How Good is Good Enough?

Today I read an article in Mix Magazine called “The Emperor’s New Sampling Rate” by Paul Lehrman.  In this article Paul talks about a blind test/study that was done last year to see if people could tell the difference between audio from a “regular” CD and music from a higher sampling rate of 96kHz.  Everything was the same from the recording source to the speakers.  The only change was the medium that the music was on, CD or SACD/DVD-A.  The result, most people couldn’t tell the difference.

Then of course the article goes on tp question the need of the higher sampling rates, and of course question the need when most people are listening to mp3s rather than high end systems.  I think that’s wrong.

Why do I think that’s wrong?  Because the trial was too good.  The music on the CD or on the SACD were from the same source!  If the original recording was a high sample rate I don’t think it matters what the final medium matters that much when they are both uncompressed.

Example.  Over the past 4 years I have recorded Beethoven’s 9th Symphony 4 times, from 3 different orchestras.  Not to mention that I have recorded these symphonies for years.  I know what they sound like.  I have always recorded them at 48kHz.  This month I recorded one of them at 96kHz (I wrote about that recording in an earlier post).  The piece of music and the orchestra sounded totally different!  I went back and listened to my previous recording of the same orchestra doing the same piece, and the 96k recording sounded better.  It sounded smoother, cleaner, clearer and crisp.  This reference listening AFTER I bounced the 96k recording to a normal 44.1 CD.  The difference?  My original recording was at twice the sampling rate.

Yes I feel very strong about listening to music from an uncompressed source.  Yes I believe strongly in recording with the best quality possible.  Yes I know many people don’t listen in a pristine environment.  The fact is that people don’t listen in perfect environments.  So, as professionals we can help them by creating music at the highest quality possible – so our listeners who are introducing compression and external noise to our recordings will still be able to hear the performance  that was intended.