Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music

Homework: Digital Audio

1. What does it mean to sample a sound?

2. What is the sample rate? What effect does it have on the accuracy of the sample? Hint: think of the major basic acoustic terms – which one does sample rate relate to?

3. Sampling can be done a various data lengths - 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit. What effect does this have on the accuracy of the sample? (see hint above)

4. What is the sample rate for a CD player?

5. What is the Nyquest frequency for a sample rate of 22kHZ?

6. What will happen to frequencies above the Nyquest frequency if we sample them? How do digital systems avoid this problem? What problem does the solution create?

7. What will happen to sounds that are too loud for a digital system to handle? What will happen to sounds that are too soft?

8. Name four ways noise can enter a digital sample.