Lesson 3 Digital Audio Basics - Posted on 2013-03-21 by Jarvis Hollowell

Lesson 3/ March 11, 2013/ 5 to 7 pm

My mentor Will Gilbert has the gift of explaining difficult things in a way that's understandable to everyone.  We sat down in the studio to discuss digital audio basics.  I learned that just like it takes frames per second to record visuals it takes more frames/samples per second to record audio.  This process is called sampling.  I also learned the sampling rate has to be twice as high as the highest frequency to be recorded.  This process is called the Nyquist Theorem by Harold Nyquist.  I also learned a low sampling rate and using low bit depth can lead to lost frequencies.  We discussed converting different recordings to mp3,wav, and wma formats.

Before the lesson began there was an artist by the name of Chris working with my mentor in a mixing session.  When the session was over Will burned him two CDs in wav files because the mp3 version of his session would have been compressed by ten percent.  Most people can't hear the difference but musicians and people who know this little fact can tell the difference.  I'm enjoying my musical educational journey each time I'm in the studio.  Stay Fo!!!!