I have been getting a lot of questions from clients recently about file types, sample rates, bit rates and such like, so I thought I would clarify a few things here.
There are really no limitations about what you can cut onto a dub. As long as it makes a sound, it should record. Generally speaking, the higher the 'resolution' the better. That's to say, when it comes to sample rates, bit depths and data transfer rates, the higher the better. There are a few things worth pointing out though:
Sample Rate - vinyl is capable of reproducing extremely high frequencies. One need only look at the frequencies recorded onto quadradiscs to see how far the bandwidth can extend, so there is no need to limit the sample rate to 44.1 kHz unless you want to. I prefer to work at 88.2 kHz and I upsample all material to this sample rate before working on it. I don't downsample again before cutting because there is no need.
Bit Depth - even the finest audiophile vinyl is generally recognised to have less dynamic range than CD audio. Therefore it makes little sense to me to submit tracks to the studio that are deeper than 16 bit. I have been sent 32 bit tracks before, and they needlessly took ages to transfer over the internet and loads of hard drive space to store. I work in Pro Tools, and the highest bit depth I can currently run is 24 bit.
Bit Rate - a lot of the material I get sent is in mp3 format, and I cut from mp3s all the time. A lot of the time this is because the client only has mp3s, but sometimes its because they have purposely compressed the files to send across the net quicker. Generally I would advise against data compression, unless absolutely necessary. However, if all you have is an mp3, there is nothing to be gained from converting it to a wav file, or burning an audio CD - once the compression has taken the data out of the file, its gone forever. Having said that, plenty of clients have dubs cut from MP3 with pleasing results, especially those with a data rate of 320kbps.
