QuickTime Audio Codecs
If you have the disk space and bandwidth, the best thing you can do is leave your audio
uncompressed. Uncompressed audio normally uses 8-bit (phone quality) or 16-bit (CD
quality) samples. (Compressor supports up to 64 bits per sample floating point and a
maximum sample rate of 192 kHz.) If you have disk space and bandwidth limitations, you
must compress your audio. However, audio takes up less disk space than video, so it
doesn’t need to be compressed as much as video.
The two most important components of audio codecs are sample rates and size. The
sample rate sets the sound quality, and sample size sets the dynamic range of the sound.
QuickTime audio codecs allow you to set both the sample rate and size of your source
media file.