What Is the Sample Rate of a CD?

A visual representation of an audio waveform.

If you're doing some basic sound editing on the computer or simply transferring your CD collection to MP3s, it's not a bad idea to know the format of the audio you're working with.

Significance of sample rates

Basically, sample rates are how many digital "snapshots" of audio are taken of the original source audio every second. The higher the sample rate, the more accurate an image of the audio waveform, and therefore the more true to the source waveform the audio will be. This equates to higher-quality audio.

Hertz and kilohertz

Sample rates for digital audio are defined by cycles of "hertz" and "kilohertz." One cycle equals one hertz. One kilohertz equals 1,000 hertz. Cycles are measured by how many per second are captured/recorded by your recording equipment, or played back by your CD player.

Sample rate of CDs

The sample rate of an audio CD is 44.1 khz. That breaks down into 44,100 cycles each second. That means that for every second of audio recorded or played back, there are 44,100 snapshots of the waveform.

References

• Columbia University: Explanation of 44.1 kHz CD sampling rate