vinyl copying via m-audio 2496card/soundforge 6a problem

[todd the kiwi]

hi , i am copying my vinyl to mp3 via m-audio audiophile 2496 sound card and using sonic foundry sound forge version 6a to do this , i have my sample rate locked @ 96,000 in the audio delta control panel but when i save as and re-open a file (mp3) soundforge changes the sample rate and bit depth? even if i resample the file and 're-do' the bit depth and 'save as' it's all good unless i reopen it then it changes it again? are the files actually being recorded @ 96,000 32 bit depth or is this too high for sound forge to recognise? when 'saving as' the highest i can save it is "48 KHz, Stereo, Highest Quality Variable Bitrate Encoding. Use this setting for stereo music delivered over Intranet, DSL or dual channel ISDN." there is no option for 96,000? if i select to save it at 48,000 and reopen it only the bit depth changes (to 16 bit). if anybody could answer any part of this thread i would be a very happy chap indeed, pre thanks, todd the kiwi

[paulc]

If your going to the trouble to record at 24bit 96khz why are you saving it as a (lossy!) mp3 file? As far as I know most mp3 encoders will only do 16bit at 48khz max (the bit rate is really the deciding factor for mp3 quality ie:128/192/256).. If you want to maintain the sample rate/bit depth of the original recording you should use wav format or maybe look into a loss-less audio compression scheme (FLAC comes to mind)

-- Paul

[todd the kiwi]

thanks mate , i'm quite new to this so any help/suggestions are appreciated however , aren't wav and flac files quite large ? i'm bound to find out anyway , thanks again man