[Ardour-Users] Experience? Rework an external 44.1 KHz 16 bit recording

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi :)

last Saturday I made a home recording of a C. Bechstein grand piano
using a pair of AKG C 1000 S microphones and a Mackie console. As
expected the sound quality has some annoying limits.
Furthermore the recording was done with a studio DAT recorder, but I was
ordered to record at 44.1 KHz and to adjust the level until it reached 0
dBfs or more ;). The reason for this was the need directly after doing
the recordings, to burn a CD with a stand alone drive, because someone
else immediately needed a loud CD. Fortunately I could do it as a 2
channel recording, but a stereo mix, so each microphone has it's own
channel. The recording was done without using EQs, compressor, limiter
etc., hence I guess it should be possible to increase the quality a
little bit.
I've got an audio CD of the recordings too. Regarding to the less good
analog IOs of my Terratec EWX 24/96 cards I've got 3 options to export
the music to Ardour, instead of using the analog IOs of the cards.

1. Using a CD ripper
2. Using S/PDIF of a CD player
3. Using a DAT recorder to convert anlog audio from a CD player to 48
KHz S/PDIF

I would prefer to record by S/PDIF, because I like to record the needed
parts, instead of using the virtual scissors.

Now I've got 3 questions.

1. Did somebody note serious differences for a ripped WAV compared to
S/PDIF FOC?

2. Related to Ardour

Usually I tend to use EQs and to avoid compression, but perhaps I need
some compression. I'll add some reverb (room), perhaps recorded from an
external reverb, but a Linux reverb.

I usually avoid 44.1 KHz, but use 48 KHz and 96 KHz, when (until now)
using Qtractor, but Ardour.

I wonder if it would be better to convert the 44.1 KHz recordings to 48
KHz or 96 KHz, to be able to record the external reverb at 48 KHz or 96
KHz or to keep 44.1 KHz?

I suppose keeping 44.1 KHz in this case, just for recording reverb and
doing some work with EQs and maybe a compressor too would be ok.

2. Related to Envy24

Envy24control has an option in the hardware setting tab called 'volume
change rate', it's set up to 48 and has an available range from 0 to
255.

IIUC it's just regarding to the Envy24's fader steps and has got no
impact to the quality of the sound.
http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-audio-users/msg71315.html

!!! This isn't my usual workflow, hence I'm interested in experiences.

Cheers!

Ralf