Digital Sound Vocabulary

Sample

• The visual representation of an audio waveform over time
• A short audio recording captured at a point in time
• The number of bits per second in a digital audio file
• The pitch or frequency of a musical note

Sample rate

• The resolution of each digital sample
• The number of samples captured per second
• The bit depth used to store each sample
• The size of each sample in bytes

Bit depth

• The number of samples per second in a recording
• The format used to store audio samples (WAV, MP3, etc.)
• The amount of data used to store each audio sample
• The sample rate of a digital audio file

Bit rate

• The number of bits processed per second in a file
• The frequency range of an audio recording
• The size of each digital sample
• The waveform shape and amplitude

Analog to digital converter

• Software that compresses digital audio into MP3 format
• Hardware that converts between digital and analog signals
• A digital audio editor like Audacity or Pro Tools
• The maximum sampling rate supported by a sound card

Binary data

• Digital audio represented as 1s and 0s
• The raw waveform of an analog audio signal
• The bits per sample in a digital recording
• The amplitude changes in an analog signal

Hertz

• The resolution of a digital audio file
• The format of a digital audio file
• The unit for measuring frequency and sample rate
• The sampling method used to digitize an analog signal

Kilohertz

• One thousand bytes per second
• One million hertz
• One thousand hertz
• One hundred hertz

Kilobits per second

• One thousand bits processed per second
• The bit depth of a digital audio file
• The frequency of a sound wave
• The size of an audio sample in bytes

Resolution

• The sample rate of a digital audio file
• The amount of detail captured in a recording
• The number of analog to digital converters used
• The bit rate of an encoded audio file