Sample Rate? What’s that?

So, a lot of people get confused on what sample rate is. The best analogy I have for sample rate is the resolution for your TV or computer monitor. “HD” is a term to describe the resolution of a TV screen with the dimensions of Height: 1080 pixels and Width: 1920 pixels. Thus, we call it 1080p.

Similarly, the sample rate you set your DAW to is the resolution you record your project at. That being said, a higher resolution is obviously better, right? Well, technically yes. A higher sample rate means that more “samples” of your instrument are being taken as the track is recorded. A recorded take is actually a collection of individual samples put together just as a video is a collection of individual pictures (or frames).

But, as the human ear cannot hear beyond 48kHz, there really is no reason to record at a higher resolution than this. Sure, you could record at 192kHz but, what’s the point? At that point, you’re just taking up space on your hard drive.