One of the major differences between analog and digital music is that the shape and form of one is critical; and mostly unimportant in the other.
To imagine the differences let's use a simple visual model. Picture a microphone connected to a loudspeaker (we'll ignore the needed amplification for this example). When you speak into the microphone an electrical signal is generated that is an exact replica of the moving element in the microphone. The signal then moves the loudspeaker cone back and fourth pressurizing the air in the room and you hear sound. If you change anything in the path between the microphone and the speaker, such as the shape of the signal, what comes out of the loudspeaker will be different than what went into the microphone. That's an analog model of sound.
Using a similar example, let's now imagine a microphone with a digital output and a loudspeaker with a digital input. The digital bits streaming between the microphone and the speaker change content according to what is spoken in the microphone - but their shape remains the same.
Digital audio has but two states, on or off, and the shape and size of those "bits" will not affect the outcome of the loudspeaker. The number and position of those bits will change the outcome but not the actual shape.
The advantage of digital over analog, with respect to recording the information, should be immediately obvious. In one case the quality of the recording doesn't matter and in the second case it matters greatly. Certainly an over simplification but that's ok, we've a long wau to go.
Tomorrow we dig deeper.
CD vs DSD
One of the major differences between analog and digital music is that the shape and form of one is critical; and mostly unimportant in the other.
To imagine the differences let's use a simple visual model. Picture a microphone connected to a loudspeaker (we'll ignore the needed amplification for this example). When you speak into the microphone an electrical signal is generated that is an exact replica of the moving element in the microphone. The signal then moves the loudspeaker cone back and fourth pressurizing the air in the room and you hear sound. If you change anything in the path between the microphone and the speaker, such as the shape of the signal, what comes out of the loudspeaker will be different than what went into the microphone. That's an analog model of sound.
Using a similar example, let's now imagine a microphone with a digital output and a loudspeaker with a digital input. The digital bits streaming between the microphone and the speaker change content according to what is spoken in the microphone - but their shape remains the same.
Digital audio has but two states, on or off, and the shape and size of those "bits" will not affect the outcome of the loudspeaker. The number and position of those bits will change the outcome but not the actual shape.
The advantage of digital over analog, with respect to recording the information, should be immediately obvious. In one case the quality of the recording doesn't matter and in the second case it matters greatly. Certainly an over simplification but that's ok, we've a long wau to go.
Tomorrow we dig deeper.
0 comments