Sound on the computer is translated from waves that you hear into a series of +values, or samples, each representing the amplitude of the wave. When these +samples are sent in a stream to a sound card, an approximation of the original +wave can be recreated. The more bits used to represent the amplitude, and the +greater frequency these samples are gathered, the closer the approximated +sound is to the original, and the better the quality of sound.
This library supports both 8 and 16 bit signed and unsigned sound samples, +at frequencies ranging from 11025 Hz to 44100 Hz, depending on the +underlying hardware. If the hardware doesn't support the desired audio +format or frequency, it can be emulated if desired (See +SDL_OpenAudio())
A commonly supported audio format is 16 bits per sample at 22050 Hz.