Question about sample rates and offline bounce

[IveGotTricksUpMySleeve]

I've got a conundrum of a question :)

I think only AVID can answer this one..

okay so for example if I create a session in 48 Khz with all AAX instrument tracks like east west symphonic orchestra that work with offline bounce and no recorded audio tracks, and I bounce it using the offline bounce set to 192 Khz... will this make a difference in sound quality...

I guess what i'm asking is does the offline bounce bypass the session parameters when bouncing with only samples or does conversion still happen?

I'd like to start oversampling because i'm into making soundtracks and need the dynamic range and I only have an mbox 3 mini so my interface can't go higher than 48Khz but the offline bounce can go over that...
so this is a good question to ask for a lot of people...
plus, it would just be convenient to save the processing power at 48Khz instead of running an entire session in 192.

Thanks in advanced

[Peter Duemmler]

Sample rate has nothing to do with dynamic range, so even if the offline bounce upsampled that would gain you nothing in that regard.

And "conversion" (at least D/A-conversion) does not happen during a bounce as it is "in the box" and not through you converters (MBox).

[JFreak]

Simply put, no. It will first bounce it as 48k and then SRC to whatever you want.

You don't need to worry about anything, because you're in the box the whole time. As Peter pointed out, there is no AD or DA conversion happening and I believe the VI is perfectly capable of filling the whole audible spectrum in top quality.

[IveGotTricksUpMySleeve]

hold on,

but if the sample rate is higher
than the waveforms will be less blocky and smoother

so wouldn't the lower volumes be cleaner anyways just because of that?

I know the bit rate effects headroom and dynamic range in a different way
but I always thought that smoother more detailed waveforms would improve what I'm looking to improve regardless..

I understand that sample rates are a contentious issues among musicians though so there are probably lots of opinions on it.

either way I still want to use higher sample rates
seeing as a lot of film companies want 192 Khz

so what you guys are saying is
that this won't improve my sound quality if the session is in 48Khz?

just making sure I understood you guys correctly :P

[IveGotTricksUpMySleeve]

or is it that it will improve it slighty because of the VI's being capable of filling in the spectrum.. but that running the session in 192 Khz would improve the quality more?

just kind of confused on that one point :)

[clausiii]

Originally Posted by IveGotTricksUpMySleeve

or is it that it will improve it slighty because of the VI's being capable of filling in the spectrum.. but that running the session in 192 Khz would improve the quality more?

just kind of confused on that one point :)

no, the VI works with the settings of the session you created, the bounce will be done @48kHz and will be converted afterwards to your bounce settings.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by IveGotTricksUpMySleeve

or is it that it will improve it slighty because of the VI's being capable of filling in the spectrum.. but that running the session in 192 Khz would improve the quality more?

Are your monitors capable of reproducing 96kHz audio? Are your ears up to it?

[clausiii]

Originally Posted by IveGotTricksUpMySleeve

so what you guys are saying is
that this won't improve my sound quality if the session is in 48Khz?

yes.

if you bounce a 48kHz session to a 192kHz file, nothing will sound better.
best quality is to bounce at original session Settings - bit and kHz, everything else is conversion.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by IveGotTricksUpMySleeve

I always thought that smoother more detailed waveforms would improve what I'm looking to improve regardless.

Let me put it this way: what do you need to know to be able to draw a perfect circle? You need its origin and radius, nothing more. If you have a gazillion points representing that circle, it is less perfect.

Same goes to audio waveforms. IF you only process <20kHz frequencies, then 40kHz sampling rate is able to perfectly reproduce everything there is. This is especially true with VI's because there is no AD conversion involved, the digital plug produces the sounds.

Only reason to go 96kHz would be making sure your sub-par AD converter does not sound nasty at the ~20kHz area. All mistakes would be in the 30-48kHz area which would be filtered out later. But that's not the case here.