Need help with mic settings on Windows 10

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Need help with mic settings on Windows 10

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Hi,

I'm trying to switch my mic  (AT2020USB+) from 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz but everytime I confirm it jumps back on 44.1. I tried to uncheck the two boxes (about device control) and then confirm but it jumps back to the old value, including the two checkboxes.

Does anybody know how to resolve this? (Yes, I have looked for the answer on the internet, no luck unfortunately.)

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Contrary to popular belief, there is a difference between 44.1 and 48Khz. Both are clock samples, trying to line up two different clocks can create issues with jitter and drift in the recordings. For short clips, most don't notice, but longer clips can create syncing issues, especially if you start doing a lot of editing.

 

Remember that your computer doesn't hear audio, it only understands the math behind it. Using different sample rates means different math, and it rounds down the math to keep it 16 bit or 24 bit. I've had issues editing a shortfilm where the audio (recorded at 44.1) ended up being half a frame behind the video (recorded at 48) - there is nothing that can be done with 1/2 a frame so I was stuck with it. That being said, I'm talking about short films where there are tons of edits compared to a video created for a course because they're usually not as heavily edited as a film. I've imported audio recorded for CDs (44.1) for shooting music videos I and rarely have issues but, just like before, every once in a while a syncing issue arose and I had to manually stretch a snippet of audio here and there to get it to line up better so the singer didn't look like they just sucked at lip syncing. 

Chances are you may never run into an issue syncing it, but if you do, I don't want you to dismiss the possibility of it being a clocking issue with the 44.1 vs 48Khz settings. If it really didn't matter, they wouldn't have switched to 48kHz for digital video when all audio at the time was being recorded at 44.1. The difference you can hear (if at all) is minimal unless you're an audio engineer trained to hear it, and even then most can't hear a difference unless you do a lot of heavy editing on the audio track. It's when you get into 96KHz with several real-time plugins effecting the audio is where audio recorded at 44.1 starts to falter. None of that maatters in your situation, I just wanted to let you know that there is a difference.

Somewhere in your software there might be a setting that tells the software to start all new projects with the default setting of 44.1. There might also be a setting that says to auto convert audio to 44.1... you should go through every setting in your software that has to do with audio to make sure nothing is "undoing" the settings you want. Check also for which clock you are using... if the audio is being recorded using the system clock it will ignore the clock in the USB input which is your microphone and change it back to 44.1.

So although you may never "need" to switch from 44.1 to 48 audio, you are recording audio for video after all, and that IS being recorded and then played back at 48kHz...which is being encoded and re-encoded several times during the creation, exporting, uploading, streaming etc... that's a lot of math, so why not get it right from the start and record at 48kHz instead of "hoping" you never have an issue? 

 

My two cents,
Kenn 

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Hi Esther,

 

May I ask why you want to do that?

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Hi Carlos,

I want to do some recordings with a video camera and record the audio seperately and then sync it later, so I want to record with the same frequency. Also, I want to see if it improves the audio quality that I get with the mic.

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You don't really need to do that.

 

You will be able to sync audio without issues, and you will not notice any difference in audio quality.

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Hi;

Congrats for your great effort.

Don't annoy your self with such a simple matter.

44.1 khz is great and has good quality.

You can continue with it without any problem.

Regards;

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Thanks, that's good to know - it's hard to tell if you can't try 😉

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Contrary to popular belief, there is a difference between 44.1 and 48Khz. Both are clock samples, trying to line up two different clocks can create issues with jitter and drift in the recordings. For short clips, most don't notice, but longer clips can create syncing issues, especially if you start doing a lot of editing.

 

Remember that your computer doesn't hear audio, it only understands the math behind it. Using different sample rates means different math, and it rounds down the math to keep it 16 bit or 24 bit. I've had issues editing a shortfilm where the audio (recorded at 44.1) ended up being half a frame behind the video (recorded at 48) - there is nothing that can be done with 1/2 a frame so I was stuck with it. That being said, I'm talking about short films where there are tons of edits compared to a video created for a course because they're usually not as heavily edited as a film. I've imported audio recorded for CDs (44.1) for shooting music videos I and rarely have issues but, just like before, every once in a while a syncing issue arose and I had to manually stretch a snippet of audio here and there to get it to line up better so the singer didn't look like they just sucked at lip syncing. 

Chances are you may never run into an issue syncing it, but if you do, I don't want you to dismiss the possibility of it being a clocking issue with the 44.1 vs 48Khz settings. If it really didn't matter, they wouldn't have switched to 48kHz for digital video when all audio at the time was being recorded at 44.1. The difference you can hear (if at all) is minimal unless you're an audio engineer trained to hear it, and even then most can't hear a difference unless you do a lot of heavy editing on the audio track. It's when you get into 96KHz with several real-time plugins effecting the audio is where audio recorded at 44.1 starts to falter. None of that maatters in your situation, I just wanted to let you know that there is a difference.

Somewhere in your software there might be a setting that tells the software to start all new projects with the default setting of 44.1. There might also be a setting that says to auto convert audio to 44.1... you should go through every setting in your software that has to do with audio to make sure nothing is "undoing" the settings you want. Check also for which clock you are using... if the audio is being recorded using the system clock it will ignore the clock in the USB input which is your microphone and change it back to 44.1.

So although you may never "need" to switch from 44.1 to 48 audio, you are recording audio for video after all, and that IS being recorded and then played back at 48kHz...which is being encoded and re-encoded several times during the creation, exporting, uploading, streaming etc... that's a lot of math, so why not get it right from the start and record at 48kHz instead of "hoping" you never have an issue? 

 

My two cents,
Kenn 

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Thank you so much for this very detailed explanation. I don't know too much about recording, so I am trying to get a better idea of what I'm doing, and it is really helpful to get valuable information from more experienced folks.

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You're welcome. 

Best of luck and ask whatever questions you need to help you understand it better. There's a lot of talented people here with a ron of audio experience that can help, and of course, I'll answer any question I can as well.

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Figure out how to create the best audio and visual set-up for your price point and skill level. This is a great place to chat about different mics, green screens, video editing software, and more.