Indie Rock 101

Appendix B

Glossary of Audio Terminology

 

 

 

Audiophile – Self-proclaimed audio “experts” who typically focus their energies on buying, experimenting with, listening to, and reviewing new audio formats and technologies (mainly home audio systems and speakers).

Bit depth – Amount of bits per sample, usually 16 or 24. Sample rate times bit depth gives you the bit rate of uncompressed digital audio. Greater bit depth translates to finer recorded volume resolution.

Bit rate – Usually describes the amount of data per second used by MP3, AAC encoding. Higher bit rates result in higher quality encodes. Can be used also to describe any digital format referenced against time.

Bottom end – Describes general presence of low frequencies in a song, system, ...