To digitize and restore a few vinyl records I'm hesitating between two flows
A) Digitize at 192.000 Hz, 24 bit > Clean at 192.000 Hz, 24 bit* > Archive 192.000 Hz but downsample to 48.000 Hz for "everyday life"
B) Digitze at 48.000 Hz, 24 bit > Clean at 48.000 Hz, 24 bit* > Just use and archive at 48.000 Hz
* cleaning mostly with iZotope RX
Archive disk space and process time are not limited are not a criteria in this case!
To my understanding, processing "may" be better at high sample rate but some quality may be lost when downsampling. Though I would expect that it is neglectable and my priority is quality of archives.
I read stuff like decrackling and declicking may perform better having more sampe per crackle/click... but I don't really know what outweighs what.
(When digitizing at 192.000 Hz, I see frequencies as high as 30 kHz or 50 kHz.)
It is an old saying that it is safer to start higher because 44.1k or 48k demand a decent and steep analog filter that might cut into the audible range. That does not mean you will be able to tell the difference, but it kinda guards you against a bad component.
So that is a case for digitize at higher frequency even if you immediately downsample to 48k (= do the low-pass in the digital domain where it is safe) to do the declicking. I don't know if your device does that internally though. Could be.
I don't know if your device does that internally though. Could be.
Thank you. What I use precisely is Technics SL-1500c (internal phono amp) > M-Audio Air 192|14 > then I usually record with SoundForge Pro 15, iZotope RX for cleaning, then SoundForge again for fade in/out and sometimes amplify loudness.
But as I understand your reply, it makes sense to do the work at high sample rate then downsampling?
It is an old saying that it is safer to start higher because 44.1k or 48k demand a decent and steep analog filter that might cut into the audible range. That does not mean you will be able to tell the difference, but it kinda guards you against a bad component.
So that is a case for digitize at higher frequency even if you immediately downsample to 48k (= do the low-pass in the digital domain where it is safe) to do the declicking. I don't know if your device does that internally though. Could be.
This largely depends on the sound card's ADC and the card's implantation. Many cards have delta-sigma oversampling ADCs which works at higher sampling rates than the rate user has it set to internally to do anti-aliasing filtering digitally.
Compare the results of click removal in your software. At high sampling rates clicks can be sharper. You can also more easily visually identify the positions on a spectrogram for repair. With older software a click can become too long/smooth to catch it. I suspect that RX might compensate for it and work well either way.
You can also more easily visually identify the positions on a spectrogram for repair.
Thank you. Well, this looks like a strong argument in favor or high sample rate, from my point of view as some of the vinyls are seriously used with some damages.