recording at 48KHz to avoid out-of-sync tracks (?)

/Many of the soundblasters, and in my experience Soundblaster Live is one of
/them, keep pitiful time unless you record at 48KHz (rather than 44.1KHz). I
/quit using my Soundblaster Live because of that since I didn't like converting
/to 44.1 to make a CD.

Hi! Just wondering why recording at 48khz would help solve a problem with time lags. Could someone explain this please? I wanted to try this, but when I switched to 48k, I suddenly became unable to record at all.

Apparently this goes beyond the capabilities of my M-Audio USB soundcard. Which brings up another question: Can someone recommend a USB soundcard with higher capabilities that might work better for me? For one thing, mine is USB-1, which I didn't know until I had already bought it and tried to use it.

Thanks,

DH

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. By the way, I have another question regarding bit depth. I understand the concept of sampling rate. When I record at 41k, that means the sound is sample 41,000 x each second, right? I assume bit depth means how detailed each sample is. Is that correct?

I'm also confused by the DMA settings DMA offset and DMA size. Is the DMA offset the same as the buffer size listed under Mixer Latency? And is DNA size the same as the I/O Buffer Size found under the "Advanced" tab?

On another thread, someone suggested I solve my problem is out-of-sync tracks by reading a page entitled Configuring Audio and MIDI Synchronization. The problem, though, is that the menu structure on that FAQ is not the same as what I have in Pro Audio 9 (9.01 to be exact). They say to go to Tools --> Audio Options. But I don't have Audio Options under tools. I did find one or two settings under Options --> Audio that looked right (sampling rate), but I do not have a setting for DNA size or DNA offset.

Also, the instructions they give for manually configuring the soundcard don't make sense. They say to start recording a steady drumbeat at 11k, then change the DNA size setting until the beats are all steady. Then you're supposed to save the file, move to 22k, double the DNA size and adjust it again until, once again, it's in sync. Then you repeat the process at 44k. But, again, I don't have the settings they are saying to adjust and, also, the drumbeat never goes off at all. It's when I try to record a second track in sync with that original drumbeat that I get problems.

Thx again for any help anyone can offer,

Davd