Decent article on digital audio: gadgets.itwriting.com
This isn't a technical discussion, but it fits very well with my limited experience & understanding of how digital audio works.
Dear audio industry, fix mastering before bothering with high resolution audio (Tim Anderson)
I haven't yet taken time to read all the references, but I recognise the ink to the Loudness Wars and several others, well worth reading. I liked the point that drawing graphs of stair steps is misleading, this doesn't get said publicly often enough (digital is discrete points, not steps. That's not how you're supposed to draws graphs).
I have yet to hear high resolution justify the premium price tag, and home versions of the Meyer - Moran test have failed to help the case for higher resolutions. As far as I can see, it's mastering, Mastering, MASTERING that's important.
(So much so it even transcends the difference between vinyl & digital. High res' is a red herring.)
Dear audio industry, fix mastering before bothering with high resolution audio (Tim Anderson)
I haven't yet taken time to read all the references, but I recognise the ink to the Loudness Wars and several others, well worth reading. I liked the point that drawing graphs of stair steps is misleading, this doesn't get said publicly often enough (digital is discrete points, not steps. That's not how you're supposed to draws graphs).
I have yet to hear high resolution justify the premium price tag, and home versions of the Meyer - Moran test have failed to help the case for higher resolutions. As far as I can see, it's mastering, Mastering, MASTERING that's important.
(So much so it even transcends the difference between vinyl & digital. High res' is a red herring.)
Comments
I quite agree that recordings can & should be made in higher resolution, but 16/44.1 works for playback most of time. I've rarely heard 24/96 and above a significant improvement - in fact, I have some 16/48 that's as good as anything I've heard.
I don't personally believe hi-rez audio is where computer audio wins out. I think it's playing back from a solid HDD with minimal (or preferably no) moving parts, and sophisticated software that gives it the edge. That, and the expensive engineering problems which need to be solved to get CD sounding half decent.