From the course: Digital Audio Foundations
Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.
Adding the digital domain
- Now you know the basics of how sound works in the acoustic domain and how it can be transduced to and from the analog domain. But where does digital audio fit in? The answer is in the analog signal path. For example, to make an analog signal path for recording, we start with acoustic sound and use a mic and preamp to bring that sound into the analog domain and record it onto tape. When the tape is played back, that signal goes through a power amp and a speaker, to make acoustic sound again. To make this into a digital signal path, we swap out the tape recorder with three new stages: an Analog-to-Digital Converter, or ADC, a computer, including digital storage, and a Digital-to-Analog Converter, or DAC. Just like before, we start with acoustic sound, transduce it into the analog domain, and amplify it to line level. But now, instead of recording the signal to tape, we send it to an ADC. The ADC measures the signal thousands of times per second, sending each measurement to the…
Download courses and learn on the go
Watch courses on your mobile device without an internet connection. Download courses using your iOS or Android LinkedIn Learning app.