What Are Audio Bit Depth & Sample Rates, and What do the Numbers Actually Mean?

What is a bit rate? Why is 44.1kHz the music industry standard? How do these number affect our music?

This is a very simplified overview of bit rates and samples rates. The science behind this is very complicated. To learn more, click the links below.

1 bit contains approximately 6dB of volume information.

FURTHER READING:

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[EdThorne]

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[johnycash]

First guy who explain audio under 5 minutes..and everything what You need to know in that time..kudos.

[shkedov.b]

The need of higher frequencies is when editing and slowing down tracks you will be able to retain higher frequencies after being lowered to the hearing spectrum.

[danielprose]

With a High Sample rate like 96 you get less latency. 32-bit recording gives you recoverable audio if you did not have a ideal gain setting. For example, a gain setting may have been too high or too low. For the most part, this doesn’t really matter. however, if you were working a slightly chaotic environment with a lot of people and a complicated set up, these are nice settings to use as a safety net just in case a mistake is made. Unfortunately the file sizes are larger.

[christianratajczak]

If a human had only one ear, I agree, recording at 44.1 or 48 kHz would be sufficient. However, human brain is able to resolve sound resolution for directionality, location like distance and sound character differentiation of 7 microseconds. This is why recording audio in stereo at lower sample rate take that data and lowers the resolution by 4. As the amount of that information encoded in a stereo stream recorded at 44.1 kHz is at 20.8 microseconds. It is much harder to precisely pinpoint the location of a given object in a stereo recording. You can also play with phase shift and other aspects to emulate a 360 degree sound scape using two only speakers, and you'll be able to do so if you record at 196 kHz sampling rate as the positional resolution is now at 5.2 microseconds.

[shkedov.b]

Hey man, you're incredible! Explaining great and in the most interesting way possible.
Hope you get the massive exposure soon!
Thank you!

[TrojanRabbit-sgbl]

This is the best easy to understand explanation I've read and it's from 2009..."So, 24bit does add more 'resolution' compared to 16bit but this added resolution doesn't mean higher quality, it just means we can encode a larger dynamic range. This is the misunderstanding made by many. There are no extra magical properties, nothing which the science does not understand or cannot measure. The only difference between 16bit and 24bit is 48dB of dynamic range (8bits x 6dB = 48dB) and nothing else. This is not a question for interpretation or opinion, it is the provable, undisputed logical mathematics which underpins the very existence of digital audio." Taken from Head-Fi "24 bit vs 16 bit, the myth exploded."

[bigkeptsecret]

Great clear, concise and straight to the point video! Thanks

[SinnerSince]

All of that was like an f15 Eagle.... right over my head.

[RonnieVaiArovo]

Thanks Ed man, just discovered your videos as I was doing deep research into the Apollo twin.

You are succint and your tutorials are very well explained ( and sometimes humerous!) and as far as I can tell, your teachings are accurate without being overly technical.

[tommypartin]

Excellent video. Very well made, and to the point. Subscribed. 🤘

[glevy]

The higher the sample rate the closer we get digitally to the original analog wave form. HD 192 is technically the full value of an analog waveform. I have recorded at 192 a time or two because I could lol but I wouldn’t recommend it for daily use unless you transfer vinyl all day. I’m usually at 44.1 16 or 24 and have regularly recorded at 96 24 which is a much louder and much easier to apply plugins with. Just make sure you have a really powerful computer.

[Techiemotorist]

Thanks for such video, it totally cleared everything

[sczealot]

That was wonderfully clear, thank you.

[DJFriendZone]

Great video, however I think with your discussion of Bit Rates you are confusing dB (signal to noise ratio) and dBSPL (decibels sound pressure level). When using a 16 bit ADC, a dynamic range of 96 dB refers to the fact that quantization error will affect the signal, but do so with a signal to noise ratio of 96dB which is represented as 10*log10(original signal/quantization error). This error is incurred by the process of quantizing the amplitudes when sampling a signal. Both a 16-bit signal and a 24-bit signal can have peaks as loud as 140dBSPL or more when played on a loud enough system.
Interestingly enough, researchers generally found that it takes a dynamic range of 118dB for the effects of quantization noise to be inaudible. However, with that being said, a 16 bit ADC, if dithered correctly, can have a perceived dynamic range of 120dB, so the benefits of using a 24 bit may not be as pronounced

[maronius]

Well explained, accurate and concise, thanks!

[promiseesimorp]

I'm very happy I saw this. I didn't know how best to explain this to a friend and it turns out I needed the knowledge too... Thank you so much. You teach well! I'm now a subscriber

[ivaniasalasfranco]

very very very helpful, love your channel!

[mannradin]

Great Explanation and great Video keep it up

[mikeharwoodmusic]

Great advice Ed, I have only ever recorded at 48Khz and bounce down to 44, 1Khz having said that, I'm currently using 44.1 and it makes no audible difference to me ha ha but a lot of difference to my cpu/dsp usage.