In digital audio, bit depth describes the amount of data contained in each sample, using the unit bits (not to be confused with bytes). Common examples of bit depth include CD audio, which is recorded at 16 bits, and DVD audio which can support up to 24-bit audio. Digital audio comprises audio signals stored in a digital format. ... In general, data consist of propositions that reflect reality. ... BITS may have any of the following meanings: In computer science, bits are binary digits, which may each have the value one or zero. ... This article refers to the unit of binary information. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Digital Audio

Each sample of audio contains data that, when converted into an analog signal, provides the necessary information to reproduce the sound wave as accurately as possible with details such as dynamic range and different frequencies. As one would expect, the lower the bit depth, the lower the overall quality of the recording. By reducing the bit depth, data is lost in each sample using a method of 'a little of everything'; rather than completely strip away, for example, the dynamic range or the frequency range, a compromise is made and each part of thet sample drops an amount of data. An analog or analogue signal is any continuously variable signal. ... This article is about compression waves. ... Dynamic range is a term used frequently in numerous fields to describe the ratio between the smallest and largest possible values of a changeable quantity. ...

One might ask why an audio file would be recorded at a lower bit depth. There are different reasons, such as lack of storage space (such as on a portable digital audio player) or the necessity to transfer the file over a network with the most efficiency where quality is not a top priority. // Look up network in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

What is a 'bit' of data?

Bits refer to binary; 16-bit means there are sixteen digits, all ones or zeroes. Binary is base-2 (each column can only be one or zero. Decimal is base 10, since each column can be any one of 0-9). Make the bit value, in this scenario we'll use 16, the exponent:
2¹⁶ (or) 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 = 65,536 Look up binary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The decimal (base ten or occasionally denary) numeral system has ten as its base. ...

This means that each sample can contain any one of 65,536 unique values made up of sixteen ones and zeroes.

Calculating bit rate

There is an easy way to determine a file's bit rate when given sufficient information.

Bit rate = (bit depth) x (sampling rate) x (number of channels)

For a recording with a 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 2 channels (stereo):
16 x 44100 x 2 = 1411200 bits per second, or, 1411.2 kBps

Bit depth versus bit rate

The generally-accepted definition of bit rate: The amount of data (bits) per second being processed.

In all digital audio, there is a bit rate that can be calculated. There is confusion amongst many who believe bit rate only applies to compressed audio (such as MP3). This is probably because the term bit rate often only appears when compressing audio, and bit depth seems to only appear when digitizing a recording.

This is actually generally the case, but it's possibly more for the sake of ease; someone who knows almost nothing about audio can easily get to know numbers like 128 kBps, 192 kBps and 256 kBps (common bit rates for compressed audio). Additionally, if one was to encode, say and mp3 (sample rate of 44.1 kHz, 2 channels), with two copies at 192 and 256 kBps, respectively, the bit depth would then be 2.1 and 2.9 bits, respectively. For other senses of the word code, see code (disambiguation). ...

Related articles

• Sound
• Digital Audio
• Bitrate