ProTools HD

02003-03-01 | Uncategorized | 1 comment

I don’t think I will upgrade to the ProTools HD (stands for High Definition) system anytime soon. It is not that I don’t think that it sounds amazing – because it does.
BUT, why should I record 24 bits at a rate of 192,000 samples per second when after mixing I have to whittle it down to 16 bits at 44,100 samples in order for the music to fit on a CD? It is depressing to hear all that gorgeous sound wither away….
There simply is no commercial medium that delivers 24/192k sound at this time. Many people might say (especially engineers!) that I should record my music at the highest possible quality because eventually there will be a medium that will deliver 24/192k….and then I will be able to rerelease my work because the basic recording already possesses that quality.
Yeah, maybe…but right now everybody is quite happy listening to mp3 files which are nowhere near CD quality…so why should I worry about the quality of my recording NOW. When there is a practical medium for 24/192k I will record a NEW album of music created for that sound!
In the meantime I would use up 24 x 192,000 = 4,608,000 bits per second instead of merely 16 x 44,100 = 705,600 bits per second.
That means I would need almost 7 times more storage…and storage is cheap you might say – BUT storage has to be backed up, which will take 7 times longer and storage has to be de-fragmented, which will take much longer. De-fragging my 73GB drive takes a long time already!!!
I’s fine if I hire somebody to do nothing but de-frag my drives and back them up or I buy a big system that does all of that automatically….but is that worth it????
Not to me I think. I want to get my system smaller and smaller so I can work anywhere…for example while living in a rented house in Italy or Portugal or wherever. Recording INSPIRATION sounds a lot better than recording awesome QUALITY. Don’t you agree?

1 Comment

  1. Anonymous

    Ottmar,
    I agree with you. I’m an audio engineer and felt that I had to response saying. NOT all engineers think alike. But its also probably because I’m an artist on my own. I mostly work with 24bit/44.1KHz which i think is suffeit for todays mp3 market. Only while recording classics would I push up the res to 88KHz – and thats a rare occasion. Anyway.. enuf tech talk. Thank you for your wonderful music. Hope to have you in my mobile studio someday. http://www.rastasia.com

    Reply

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