Bit Rate
Bit rate refers to the amount of data, specifically bits, transmitted or received per second.
One of the most common bit rates given is that for compressed audio files. For example, an MP3 file might be described as having a bit rate of 160 kbit/s or 160000 bits/second. This indicates the amount of compressed data needed to store one second of music.
The standard audio CD is said to have a data rate of 44.1 kHz/16, meaning that the audio data was sampled 44,100 times per second, with a bit depth of 16. CD tracks are usually stereo, using a left and right track, so the amount of audio data per second is double that of mono, where only a single track is used. The bit rate is then 44100 samples/second x 16 bits/sample x 2 tracks = 1,411,200 bit/s or 1.4 Mbit/s.
This explains why, for example, a Minidisc recorder, which uses ATRAC compression, can store files lasting twice as long on a disc, if the default, recording in 2 channel stereo, is set to single channel mono recording.
To fully define a sound file's digital audio bit rates: the format of the data, the sampling rate, word size (bit depth), and the number of channels (e.g. mono, stereo, quad), must be known.
Read more about this topic: Audio Bit Depth
Famous quotes containing the words bit and/or rate:
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—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
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—Mary A. [Elizabeth, Countess Von] Arnim (1866–1941)