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Part Three:
Digitization Of
Sound
We will discuss on the all the terms surrounding audio digitization. How to convert from
analog recorded audio to digital format? Why is it important?
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We Live In An Analog Realm

Audio and sounds we hear in daily life, are all in ANALOG format.
Humans can understand and interpret this as an audio.
Computers doesn't recognize this.

Computers Understand One (1) & Zero (0)

Computers process data in binary, which is a string of 1 and 0.
Analog data cannot be understood by computer.

We "Digitize" Everything For Computers.

Computers process data in binary, which is a string of 1 and 0.
Analog data cannot be understood by computer.

What Is Audio
Digitisation?
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We Need To
Digitize Audio
Digitization is a process of CONVERTING recorded audio (in analog)
to digital (something that computer can understand)
 Two steps of digitization

1. audio 2. audio
sampling quantization
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Source
Microphone
(Analog)

Steps Of 01001001110010000101

Audio Recorded Audio Computer PreAmp /

Recording (Digital) Sound Card Audio

Interface
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Source
Microphone
(Analog)

Steps Of 01001001110010000101

Audio Recorded Audio Computer PreAmp /

Recording (Digital) Sound Card Audio

Interface
Sampling &
Quantization
 Lets SAMPLE this analog audio.
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What Is
Audio
Sampling? 1 second
 Let say 10 Hz sampling...
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What Is
Audio
Sampling? 1 second
 Now lets do a 20 Hz sampling...
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What Is
Audio
Sampling? 1 second
 Now lets compare both sampling. Focus at the dots.
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10 Hz

What Is
Audio 20 Hz

Sampling?
 Digital audio sampling process will recognize and
process the dots. It won't understand the analog sine
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wave

10 Hz

What Is
Audio 20 Hz
Sampling?
 This is what will be recorded based on each
sampling rate. Something which our computer
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understand.

10 Hz

What Is
Audio 20 Hz
Sampling?
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Now let us compare

Before and After
sampling for each audio
 ORIGINAL ANALOG AUDIO SAMPLED DIGITAL AUDIO
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10 Hz

What Is 20 Hz
Audio
Sampling?
 In short, higher sample rate, the sampled audio will be
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much similar compare to the original analog audio.

So, the term Audio Sampling refers to:

The number of samples per second that are used to

digitize analog sound.
Measured in Hertz (Hz)

What Is Standard sampling for best-acceptable quality is 44,100 Hz.

(44KHz). Anything below this will produce "aliasing" on your
Audio recorded sound.
Sampling?
 Quantization happens after sampling. Although this
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process is happening in real time so fast, we won't be able to

see it.

Quantization is dependent on bit depth. Adding 1 bit depth

will double the values.

1 bit 2 values
double up
2 bits 4 values
double up
3 bits 8 values
What Is 4 bits 16 values
double up

Audio
Quantization? 16 bits 65,536 values

24 bits Over 16 million values

 Lets QUANTIZE this analog audio which has been
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SAMPLED at 14 Hz.

What Is
Audio
Quantization? 1 second
 Using 2 bit (4 values) quantization
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What Is
Audio
Quantization? 1 second
 Quantization process will round up the sample taken
to the nearest value.
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What Is
Audio
Quantization? 1 second 1 second
 The quantized audio looks nothing like the original
sampled audion.
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What Is
Audio
Quantization? 1 second 1 second
 Lets perform a higher bit quantization to the same sampled
audio. We choose 4 bit (16 values) quantization.
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What Is
Audio
Quantization? 1 second 1 second
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Now let us compare

Before and After
quantization for each
audio
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What Is
Audio
Quantization?
 In short, higher bit depth, the quantized audio will be
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much similar compare to the original analog audio.

So, the term Audio Quantization refers to:

The process of rounding up sampling points to the

nearest bit depth value.

What Is Standard bit depth for best-acceptable quality is 16 bit.

Audio (65,536 values). You can choose higher bit depth, but the file
Quantization? will be larger of course.
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Recording Audio
For optimum quality, please choose at least:

44Khz sampling rate

16 bit depth
always stereo