Daniel,
Frequency is another part to it. Sound files have one main
characteristic: bitrate. That is split into two characteristics: number
of channels, and bitrate per channel. The bitrate per channel is
determined by two characteristics: bits-per-sample, and number of
samples per second. The bits-per-sample is usually 8 or 16, and the
number of samples per second is usually ~11 kHz, ~22 kHz, or ~44 kHz.
"CD quality" is 2-channel, 16-bit-per-sample, 44.1 thousand samples per
second (i.e. 44.1 kHz). This is because the human ear cannot detect
anything better than 44.1 kHz, so it's not worth recording at a higher
frequency. :)
This site does a great job of explaining the whole thing:
http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/2ch11.html
In short, though, the higher the sample frequency, and the higher the
bits-per-sample, the closer the digital sound can match the analog
waveform.
Eagle
On Monday, March 25, 2002, at 10:53 , A. Daniel King wrote:
> Ahh, I begin to understand. This really has to do with the sample
> frequency.
> Or, to put it another way, how often a change in output (frequency &
> voltage) is
> possible. I think. Thanks.
>
> Tyler Punky Smith wrote:
> [snip]
>> Technically, it can't be, we're all talking about what you're feeding
>> to the analgoue<->digital conversion chip. 1 bit sound is a joke, you
>> couldn't represent anything but noise. 16 bit sound has much better
>> quality than 8 bit, particularly in the high treble, because each
>> sample has 256 times the precision.
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