48k or 44.1k to analog mix ?

[gpiccolini]

Hello all , this is my first post , but I´ve reading here and there the last few days . You have a nice place here

I use Logic Audio and have a pair of cards : Audiowerk8 and Aark20 . The aark sounds WAY better than the Aw8 and is my main card now . I left the other for auxiliary purposes ( softsynths or stuff like that ).
I mix all thru a Soundcraft 1600 series and this gives me a better sound than digital mixing ( at least to my ears ) . I work at 24/44.1 all the way and mix to the aark and then dither ( and limiting if necesary ) to 16bit in wavelab .
can I get better sound working @48k and then downsampling ? or working @48k and mixing to dat ( sony A7 I´m affraid... lol ). I{ve seen lots of savy people here . Maybe someone can enlight me with this...
regards

 

[Bob Olhsson]

Since you are mixing analog, at the very least you should probably be tracking at 48.

The mixdown might be better at 48 or it might not be depending on the quality of your A to D converters and sample-rate conversion. You really must test for your specific situation.

With expensive A to D converters I tend to prefer mixing to 44.1. because more gets lost in sample-rate conversion. With the ones built into a DAT machine, 48 tends to sound better even after sample-rate conversion.

 

[Jon Atack]

I agree with Bob.

The answer also depends on what type of mastering chain will be used after the mix.

If analog mastering, mix down to the highest sampling rate and bit depth available.

If all-digital mastering, I would mix down to 44.1kHz, 24 bits, and dither down to 16bits as the last step of the mastering chain.

Jon

 

[gpiccolini]

Thanks a lot for the replies .
I´ll check it now .