Dynamic range refers to the spectrum of sound or light that a specific device or software can represent.

In audio, the dynamic range of a device–such as a monitor speaker–or a software system–such as a digital audio workstation– determines the softest and loudest sounds that can be manipulate and reproduced.

If video, dynamic range refers to the range from the brightest to darkest pixels in the image. Typical 8 bit computer monitoring systems are incapable of reproducing the full dynamic range of captured image data, and so modern software stores image data in logarithmic or float space to preserve a greater dynamic range than can actually be displayed on the monitor.