On the fence for which sample rate to record at (44.1 vs 96)

Question

Been reading tons of posts on the sampe rate debate.  My friends (across the country) and I are about to start to collaborate on the great American rock album that we didn't quite get right back in the day in college.  I'll be running the show sending them scratch tracks with clicks so they can lay down individual tracks and I'll import them.
I'm torn on which sample rate(s) to use -- and want the best quality possible, of course.  I've boiled it down to the following pros per sample rate.  Any advice/comments much appreciated.  thanks
44.1 Pros
- Friends across the country can use GarageBand (44.1kHz is max) to lay down a single track and send to me to import into Logic Pro and mix (and will match up)
- GarageBand is free, Logic Pro is $199; Apogee JAM is $99, Jam96kHz is $129
- GarageBand requires fewer resources (1GB RAM vs 4GB for Logic Pro) so they don’t have to have beefy Macs
- Smaller file size to post/share (Dropbox cost per/storage size)
- Picture mixing a bunch of 44.1 tracks vs a bunch of 96 tracks even if on my beefy Mac running Logic Pro; fan running, gasping for air etc?
96 Pros
- 96 sounds noticeably better than 44.1?
- While 44.1 standard for CDs, that’s no longer how music is largely distributed
- Should always record to max resolution you can be “future proofed”?
- Current lossy formats support up to 48kHz so 96kHz good as will cut cleanly in half when bouncing
88.2 Pros
- Maybe choose this so friends using GarageBand can record at 44.1 so upscales more cleanly?  But then bouncing down to 48kHz not as clean? (I don’t recall Logic Pro allowing me to choose 44.1 for bounce rate.. always says 48 for MP3/M4A)
thanks!

Answer 1

rcook349 wrote:
44.1 Pros
- Friends across the country can use GarageBand (44.1kHz is max) to lay down a single track and send to me to import into Logic Pro and mix (and will match up)
- GarageBand is free, Logic Pro is $199; Apogee JAM is $99, Jam96kHz is $129
- GarageBand requires fewer resources (1GB RAM vs 4GB for Logic Pro) so they don’t have to have beefy Macs
- Smaller file size to post/share (Dropbox cost per/storage size)
- Picture mixing a bunch of 44.1 tracks vs a bunch of 96 tracks even if on my beefy Mac running Logic Pro; fan running, gasping for air etc?
96 Pros
- 96 sounds noticeably better than 44.1?
- While 44.1 standard for CDs, that’s no longer how music is largely distributed
- Should always record to max resolution you can be “future proofed”?
- Current lossy formats support up to 48kHz so 96kHz good as will cut cleanly in half when bouncing
88.2 Pros
- Maybe choose this so friends using GarageBand can record at 44.1 so upscales more cleanly?  But then bouncing down to 48kHz not as clean? (I don’t recall Logic Pro allowing me to choose 44.1 for bounce rate.. always says 48 for MP3/M4A)
thanks!
44.1 kHz still is pretty much standard for MP3's.
Your friends/collaborators can pretty much use any application that can record PCM (or even MP3) audio; even if they're not playing to a steady tempo, you can line everything up in Logic, with flex.
Using Garageband and one set tempo should also work. Just remember that you cannot open Logic files in Garageband, only Garageband files in Logic. The Audio Files recorded by either, can be used (imported) by either.
Higher sampling rates will not "future proof" anything. In fact, that whole concept is flawed. Your best bet for now is simply 44.1 kHz 24 bit uncompressed PCM files in their most widely used form: AIFF or WAV.
96 does not noticeably sound better than 44.1, unless you have a top end interface and a very delicate and very complicated mix, and admirably acute hearing. In some interfaces 96 or 88.2 have been found to sound worse than 44.1, because of clocking inaccuracies getting progressively worse at higher sampling frequencies. I would stick to 44.1, it has lots of practical advantages (as you pointed out), and the sonic difference with 96 kHz is marginal at best, and certainly not worth the price: "double" rates need double the CPU power for any plugin processing. That's the biggest loss. Half a Mac.
Bitdepth on the other hand does make a significant difference. There is no reason not to record everything at 24 bits. Shorter: always record at 24 bits.
O, also just spotted your remark about Logic not "letting you" bounce MP3/M4a to 44.1 kHz. You must remember incorrectly, because I never bounce MP3 or AAC to any other frequency than 44.1 kHz. However, it may be that this rate is tied to the projects' sampling frequency as set in the project settings, and the last time I used 48 kHz was in LP 8. I'll check that now.