Bit Depth - Adobe AUDITION 3 User Manual

Sample rate Quality level
11,025 Hz Poor AM radio (low-end multimedia)
22,050 Hz Near FM radio (high-end multimedia)
32,000 Hz Better than FM radio (standard broadcast rate)
44,100 Hz CD
48,000 Hz Standard DVD
96,000 Hz High-end DVD

Bit depth

Just as sample rate determines frequency range, bit depth determines dynamic range. When a sound wave is sampled,
each sample is assigned the amplitude value closest to the original wave's amplitude. Higher bit depth provides more
possible amplitude values, producing greater dynamic range, a lower noise floor, and higher fidelity:
Bit depth Quality level
8-bit Telephony
16-bit CD
24-bit DVD
32-bit Best
192 dB
144 dB
96 dB
48 dB
0 dB
8-bit 16-bit
Higher bit depths provide greater dynamic range.
Audio file contents and size
An audio file on your hard drive, such as a WAV file, consists of a small header indicating sample rate and bit depth,
and then a long series of numbers, one for each sample. These files can be very large. For example, at 44,100 samples
per second and 16 bits per sample, a file requires 86 KB per second—about 5 MB per minute. That figure doubles to
10 MB per minute for a stereo CD, which has two channels.
In contrast to a digital audio file, a MIDI file might be as small as 10 KB per minute, so you can store up to 100
minutes of MIDI per megabyte. For more information, see "Understanding MIDI data and VST instruments" on
page 213.
Amplitude values
256
65,536
16,777,216
4,294,967,296
24-bit 32-bit
Frequency range
0–5,512 Hz
0–11,025 Hz
0–16,000 Hz
0–22,050 Hz
0–24,000 Hz
0–48,000 Hz
Dynamic range
48 dB
96 dB
144 dB
192 dB
ADOBE AUDITION 3.0 11
User Guide