Overview: Digital audio fundamentals

Digital-audio fundamentals connect sampled signals, numerical precision and processing changes to the reconstructed sound.

Sampling and precision describe the stored signal; resampling, quantization and clipping describe operations or limits that can affect it. Bitrate then expresses the amount of data used to carry that representation. The topics here provide a foundation for discussing an audio format without confusing its numerical range with perceived loudness.

• Sample representation
  Audio sample representation defines the time spacing, precision and numerical format used for a digital signal.

• Audio bitrate
  Audio bitrate is the amount of encoded audio data carried per second.

• Quantization noise
  Quantization error is the difference between a signal value and the discrete level used to represent it.

• Audio dithering
  Dither adds a small controlled noise signal before quantization to avoid signal-dependent rounding distortion.

• Audio resampling
  Resampling changes the number of audio sample positions per second while preserving the intended timeline.

• Audio clipping
  Clipping occurs when a signal exceeds a stage’s available range and its peaks are limited.

• Audio dynamic range
  Audio dynamic range describes a span of signal levels, with its meaning depending on whether the subject is a recording or a system.