[sdiy] Taking a Step towards Digital Synthesis?....

[Colin f]

> > Perhaps 96k was chosen to avoid something that was a 
> multiple (harmonic)
> of
> > the 44.1 playback rate?
> 
> Hiya, Tim! I'd guess that 96kHz was just the next logical 
> step up from the
> "professional" sampling rate of 48kHz. For that matter, where 
> did 48kHz come
> from?

My guess is the choice of 48kHz (therefore double at 96) is fairly
arbitrary, based on an integer division of readily available crystals
(i.e. 12MHz / 250), and the major engineering demand was that it just
had to be 'better' than CD.
Of course, the sure way to find out if a theory is wrong is to post it
on SDIY ;-)

The choice of 44.1kHz was based on the use of video tape recorder
technology for early digital audio recording.
See http://www.music.princeton.edu/classes/cd_rate for the arithmetic.

Colin f