Principles of Digital Audio

Decibels / dB’s

As fans of music we would usually refer to dynamics as; loud, soft, quiet etc.
Yet as musicians and composers we would usually use the traditional Italian
terms; forte, piano, mezzo-forte etc. In the world of audio engineering the
level of audio is measured in decibels (abbreviated as dBs). In DAW’s and
plugins the levels work on a minus scale then usually work there way up to
0dB, this is the loudest level we can achieve, if this is exceeded any signal will
distort/peak/clip.

Stereo files VS Mono Files

When working with audio in Logic, you can use many different audio files
with multiple audio channels; Mono, Stereo and even Surround Sound (5.1).
When your files have been important into Logic you can see what type of file
it is by looking at the name of the audio file;

When there is one circle next to the file name this means the file is in mono
and if there are two circles then the file is in stereo.

Audio File Formats in Logic

When importing and exporting audio files using Logic there are certain file
formats that are accepted, these are;
Wave
AIFF
MP3
AAC
Apple Lossless

You must always make sure you export the correct file format that is
appropriate for its use. For example to use in iTunes you would be best using
AAC or Apple Lossless, for CD you would use Wave files.
 Sample Rates

When using any DAW there will be a certain sample rate being used. The
sample rate is the number of snapshots is captured in a second of audio,
these are measured in Hz or kHz. It works in the same way as film, 24 photos
are captured a second and are then played back at a frame rate of 24 frames
per second, capturing and playing back digital audio is the same principle.

If you ever open a project that contains audio and the timing, pitch and
placement of the audio files has changed it is likely that the sample rate has
changed. The sample rate of a project can be adjusted in; File>Project
Settings>Audio.

If you are preparing some audio for CD then the sample rate needs to be set
to 44.1kHz / 44,100Hz. DVD’s are usually 48kHz or 96kHz. Blu-ray is currently
our highest quality distributed media and can recreate soundtracks up to
192kHz.