96/24 Master for DVD, 88.2/24 Master for CD? or 88.2/16 Master = easier CD deploy?

[roweezy]

I would like to know a few things:

I want to record a tape to my pc using a good tape deck with good RCA cables and either a ST Audio DSP 24 Value or ESI Waveterminal 192L soundcard using Cool Edit Pro 2.1. I will justify the higher price of the ESI if you can persuade me so. I will also learn/use instead Audition, SSRC, or WaveLab if their use is best for my requirements.

1) Which soundcard to buy that offers better recording? Both claim 24bit 96kHz AD converter, but which one actually will deliver better AD conversion? Perhaps you know of internal chips, or true SNR measures, on these cards that give technical superiority for AD conversion. I am not concerned which card offers more/better 'features' or even better DA (playback), but only in question of recording.

2) Is it possible to record simultanously with one soundcard and two instances of CEP, wavs of diff sample rate and bit depth? If not, how could i rec simultanously wavs of diff sample rate and bit depth? Would i need 2 :eek: soundcards for this, and is my PC able to handle this?

3) If so, I will use a master wav with 96/24 for easy deploy to DVD-V or DVD-A, then another 'master' wav that has the same mods to it as the 96/24, but will ultimately be deployed to CD. Q: Should I have the 2nd master at 88.2/24 or 88.2/16? I understand I must use a very good dither setting with a very good noise shaping model to get a near perfect output of 44.1/16. I want to create the minimal amount of things that can go wrong in the downconversion process. I will also use 16 bit over 24 on the 2nd master if it proves the advantage of: less archival space used and easier to deal with noise/artifacts introduced, over better quality.

4) What noise shaping model and dither settings should i use for each master? What dither settings and noise shaping do I need if only going from 88.2/16 to 44.1/16; is it still necessary for good downconversion? I will be using mixtapes of rap music, if this helps. The mixes used vinyl material and I'm almost sure analog only mods to the sound, if any. Posts from 2002 have said go with SSRC at mode Ultra High 1, or WaveLab for downconversion. They did not indicate which versions of the programs were based on for this. I've seen Graphs show CEP and SSRC being compared to 48->44.1khz downconversion, but they were from 2002 or earlier, and the bit depth was unspecified. SSRC was the clear winner, but again no program version was specified for either program. :(

Thanks for your help, and I will answer any questions ya'll will have as soon as I can. When the sound card is decided, I will get it and post clips (<30 sec) of the mixes at 96/24, thus helping ya'll to figure best downconversion process/program/settings.

My system: Dell Dimension 8250. P4 2.43/2.42 GHZ. 512MB Ram. Windows XP Pro. ~35 GB alloted for music. HD: WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0.
Right before recording with 2 instances of CEP 2.1, one having New 96/24 wav, the other New 88.2/24 wav:
per Task Manager: available RAM: ~250 MB, PF Usage: ~285 MB, 0-2% CPU Usage.

:)

[tenebrenz]

Hi
I've been archiving some old UK rave tapes which probably have probably been through the same kind of systems. A couple of vinyls being mixed with a live M.C. I will answer some of your questions:

1) If you are recording from a cassette tape, then the best quality you are going to get is limited anyway. Any decentish card will do, it doesn't even need to be 24bit. If your mixtapes were mastered like in the UK, they were done from DAT recordings, likely at 48/16, the vinyl used was probably also taken from a digital recording of similar quality.

2) No, it's not possible. The A/D convertors will only work at one clock speed at a time. You can use 2 soundcards in your pc at a time, why you would want to is another matter. The resampling in Cool Edit is fine, especially for your purpose.

Here is how I did it:

I used a direct connection from a good tape deck with Dolby set to off to my Terratec DMX 6Fire card and recorded at 48khz 24bit in Adobe Audion, I then use noise reduction with my favourite settings to lower tape hiss. I may then use frequency restricted dynamics processing to emulate DolbyNR if the tape was recorded using this.