Analog and digital AudioQuality
Analogues greatest weakness is that when you make a copy, the copy degrades. With a digital recording, all you are copying is an incredibly large number from one computer to another. Each copy is identical to the original. Each new copy of analogue is seen as a completely different recording. It is not able to have equal frequency response, less noise, or a wider dynamic range. Two noticeable differences in functionality are the bandwidth and the signal-to-noise ratio however; both digital and analog systems have inherent strengths and weaknesses. The bandwidth of the digital system is determined, according to the Nyquist frequency, by the sample rate used. The bandwidth of an analog system is dependent by the physical capabilities of the analog circuits. Most analog mediums tend to wear out after a while. Audiotape loses its clarity after being played over continuously, while vinyl albums can be easily scratched or damaged. MP3s and CDs don’t have these problems. They entail no moving parts and are never touched by a record needle so the music they hold will play as clearly as it did the first time. Copying Digital music is typically easier to copy than analog music. Since the information is stored as a code, the signal doesn't degrade from one copy to the next, meaning that every digital edition of the song can sound as good as the original. Uses The analogue media most people are accustomed to are the vinyl LP, cassette, and eight tracks. Eight track should have been superior to cassette, as it has twice the transport speed of cassette. Digital is used in nearly all walks of life:
Sound recording has many forms due to new and improved ways of storing information. Optical systems have long been used for film sound, but analogue optical systems are difficult to record and have a tendency to be noisy. The improvement that opened the way to modern day recorders was the use of magnetic oxides glued to flexible tape. This allowed the creation of reliable recorders with easily interchangeable media and started the tape recorder revolution. Digital audio recording is taking a sound and arranging it into a string of numbers then reconstructing the vibration from those same numbers. The numbers are generated by direct measurement of the audio signal. Digital synthesis is where numbers are constructed or generated by multiple calculations that are based on the user input. The numbers are treated like a graph of sorts of the output waveform. The output signal is generated from this graph. Digital recording has several advantages over analogue recording one of which is the fact that digital audio recorders have become very cheap in the last few years and has given the most novice musician the chance to record at such a level that was previously only available at an expensive multi-track recording facility. Digital recording also benefits engineers in large facilities who are now able to do things impossible in an analogue environment. The first benefit of digital recording is the ability to record multiple performances of an artist without erasing the previous take or having to use an additional track. If a mistake such as recording over a performance happens, the engineer can simply "undo" the mistake. Comparing digital sound and analog sound To compare digital and analog sound, you need to look at a variety of factors. Sample rate: In analog recordings, the machine is always recording any sound or noise that is coming through the microphones. In digital recording, you don't have a constant recording of what's going on. Instead, you have a series of samples taken from the sound being recorded. Think of it like a movie — a motion picture strings together a series of pictures to make it look like moving action. In this case, digital recording takes a series of "pictures" of what the sound is like and turns it into a digital recording. A standard compact disc contains sound that has been sampled at 44.1 kHz, or just over 44,000 times a second (that's a lot of pictures!). Bits: By increasing the number of bits ("units of information") contained in the file, the amount of detail contained in each sample is increased. A standard CD has 16-bit sound, although you might occasionally run into higher bit sizes on the Internet. Bit rate: Digital music files are measured in the amount of information they play per second. In most cases, it's measured in Kbps, or kilobits per second. This is the amount of sound information presented to the listener every second. Advances in analog-to-digital conversion methods have improved the quality of digital recordings. A large percentage of people say that high sampling rates and increased precision have erased any distinction between digital and analog but there are still those who disagree with this. |
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