Change the sample rate. Match your project, fix mismatch issues.
Need to convert a 48 kHz file to 44.1 kHz to bounce a CD master? A 44.1 kHz file to 48 kHz to drop into a video project? Drop the audio, pick the target rate, get back the same audio resampled cleanly with a proper anti-aliasing filter. No DAW round-trip needed.
drop your audio file
WAV, MP3, FLAC, M4A, anything — we'll handle the decode. Batch supported.
Common sample rates and what they're for
- 8 kHz — Telephone-quality audio. Tin can sound. Used for very small voicemail files.
- 16 kHz — Speech recognition. OpenAI Whisper and most ASR engines downsample to this internally.
- 22.05 kHz — Voice memo, old phone audio. Half-CD-quality.
- 44.1 kHz — CD audio, music streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp). The default for finished music.
- 48 kHz — Video, broadcast, YouTube, film, DAW projects for video work. The default for finished audio-for-picture.
- 88.2 kHz — 2× CD rate, sometimes used in mastering for clean integer-ratio downsampling.
- 96 kHz — 2× video rate, high-res audio downloads, demanding DAW projects.
- 192 kHz — Very high-res. Rarely audibly different from 96 kHz. Sometimes required by audiophile labels.
Why resampling matters
Your DAW project is locked to one sample rate (set when you created the project). Audio imported at a different rate will either be auto-resampled on the fly (usually fine, sometimes wrong) or played at the wrong speed and pitch (bad). Matching the sample rate up front avoids the question.
Some specific cases:
- Music for video: original at 44.1 → convert to 48 before delivering to a video editor.
- CD master from a 48 kHz session: convert your final bounce from 48 to 44.1 before sending to a CD authoring tool.
- Voice for Whisper: any rate → 16 kHz. We have a dedicated preset for that.
- Sampler upload: SP-404 wants 48 kHz, MPC wants 44.1, Splice expects 44.1. Sampler presets page picks the right one for you.
What we do under the hood
We decode the file at its own sample rate, then resample it with a windowed-sinc converter (a Kaiser-windowed polyphase filter, 120 dB stopband) written for this site. Measured going 96 to 48 kHz: flat to within 0.0001 dB up to 20 kHz, and a 30 kHz tone that would fold back to 18 kHz comes out more than 140 dB down. We do not use the browser's own conversion. In Chrome, playing a 96 kHz buffer into a 48 kHz context takes every other sample with no filter, and that same 30 kHz tone comes out at 18 kHz at full level. The output is then written as WAV (16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit float), FLAC or MP3. 16- and 24-bit get triangular dither.
FAQ
Will resampling change how my audio sounds?
For typical music and voice, no audible difference. For very content-heavy material at very low target rates (e.g., music at 16 kHz), you'll hear loss of high frequencies — that's the point of going to 16 kHz. For 44.1 ↔ 48 ↔ 96, you'll hear nothing.
Should I go up to 96 kHz from a 44.1 source?
It doesn't add quality (you can't invent samples you didn't record) but doesn't hurt either if a destination requires 96. Just makes the file bigger.
Why does the file get smaller when I downsample?
Fewer samples per second = fewer bytes per second. A WAV at 22 kHz is half the size of a WAV at 44 kHz. Useful for archiving voice content where high frequencies don't matter.
What's the right rate for an audiobook?
22.05 kHz mono is plenty for narration. Cuts file size by 75% versus 44.1 stereo with no audible loss for voice.
What's the right rate for a podcast?
44.1 kHz stereo or mono. Most podcast hosts accept 44.1 / 48 either way; 44.1 is slightly more space-efficient.
Does anything upload?
No. Resampling and re-encoding both run in your browser.
What's the difference between 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz?
44.1 kHz is the audio CD standard (used by Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp). 48 kHz is the video / broadcast standard (used by YouTube, film, TV). The audio quality difference is inaudible; the standards exist for historical reasons. Convert when your destination wants one specifically.
Will resampling reduce audio quality?
Done correctly, with a proper anti-aliasing filter, the loss is negligible. Ours keeps the band flat to 20 kHz within 0.0001 dB and holds aliasing more than 120 dB down. Going up (e.g., 44.1 → 96) is mathematically lossless. Going down (96 → 44.1) loses high frequencies above the new Nyquist limit, which are above 22 kHz anyway.
Why does my 48 kHz audio play at the wrong speed in my 44.1 kHz DAW project?
Most modern DAWs auto-resample, but some don't, and some hardware playback drivers play 48 kHz files at 44.1 kHz speed (so they sound slower / lower pitched). Pre-converting to match your project sample rate fixes it permanently.
Should I pick 44.1 or 48 for my project?
If the final delivery is music for streaming (Spotify, Bandcamp), 44.1. If it's audio for video (YouTube, film), 48. If you're not sure, 48 — it matches more downstream platforms and the only thing you lose is a tiny bit of file size.
What about 96 kHz or 192 kHz?
High-res rates have headroom for processing (more samples to work with during mixing/mastering). For final delivery, 44.1 / 48 is the standard. Upsample only if a destination explicitly requires it.
Does my audio get uploaded?
No. Resampling runs in your browser. The file never leaves your machine.