As I have mentioned in previous posts, there are more and more positive signs that we are moving toward a new push for high-definition consumer audio - meaning 88.2k or 96k/24bit. It's unlikely that any of the bigs will get behind a new hardware format, as they are still stinging from the failures of SACD and DVD-Audio, but it looks like HD audio downloads and streaming are coming on in a big way.
Mastering engineers have recommended 88.2k as being the ideal sampling rate for production if CD's and mp3/AAC's are to be produced, since the sample rate convertor has to do a simple 'linear decimation' to get from 88.2k to 44.1k after mastering (just divide by two) resulting in a slightly better sounding conversion, and in the HD world no one has reliably been able to discern a sound quality difference between 88.2k and 96k. However, it seems there is a major effort happening to make 96k/24 bit the de facto standard for HD consumer audio, so it's advisable that you should be tracking and mixing at that rate. This is not a huge problem, as on an audiophile system you may be able to hear the slight quality improvement between a 44.1k file downsampled from 88.2k vs. 96k. But regardless, the file downsampled from 96k will still sound much better than if the track was produced at 44.1k from the start.
This all makes a difference in the parts you should have your mastering room cut. In the past, of the clients who delivered their tracks to mastering in HD, only a handful were interested in getting the HD mastered versions back - they were only interested in the 44.1k/16 bit master for CD and digital distribution. Now, you should want finished production masters in both HD and CD quality. That way, if the consumer industry does move toward HD audio you are ahead of the curve and have HD tracks ready to offer. Even if that never happens, and we stay in the doldrums of mp3, for your own archive it is best to have your music in as high definition as absolutely possible. The only downside is having to pay for the mastering room to create a second master in HD. This should not be a big expense because if it was done properly the tracks were mastered in HD anyway - the HD versions just have to be exported and written to a data CD-R or DVD-R. Many mastering rooms keep their projects backed up, so if you did deliver HD mixes, chances are good that your mastering room can still create an HD production master for you.
Audio tracking and mixing is a very interesting and creative type of work. I also love to do various types of audio mixing. Thanks for sharing such valuable information about tracking and mixing HD.
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