Library & files
Sample rate
Sample rate is how many times a second a digital file measures the waveform, in kilohertz. CD audio is 44.1 kHz, and the number sets the highest frequency the file is able to carry.
In practice
44.1 kHz already covers everything a human hears — higher rates buy production headroom, not a better club file.
Buy what the store sells and stop worrying about it. Where the number matters is at the edges: some club players are fussy about unusual rates, and a file that will not load is a much bigger problem than a frequency nobody can hear. If you are converting anything yourself, convert to 44.1 kHz for the stick and keep whatever you started with as the master.
44.1 kHz
CD and store standard
22.05 kHz
The highest frequency it carries
48 kHz
Video and most gear
Where these come from: Format standards and the halving rule that follows from them, not catalog figures. We store no property of the audio file itself — no sample rate, no bit rate, no codec. Every figure on this site is measured from the sound, not from the container it arrived in. For what we can measure, see the number that decides file size.
Why it matters
The rule behind it is simple and settles most arguments: a file can only represent frequencies below half its sample rate. At 44.1 kHz that is 22.05 kHz, which is already above what any adult hears, so the format was chosen to cover human hearing with a margin rather than arbitrarily.
What higher rates actually buy is production headroom — room for filters and processing to work without artefacts — and that value is spent in the studio, before the file reaches you. For a DJ the practical concern is compatibility rather than fidelity: a rate a player will not read is a track you cannot play.
Frequently asked
Is 48 kHz better than 44.1 kHz?+
Not audibly for music. Both carry the whole range of human hearing; 48 kHz is the standard for video and much professional gear, which is the reason to use it rather than fidelity.
What sample rate should DJ files be?+
44.1 kHz, because that is what stores sell and what every player reads without complaint. Compatibility is the only argument that applies in a booth.
Why is the sample rate 44.1 kHz?+
Because a file can only carry frequencies below half its sample rate, and 22.05 kHz sits comfortably above the top of human hearing. The odd number is a legacy of early digital video equipment.
Related terms
Bit rate
Bit rate is how much data one second of audio uses, in kilobits per second. It decides the file size, and on a lossy format it decides how much of the original recording survives the encoding.
Lossless
Lossless means the encoding discards nothing: decode the file and the original samples come back bit for bit. WAV, AIFF, FLAC and ALAC are lossless; MP3 and AAC are not.
WAV and AIFF
WAV and AIFF are uncompressed audio containers — the raw samples, no encoding. They sound identical to each other and differ mainly in how they store tags and which software wrote them.
FLAC
FLAC is a lossless compressed format: it shrinks a file without discarding any audio, so decoding returns the original samples exactly. It typically lands around 60% the size of the WAV it came from.
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