[Sinned]

Hello everyone,

I realized that sound is just made of some (analog) waves, running on different frequencies and strengths.
So I went looking on the internet about how this works and how this could be saved on a computer.

WAV files appears to be the most accurate and "simple" music files. (uncompressed)
But now I still don't know what these files actually are, what they contain and how they can be used to produce sound.

I don't really know how to ask this questions, but I think this would make the point:
Does anyone know a documentation which explains the way sound works and how this is digitized (and vice-versa)?

Thanks in advance,
Sinned

[cgren72]

Can you call a sound waveform "analog" or "digital?"
I am not really sure of this, so I shouldn't make a fool of myself, but when an audio file is rendered to wav, I think it is recorded and turned into computer readable data and stored in wav format. And when it is played, it is opened and read.

[Sinned]

As far as I know "computer readable data" are binary numbers. (0 and 1)
A digital signal is a block signal, from which the up's are seen as 1s and the down's as 0s.
So a digital signal can easily put on a computer and read from it

My question is actually about how this digital (block) signal is converted into the analog "waves", because I don't understand how those bits could get converted into a waving signal from various frequencies and strengths.

[cgren72]

Yeah thats what I meant, I just didn't want to say ones and zeros, on off, up down, or whatever. Does wav use an algo like mp3?

[Sinned]

I don't think wav uses any sort of algorithm to compress the content.

However again I don't know HOW the analog signal gets converted into the digital one. (And vice-versa)

[Utael]

It's actually not as simple as just 1s and 0s each frequency (depending on the bit rate, the higher the bit rate the more "resolution" the file has) is assigned 8 bits or more, again depending on the resolution or quality, for how much that frequency has in power for that section of time. Those add up from 20hz to 20khz to form the actual sound. Add sections together you make the sound waves. I'll try and find more info and links in the morning.

[grg]

Sinned, on 26 September 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

I don't think wav uses any sort of algorithm to compress the content.

It depends how you define 'compress' acutally. Some adress it even to simple quantization.

Quote

However again I don't know HOW the analog signal gets converted into the digital one. (And vice-versa)

Check Pulse-Code Modulation http://en.wikipedia....tion#Modulation