Demonstrating Sound Quality Loss from AD/DA conversion. Lesson 24-B

In this video, we'll be discussing sound quality loss from AD/DA conversion. This is lesson 24-B of the Audio Engineering Bootcamp.

If you're working with audio files that were recorded using analog to digital conversion (AD/DA), you'll likely experience sound quality loss. In this video, we'll discuss the effects of AD/DA conversion on sound quality and how to improve it. We'll also provide some techniques for improving sound quality in your recordings without having to resort to AD/DA conversion.
This experiment reveals how much the conversion effects the sound quality.

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Analog to digital, and digital to analog conversion are an important part of the signal chain in any recording studio, and for audio engineers. This is important to understand when mixing using analog outboard equipment. I also show the difference at various sample rates, such as 44.1 kHz, 48khz, and 96 khz.

[joesalyers]

For anyone curious, the added highs you are hearing is aliasing from the filtering of the converter. But 200 or 400 times is an insane amount of round trips but really good to show how aliasing sounds to people who struggle to hear it in small details. Now granted Focusrite has a analog color to their mic & line inputs so there is some of that as well. The Lavery white paper on sampling rate brings up that 64 kilohertz would be the actual optimal sweet spot but the math for the converters didn’t lend itself to the abilities of early converters but that is why some early machines like ADAT, DASH, and DAT had a 32k option with the idea that 32k would become 64k in the future. I remember DAT machines having a 32k or 441k option on them YEP I’m that old 😂 lol.

[ffseri]

Everytime I get "converter itch" I remind myself of this video. Excellent job! Thanks so much.

[colddarknight]

Before finding your video, i did this test and i though i was crazy to do "100 clone".
At 400 clone...you "take the cake" my friend !
Thanks for sharing !!

[RulingNoteMusic]

I recently got my hands on some old school ADAT tape recorders for the purpose of archiving a friend's older digital recorded material and have been pulling my hair out trying to find a cost-effective ADAT to USB interface for the purposes of avoiding substantial quality loss. The cost for one of those is through the roof.

This video just proved to me I have essentially nothing to worry about. Thank you for the peace of mind, sir!

[rickspyder]

Thanks for completely debunking the myth of multiple ad da for mixing... sure makes more confident options for workflow ... thanks a ton

[gustavoantoniodenadal]

Thank you! I really needed this information

[MarlonKingShow]

Very interesting, thank you. But, I think all this prooves is that most of us don't really need to worry about ad/da conversion causing problems unless you have some insane back and forth going on. was interesting to see 96khz holding up better. defo worth recording like that if you have the space.

[Jack_Sparrow_]

Very informative experiment. Thank you!

[customwallshelves]

Awesome. I might do an A-D or two in any situation. Great info.

[WeSuckAsHumans]

And I was concerned about going out to tape and back, then out to 500 series and back at 48k...Thanks for all that work.

[doctersound]

Thank you for this awesome video and for your time! Cheers!

[davebeeboss]

Fascinating stuff. I have been meaning to try this experiment for ages so many thanks for doing all the boring legwork so I don't have to!

[mixedbyedd]

so happy you made this video. this is a topic that needs to be talked about a lot more - thanks

[davidasher]

It’s aliasing distortion that you’re hearing.. 96k has a much higher Nyquist value so you’re not going to get that fold back into the audible range like you would for a lower sample rate. The difference between interfaces is probably due to the saturation each one adds. Apparently the Clarett is a lot cleaner so you don’t get much aliasing distortion. So it’s not necessarily the conversion but the saturation of the preamps.

[RusAD-gbjk]

To me, Focusrite sounded clearer in the top end, with little to no degradation, BUT it sounded colored across the whole spectrum, as if there was some small amount of saturation applied.

However, I also want to add that what you said hold true only if you have good modern gear. On cheaper and/or older hardware the degradation will be more noticeable. But you shouldn't buy a lot of analog gear to your studio if you're using first gen Scarlett 2i2 anyways, and cheap analog gear can and likely will sound worse than just using plugins, conversion degradation or not.

[carl-magnusconsitt]

👍👍👍👍👍 Great video! Interesting to hear the same test out/in through the clarett! The converters are really good!

[SilvertoneKevin]

It’s cool to see a definitive reason to be recording at higher sample rates esp if you mix outside the box.

[helmanfrow]

Really interesting. Leaves me with more questions than I had going in!

[Spunkbreaker]

Hi! Thank you for this video. VERY interesting seeing this. I use to record back my mixes in 192 and then simply convert to 44100. And the sounds is way better that recording at 44100. You guys have to try this, I am sure you will improve the sound in a 20%. Nice experiment.

[manuellujan]

Thank you for this very knowledgeable info! Even people that have been recording for years don't understand this concept fully! Me especially lol thank you.