Are high sample rates better for DSP? Options

[Ethan Winer]

I've read many times that audio plug-ins such as equalizers work better at higher sample rates, even if audio generally doesn't benefit. It seems unlikely that there's a practical advantage to up-sampling all your files, or recording at 96 KHz in the first place, but is there a potential theoretical improvement? Or is this just another Internet myth?

--Ethan

[greynol]

I know the unofficial mantra around here is all things sound the same unless proven otherwise, but all I can say is wow, just wow. When I was an engineer we always joked about something working on an infinite sample of one.

You've tested a couple of DSP operations on extremely trivial single-tone samples and are now willing to make such a sweeping generalization?!? I hope you don't plan on presenting this in public as things might get more than a little embarrassing for you.

This post has been edited by greynol: Jun 12 2012, 18:48

[Ethan Winer]

You've tested a couple of DSP operations on extremely trivial single-tone samples and are now willing to make such a sweeping generalization?!?

No plans to present this in public. I posted this question because a friend asked me about it and I wasn't sure, so I figured I'd ask the experts. Me, I'll be satisfied to hear a good explanation of why EQ works better on 96 KHz audio files than files at 44.1 KHz. I'll be even happier to see an FFT or other data, or even a pair of audio files to compare. Whaddya got?

--Ethan