Representing sound

Sample rate: How often you record the amplitude of a sound wave. The more often you record a sample, the smoother the playback will sound. Measured in Hz.

Bit depth: The number of bits used to store each sample. The more bits you use, the more accurate the sound will be. The more bits you use, the larger the file size will be.

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The analogue wave is stored in binary. The more bits you use, the more accurate the sound will be. The more bits you use, the larger the file size will be.

The number of bits used to store each sample is known as fidelity or bit depth. The total range is the bandwidth.

CD quality has a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1 kHz.

Size of sound file = sample rate × bit depth × length of sound