The case for not worrying about oversampling

Usually, one adds saturation in subtle amounts, which wouldn’t cause much aliasing. Moreover, real-world audio signals have much less energy in the high frequencies.¹ This led me to create A better sine sweep test.

Also worth asking, At what decibel level does a signal become inaudible? If the aliasing is quiet enough, it may be imperceptible.

It’s also important to weigh the benefits of oversampling with The hazards of oversampling.

Counterpoint, stack enough nonlinearities, and tons of crazy aliasing can happen, without oversampling. The moral of the story is still: use nonlinearities with care.