Glossary
Sample rate
How many times per second an analog audio signal is measured and converted into digital data.
Sample rate is the number of times per second an audio interface measures the incoming analog signal to represent it digitally, expressed in kilohertz. Common podcast recording rates are 44.1kHz and 48kHz, both well above the roughly 20kHz upper limit of human hearing, since a sample rate needs to be at least double the highest frequency it captures.
Higher sample rates like 96kHz exist mainly for music production or heavy post-processing, and offer little practical benefit for spoken-word podcasting while using more storage and processing power. Most podcast hosting platforms and video sites also expect 44.1kHz or 48kHz audio, so recording at a higher rate usually just means an extra conversion step later.
What matters more than picking the highest available number is keeping every track in a project at the same sample rate, since mixing sample rates within a session can cause sync issues or require conversion that some editors handle poorly. Setting 48kHz once in the interface and recording software, then leaving it alone, avoids most of these headaches.