tracking beats in 24 bit 96k quality over standard.

hello my question is what sample rate do you guys track out your beats in. i know the mpc 1000 is 16 bit but does the sound improve much when you track it on high sample rates vs it being straight off the mpc. at times i feel outdated cause all these newer players got maschine and etc.... and they are 24 bit. so is my sound gonna improve or will the beats still sound dull and dark compared to 2it glory.

i like the raw sound of the mpc dont get me wrong but i want to up the quality of the recordings.

no my audio interface doesnt have digital only analog but it should be fine with analog, does it sound better with digital because thats what i was thinking of using digital

skytownboy wrote:i like the raw sound of the mpc dont get me wrong but i want to up the quality of the recordings.

You could carry out a fairly simple test if you really want to find out.

Track out your parts in 16 bit and apply effects, mixing and basic mastering. Don't do anything different to how you would normally work. When your project is finished mix down the tracks to a stereo file and save the project.

Now delete all of the audio but leave the tracks in place and remember what goes where. Convert the project to 24 bit 96k and track everything back in. Assign everything to how you had it before and tweak a few levels if you really need to. Mix it down and compare it to the 16 bit file. Simple.

Honestly there's no magic to tracking, if the sound isn't there it isn't gonna be there, you can't fake harmonics.

Put is a simpler way is this.
Good sounds tracked at 44k 16 or 24 will give you better results than bad sounds tracked at 96 or even 192.

If you like the sound of the MP then wouldn't you goal be to retain that sound?

We have so much technology at our disposal we tend to forget the importance of the source.
Far too much time goes into thinking about the tweaking you can do in the DAW instead of getting it right on the front.

If you are working on you own material of stuff you will have some aspect of mixing, it helps to mix as you go along.

Instead of waiting to use that plug or hardware in the mix to get the kick you want go ahead and create that kick to use in the MP.

As suggested you can simply try it both ways and compare it but all in all you really want to get your going in the right direction at the point of creation.

Lampdog wrote:48khz/24bits sounds alot better than 44/16.
Are you able to use the digital outs of your mpc? Can you do 48?

IMO bitdepth is way more important than the samplerate. In the end you'll have to convert it down to 44,1 kHz / 16bit and the convertion of the samplerate will do more harm to the signal than the convertion of the bitdepth so I recommend 44,1kHz / 24bit when tracking to DAW.

peace

ntalec wrote:...
We have so much technology at our disposal we tend to forget the importance of the source.
Far too much time goes into thinking about the tweaking you can do in the DAW instead of getting it right on the front.

So true! This is true for any production process, photo, movie, music recording...
Nowadays, people focus on post production way too much.
Anyway, use 24 bit whenever it is available to use (even source is lower than 24 bit), you cannot go wrong with recording with 24 bit. You WILL hear the difference.