The Well-Tempered Computer

An introduction to computer audio

Storage

Calculating storage requirements is very simple in case of uncompressed audio.
Bit depth * sample rate * number of channels gives you the amount of bits per second.

In case of a CD 16 bits * 44.1 kHz * 2 channels =1411200 bits/second

Division by 8 yields the number of bytes per second.

 

Bit depth
Sample rate
Channel
   
Bits/seconds 1411200
Byte/second 176400
GB/hour 0.5914
TB/hour 0.0006
500 GB contains   845 hours
1 TB contains 1731 hours
 

 

These numbers are the amount of data generated by the audio stream.
To store them on a hard disk you require a bit more space as there is always some overhead due to the file system.

 

This table gives you an impression of the number of CDs you can store on a HD given the file format.


Audio Format

Setting

320 GB

500 GB

750 GB

1000 GB

RAW (AIFF/WAVE)

No compression

530

821

1,233

1,644

FLAC

Lossless compression

920

1,448

2,176

2,900

MP3

128kbit/s
160kbit/s
192kbit/s
320kbit/s

5,780
4,620
3,850
2,310

9,048
7,238
6,032
3,619

13,599
10,879
9,066
5,439

18,130
14,500
12,090
7,250

Note: Calculations are based on the data volume of a 60-minute audio CD. The actual CD capacity might vary depending on the length of each CD.

 

© Vincent Kars 2008