher Sample Rate that ‘Export’ is set to, but that doesn’t make sense. It is much more likely that the mix is run at the original sample rate, then is up-sampled on export, after the main mix bus; this means there is no quality benefit gained by exporting at a higher sample rate, since the conversion takes place after all the mix processing.

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Thanked by: Robin Gardner

[Author]

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