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Digital audio facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Digital.signal.discret
An example of how an analog signal could be digitized. This signal was digitized without dither.

Digital audio is sound which has been turned into a computer file. Digital audio files can be played on MP3 players, computers, smartphones, and more. Digital audio may be uncompressed, such as CDs, losslessly compressed, such as FLAC files, or lossily compressed, such as MP3 files. Audio is converted to digital format using a device called an analog to digital converter (ADC). The ADC takes samples of the amplitude of the signal at a specific sample rate (for example, 44100 times per second). These samples are binary numbers. When converting back to analog, a device called a digital to analog converter (DAC) recreates the original analog signal that matches the given samples.

Images for kids

  • Zoom H4n audio recording levels

    Audio levels display on a digital audio recorder (Zoom H4n)

  • Sony PCM-7030 of DR 20111102a

    Sony digital audio tape recorder PCM-7030

  • Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, 2i4, 6i6 USB2.0 Audio Interfaces with Focusrite Mic Preamps - 2014 NAMM Show (by Matt Vanacoro)

    Focusrite USB Interfaces

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Audio digital para niños

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Digital audio Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.