Having more detail generally requires a higher bitrate. Just like some photos have a high resolution, audio files with a high sample rate and high bit depth have more detail. Bit depth is the number of bits in each sample, or how information-rich each of those 44,100 pieces of audio is.Ī high sample rate and a higher bit depth both increase the amount of information in an audio file, and likewise increase the file size. Those individual samples vary in the amount of information they have. When the audio is played, the hardware then reconstructs the sound 44,100 times per second. This means that the audio is sampled 44,100 times per second during recording. Most digital audio has a sampling rate of 44.1kHz, which is also the sampling rate for audio CDs. The sample rate is the number of times in a second an audio sample is taken: the number of instances per second that recording equipment is transforming sound into data. “Those are the things typically being streamed on Apple Music and Spotify,” says Rodocker. Popular lossy audio file formats include MP3s and AAC.
To truly comprehend bitrate, you also need to learn what makes up an audio file and what different types of audio files exist. Understanding bitrate is essential to recording, producing, and distributing audio. “You could have the greatest-sounding recording of all time, but if you played it with a low bitrate, it would sound worse on the other end.” “Bitrate is going to determine audio fidelity,” says producer and engineer Gus Berry. A higher bitrate generally means better audio quality. Bitrate is the term used to describe the amount of data being transferred into audio. That information can be dense or sparse, high-quality or low. Turning music, speech, and sound into audio data.ĭigital audio is digital information.