I recorded a string quartet concert that lasted just around an hour, .aiff files to a laptop. I want to burn the files to CD, but even after cutting much of the unwanted banter between tracks it's just over 900MB, too large for the standard CD-R. Honestly, I thought I recorded them at 24/96 but now I'm not sure.

An interesting read on 96k vs 44.1k sample rates and up sampling.

I'm using my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra with Logic Pro 9, and it seems to be limited to a 44.1khz sample rate for some reason? If I go in the Audio MIDI setup utility on my macbook pro, I can set the sample rate for the Fast Track there to the maximum (96khz). I can also do the same in the Fast Track's control panel software.

I am going to do a simple test recording of direct acoustic guitar, at 44.1 and 88.2Khz rates, to compare for my own knowledge. My question is, if there are differences to be heard, what exactly should I be listening for, if I want to hear the differences?

I am currently looking to upgrade the way I mix music. Currently, I have a fast track ultra and I'm just using a pair of 50$ monitor headphones. I have done test recordings of 16 bit, 44.1 Khz vs. 24 bit 96 khz recordings, and I cannot hear a shred of difference. (I know my fast track ultra is capable of recording that bit rate). So I'm thinking it's the fact that I use crappy headphones.

Given how fast technology has progressed, and how frequently mediums have changed, why has commercial audio been stuck at 16bit 44.1 khz for so long? Why is there apparently no industry movement toward CD production with greater bit depth?

Currently running Sonar 6, Dell Pentium IV w/ MOTU 828 mkII firewire... and whatever stock sound card my computer has.

I assume there have been ample discussions of this in the past, but I cannot find any applicable threads to read using the search feature of this forum. Can anyone point me to these discussions?

If for whatever reason the discussion gets restarted here, these are my thoughts/assumptions:

I assume that higher resolution means better sound quality.

I've been recording and mixing 32 track plus sessions at 44.1 24bit for a while now and am considering increasing my sample rate to 96khz. I mix in the box and like many others my final destionation is CD and I'm worried that a sample rate change of that size will actully sound worse than a session kept at 44.1 24bit.

What is the point of recording at 192 htz or 96 htz when you have to dither everything down to 44.1htz to burn it to a CD? Does it sound better? I don’t understand why to buy a 24 bit 192 htz vs 24 bit 92 htz if you dither down to burn a CD? I am thinking of gettting the Aleis 24xz but it only records up to 96khz.