music : vocals/voiceover : set up/tracking : live vs. overdubs : digital vs. analog

96kHz, 24 bit

What does this mean? Well, CD quality means that the track is at sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a resolution of 16 bits. Although that's been the standard for a long time now, it looks like SACD's and DVD's will help break through this barrier. What 44.1 kHz, 16 bit simply means is that within the timeframe of one second, there are 44,100 samples of the original analog sound wave. Each of these samples has a resolution of 16 bits per sample. Recording at a higher sample rate and resolution allows more of the original analog source to be captured more accurately. See the graph below for an example:

A good analogy is scanning a photo. If you just want to get a quick scan to send over an email, you scan the photo at 72 dpi (dots per inch.) If you want a high quality scan for printing purposes, you scan the photo at 300 dpi. There's more digital information per inch of the photo to recreate the photo digitally. Therefore, the higher resolution will give you the better looking, crisper photo scan. It's the same thing for digital audio. The more digital information per second of audio, the better the digital recreation of the original analog source sounds.

So, what does 96 kHz, 24 bit mean for you, especially if the end result will be a mastered CD at 44.1 kHz, 16 bit? It means the studio works at a higher quality audio to remain more accurate to the original analog source, and that does make a difference in the end. Also, when you're ready to press that SACD or a DVD with accompanying videos, you'll have your tracks at a high quality that will fit with those formats.