5
votes
Accepted
How does PCM digital audio work?
NOTE: Still more work to do on this in relation to reconstruction filters, but I thought it was time to post as much as I can. Improvements can be worked on later.
This diagram shows an example ...
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4
votes
Specs of "common" sound level scale
Many of the “mystery scale” charts that I have seen include distance from the source. For example OSHA has one and includes distance and says 0dB is the threshold at 1kHz which would also be at 20µPa. ...
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4
votes
Need help to understand the basic components of sound
The highly simplified answer is that sound in the real world is not sine waves with fixed frequencies. We learn about sound initially as frequencies or notes and simplify the concept down to thinking ...
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2
votes
Need help to understand the basic components of sound
Ok, let's start from the basics. Audio is usually recorded (sampled - converted from a continuous analogue signal to a digital record) and stored as a series of numbers representing the momentary ...
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2
votes
How to make a tone that theoretically sounds like it's coming from infinitely far away?
You're confusing several issues here - not least of which is that there is no true directionality in headphones other than an artificial left & right.
There is no 3D positioning information at all,...
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2
votes
How to make a tone that theoretically sounds like it's coming from infinitely far away?
How to make a tone that theoretically sounds like it's coming from infinitely far away?
In a word: don't.
To simulate a physical phenomenon at some infinite distance, it's useful to evaluate how it ...
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2
votes
What exactly is a sample anyway?
I quote « First, we need a wave, and second, we need enough samples of that wave to be able to deconstruct all the frequencies we care for. So, for 20kHz, we take 44,000 samples in 1 second. Right? So ...
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1
vote
What exactly is a sample anyway?
Think of samples as frames in cine film.
No single frame shows movement. It's only when you run them as a sequence that you can see the motion.
This is kind of how samples work. At 44Khz, the computer/...
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1
vote
Can a digital audio have a negative decibel?
I recommend you research what a decibel is, how it works, then revisit this question.
Generally, digital audio samples are measured with reference to "full scale" which allows it to be measured with ...
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1
vote
Pan laws for more than two channels
The theory you found at the CMU article explains things very well - particularly when looking at the differences between linear and constant power panning.
In every case you are "panning" a mono ...
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1
vote
Need help to understand the basic components of sound
A way to understand timbre and differences between instruments is to interpret harmonics by casting an eye on their spectrograms:
The flute has some tremolo visible on the high-end sustained ...
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