🎧 Audio Engineering & Storage Estimator
Audio Bitrate & File Size Calculator
Estimate audio storage requirements for uncompressed PCM audio (WAV, AIFF) and compressed formats (MP3, AAC, FLAC) across professional sample rates and bit depths.
💿 CD Quality (44.1kHz / 16-bit)
🎬 Film/Video Studio (48kHz / 24-bit)
🎼 High-Res Studio (96kHz / 24-bit)
📻 MP3 320 kbps High Quality
🎙️ Mono Podcast (64 kbps)
Audio Format Specifications
Uncompressed WAV / AIFF File Size
605.6 MB
FLAC (Lossless ~60%)
363.4 MB
MP3 (320 kbps)
144.0 MB
AAC (128 kbps)
57.6 MB
💡 Recording Storage Benchmark:
Recording 1 hour of stereo audio in this format requires approximately 605.6 MB of storage (~10.1 MB per minute).
The Mathematics of Digital Audio
Pulse-Code Modulation (PCM) represents continuous acoustic sound waves as digital samples:
- Uncompressed PCM Bitrate: $$\text{Bitrate (bps)} = \text{Sample Rate (Hz)} \times \text{Bit Depth} \times \text{Channels}$$
- Nyquist-Shannon Theorem: To capture frequencies audible to the human ear (up to $20\text{ kHz}$), the sample rate must be at least double the frequency ($> 40\text{ kHz}$), which is why $44.1\text{ kHz}$ was selected as the compact disc standard.