CSC 170 – Introduction to
Computers and Their Applications
Lecture #2 – Digital Audio Basics
Digital Audio Basics
• Digital audio is music, speech, and other
sounds represented in binary format for use in
digital devices.
• Most digital devices have a built-in
microphone and audio software, so recording
external sounds is easy.
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Digital Audio Basics
• To digitally record sound, samples of a sound
wave are collected at periodic intervals and
stored as numeric data in an audio file.
• Sound waves are sampled many times per
second by an analog-to-digital converter.
• A digital-to-analog converter transforms the
digital bits into analog sound waves.
Digital Audio Basics
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Digital Audio Basics
• Sampling rate refers to the number of times
per second that a sound is measured during the
recording process.
• Higher sampling rates increase the quality of
the recording but require more storage space.
Digital Audio File Formats
• A digital file can be identified by its type or its
file extension, such as Thriller.mp3 (an audio
file).
• The most popular digital audio formats are:
AAC, MP3, Ogg, Vorbis, WAV, FLAC, and
WMA.
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Digital Audio File Formats
AUDIO FORMAT EXTENSION ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
AAC (Advanced Audio .aac, .m4p, or .mp4 Very good sound quality Files can be copy protected
Coding) based on MPEG-4; lossy so that use is limited to
compression; used for approved devices
iTunes music
MP3 (also called MPEG-1 .mp3 Good sound quality; lossy Might require a standalone
Layer 3) compression; can be player or browser plugin
streamed over the Web
Ogg Vorbis .Ogg Free, open standard; lossy Slow to catch on as a
compression; supported by popular standard; part of
some browsers Google's WebM format
Digital Audio File Formats
AUDIO FORMAT EXTENSION ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
WAV .Wav Good sound quality; Audio data is stored in raw,
supported in browsers noncompressed format, so
without a plugin files are very large
FLAC (Free Lossless .flac Excellent sound quality; Open source format support
Audio Compression) lossless compression ported by many devices
WMA (Windows .wma Lossy or lossless Files can be copy protected;
Media Audio) compression; very good requires an add-on player
sound quality; used on for some devices
several music download
sites
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Digital Audio File Formats
• Ripping is a slang term that refers to the
process of importing tracks from a CD or DVD
to your computer’s hard disk.
• The technical term for ripping music tracks is
digital audio extraction.
• A download copies a file from a private
network or Internet server to a local device.
• Audio files can be acquired as a live stream or
on-demand stream in addition to downloads.
Digital Audio File Formats
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Digital Audio File Formats
• To play a digital audio file, you must use some
type of audio software, such as:
– Audio players: small standalone software application or
mobile app.
– Audio plugins: software that works in conjunction with
your computer’s browser to manage and play audio from a
Web page.
– Audio software: general-purpose software and apps used
for recording, playing, and modifying audio files, such as
iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Audacity.
Digital Audio File Formats
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MIDI
• MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) specifies
a standard way to store music data for synthesizers,
electronic MIDI instruments, and computers.
• MIDI messages are instructions that specify the pitch
of a note, the point at which the note begins, the
volume of the note, etc.
• An MIDI message may look like this:
MIDI
• Music composition
software with MIDI
support makes it easy to
place notes on a screen-
based music staff then
play back the
composition on a MIDI
keyboard or through the
speakers of a digital
device.
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Digitized Speech
• Speech synthesis is the process by which
machines produce sound that resembles
spoken words.
• Speech recognition (or voice recognition)
refers to the ability of a machine to understand
spoken words.
Digitized Speech
• Speech recognition software analyzes the
sounds of your voice and converts each word
into groups of phonemes (basic sound units).
• The software then compares the groups to the
words in a digital dictionary to find a match.
• When a match is found, the software can
display the word on the screen or use it to
carry out a command.
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Digitized Speech
