by sean.boyer » Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:48 pm
It's all about preserving your original audio data. The more you restrict it on the way in, (by recording at a lower bit depth and resolution), the less you have to play with once in your DAW, and mixing down.
44.1 is probably good enough for most of the time, but I like to record with more breathing room than I need, because it can't hurt to have the extra resolution. In my recording rig, I have 4x2T hard drives, so space is not even the remotest of issues for me.
I also agree with the 24 bit sentiment. I think you're more likely to hear a positive difference between 44.1/16 and 44.1/24 than you are with 44.1/16 and 88.2/16. YMMV.