Brainwagon Radio: Digital Audio 101

Published on 2004-11-09 by Mark VandeWettering

Where your host tries to give a meaningful introduction into digital audio by explaining the basics of digital audio. Topics covered include:

• What is sound?
• What does your computer do when it records a digital audio file?
• What does sample rate, sample size and bitrate mean?
• The sound settings that I use to record these podcasts, namely:
  1. sample rate = 22050
  2. sample size = 16 bits
  3. I record in stereo (2 channels)
  4. I use a bitrate of 64kbps, which results in files which are 480Kbytes per minute

Anybody with any experience in digital recording will undoubtably be bored, but my lunch at Bloggercon gave some hint that this might be necessary.

Garageband closing music is Leigh Silver and the Bitter Things, playing Moody.