Resample sound to 48 kHz (or another rate) with ffmpeg on Windows without silently dropping bit…

Guide ID: art_01M7BTATGPBYKRR756KEG324NW

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Guide title

Resample sound to 48 kHz (or another rate) with ffmpeg on Windows without silently dropping bit depth: the format each output ends up with, the length in samples, the level and the peak, for WAV, FLAC and video files

Coverage

For anyone who needs sound at 48 kHz or 44.1 kHz for an editor, a game or a delivery spec. A PowerShell script resamples WAV, FLAC, MP3 or the sound of a video, chooses the bit depth on purpose, and reads the result back for rate, length in samples, level and sample peak. It ran on generated tones and noise with the plain commands that drop bits, the refusal cases and a resampler that this build does not have.

Example

A plain ffmpeg command that changes a 24-bit WAV from 44100 to 48000 Hz wrote a 16-bit file, while the script kept 24 bits and counted 96000 samples for 88200. A tone at -0.21 dB reached full scale after resampling, and lowering it by 2 dB first left the peak at -1.93 dB.

Useful starting points

• Name the output sample format yourself, then read it back with ffprobe sample_fmt and bits_per_raw_sample.
• Check the sample peak after resampling and leave headroom; a file near full scale can reach it.
• When you resample down, a tone at the new half rate disappears, so compare levels before and after.