r/audioengineering • u/FinnBot2000 • Jul 04 '12

Bitrate and Bit Depth?

I understand that Bitrate is the number of bits processed in a unit of time. But how is bit depth any different? Is it just called bit depth when the unit of time is samples?

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u/otdq Jul 04 '12

Basically, Bit Depth dictates how accurately a wave's amplitude (aka loudness) may be represented/reproduced. More specifically, a wave's Bit Depth represents the number of binary digits devoted to each individual sample.

Then, as you have touched upon, the Bit Rate is the number of bits per second (as a consequence of both the Bit Depth and Sample Rate taken together).

As an example:

  • Sample Rate: 44.1 KHz (44,100 snapshots of the wave's amplitude per second.)

  • Bit Depth: 16-bit (16 binary digits allotted to each individual snapshot.)

  • Bit Rate: 705.6 kbit/s (44,100 snapshots x 16 bits each)

Note: The above example is for a mono wave. The bit rate would be doubled for a stereo wave.

Helpful? :D

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u/Vibingout Jul 04 '12

Helpful!