Comment by Borealid
9 months ago
Are you familiar with the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem?
If so, what do you think about the concept of a human "hear[ing] the steps" in a digital playback system using a sampling rate of 192kHz, a rate at which many high-resolution files are available for purchase?
How about the same question but at a sampling rate of 44.1kHz, or the way a normal "red book" music CD is encoded?
I have no doubt that if you sample a sound at high enough fidelity that you won't hear a difference.
My comment around digital vs analog is more of an analogy around producing sounds rather than playing back samples though.
There's a Masterclass with Joel Zimmerman (DeadMau5) where he explains the stepping effect when it comes to his music production. Perhaps he just needs a software upgrade, but there was a lesson where he showed the stepping effect which was audibly noticeable when comparing digital vs analog equipment.
You are correct, and that "high enough fidelity" is the rate at which music has been sampled for decades.
The problem I'm mentioning isn't about the fidelity of the sample, but of the samples themselves.
There are an infinite number of frequencies between two points - point 'a' and point 'b'. What I'm talking about are the "steps" you hear as you move across the frequency range.
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At least for listening purposes, there's no difference between 44.1 KHz/16-bit sampling and anything above that. It's all the same to the human ear.