With Pirsonal’s software, you automatically edit and create videos using a variety of video, audio, and image files and text. If you’re new to audio editing or working with audio files, you may come across the term “audio bitrate.”
This article aims to provide a clear and beginner-friendly explanation of what audio bitrate is and how it affects the quality and size of your audio files.
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What is audio bitrate?
Audio bitrate refers to the amount of data used to represent sound in an audio file. It is a measure of the audio file’s quality and is expressed in kilobits per second (kbps). The bitrate determines how much detail and accuracy can be captured and reproduced in the audio.
How does audio bitrate affect audio quality?
The higher the audio bitrate, the more data is used to represent the sound, resulting in better audio quality. A higher bitrate allows for a more precise representation of subtle nuances, such as variations in volume, frequency, and dynamic range. This leads to a clearer and more detailed audio experience.
On the other hand, lower audio bitrates use less data to represent the sound, resulting in a lower-quality audio output. Lower bitrates can lead to noticeable compression artifacts, such as a loss of clarity, reduced dynamic range, or a tinny or muffled sound. However, lower bitrates can also result in smaller file sizes, which may be desirable in certain situations where storage or bandwidth is limited.
On some occasions, you can experience audio synchronization issues when using audio files with different bitrates.
Let’s look at some examples
To better understand the impact of audio bitrate, let’s consider two examples:
- High Bitrate (e.g., 320kbps): Imagine you’re listening to your favorite song encoded at a high bitrate of 320kbps. The audio quality will be excellent, capturing the richness of the instruments, vocals, and details in the music. You’ll likely notice a wide dynamic range and a clear separation of different audio elements.
However, this higher bitrate will result in a larger file size compared to lower bitrates, which is not recommended in most personalized or automated videos, especially if you create them on a large scale. - Low Bitrate (e.g., 96kbps): Now, let’s imagine listening to the same song encoded at a lower bitrate of 96kbps. While it will still be recognizable, you may notice a loss of detail and some compression artifacts. The audio may sound slightly compressed or lacking in depth compared to the higher bitrate version. However, the advantage is that the file size will be smaller, making it more convenient for bulk personalized or automated video creation in the cloud and for storage or streaming purposes.
Choosing the right bitrate
The choice of audio bitrate depends on various factors, including the number of videos you need to create at scale, the speed of video processing you need, the intended use of the individual video file, available storage or bandwidth, and desired trade-off between quality and file size.
For high-fidelity videos with professional audio production, higher bitrates (e.g., 256kbps or above) are recommended. For videos in situations with large amounts of videos at scale, limited storage or bandwidth, lower bitrates (e.g., 96kbps or 128kbps) may be suitable.
Creating custom video and audio profiles for your personalized and automated videos
With Pirsonal, Transform, Enterprise, Custom, Premier (legacy), and Professional (legacy) plans can create custom video profiles. A custom video profile helps you configure the format, resolution, aspect ratio, video bitrate, frames per second, audio sample rate, audio channels, and audio bitrate of your personalized and automated videos.
Conclusion
Audio is a key component of your personalized and automated videos made with Pirsonal. Audio bitrate determines the amount of data used to represent sound in an audio file used in a personalized or automated video.
Higher bitrates result in better audio quality for your personalized and automated videos, capturing more details and nuances.
Lower bitrates sacrifice some audio quality for smaller file sizes. When choosing an audio bitrate for the files of your personalized videos or for the output videos, consider your specific needs, such as the intended use, available resources, and desired balance between quality and file size.
Experimenting with different bitrates will help you find the right balance for your audio projects.