What is the x and y axis showing for this matplotlib.pyplot histogram of a .wav file?
It seems we have a confusion with the meaning of the term frequency in different contexts.
In signal processing we tend to use the term frequency as a measure of the rate in the a signal completes a cycle.
In statistic the frequency of an event is number of times an event occurs.
The histogram plots frequencies in the statistic sense. Each bin corresponds to an event defined as &quot;the sample has value in the interval $b_k &lt; x_i &lt; b_{k+1}$&quot;, where $b_k$ corresponds to the position of the vertical edges of each bar in your histogram.
So what you are plotting in the histogram is associated with how many times the sample amplitude lied in each of those ranges.