Sound By Numbers: The Rise of Digital Sound

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These days, listening to music on the analog formats of old has seen a massive resurgence. Whether it’s cassettes or vinyl, it seems analog is in and mp3’s are out. But digital sound is pretty freaking neat! This video discusses how it works and is the launching point for this, the final videos on sound reproduction.

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[TechnologyConnections]

OK, time to pin a comment (please read! It's good! It addresses a point you might be about to make in a comment yourself!)

This video is the first of a few (at least). Some things were _intentionally_ left out because I don't want to be making a full-length motion picture here. The most contentious omission (which I now realize I should have identified in the video more clearly) was the fact that the samples are connected in a very specific way because, due to the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, a bandwidth-limited signal can be represented perfectly using a sample rate that is twice its bandwidth. The dots themselves define how they must be connected. That is a complicated thing to grasp and explain quickly, so it was glossed over as "The DAC will smooth out the choppiness of the samples a bit to make the resulting sound a little more natural". Now, this isn't strictly _incorrect_ but it does not explain the mechanism by which the samples are smoothed out--and that's important to understanding how digital sound is encoded and decoded. And it also might imply that there is no detail outside the samples--but in reality there is! And trust me, the next video will address this. That was always the intent.

BUT, I will admit that was sloppy and too simple.

[thousandoaksmall]

It's very satisfying that you made sure that whenever a sound wave was shown on screen, that it visually matched up with your voiceover. Even the DR-05's dB meters matched up in that close up of it. Also: terrific episode.

[agrasl]

Sir, your videos are just awesome. The quality, editing, dry humor and easy to understand informations are absolutely brilliant. Definitely one of my favourite channels. Keep up the good work!

[jerfbowers]

"64 kilobytes of digital audio sounds like this. Doot de..."

THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO A COPYRIGHT CLAIM BY SEVENTEEN THOUSAND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS.

[Altoclarinets]

"64K of CD quality audio lasts this long: [blip]"

I giggled, ngl

[LMacNeill]

"Project Green Sally X System Hornet One" Hilarious! Or maybe I'm just easily amused... ;-)

I liked your graph showing the 20-sample, 4-bit digital conversion of a sine wave into numbers. My son asked me a while back how digital audio was recorded, and I made a huge mess of trying to explain exactly what you explained simply in 60 seconds. I'm going to have him watch this video so he'll be able to understand it.

[JoshuaHillerup]

At first I was like "with modern computers why don't we record the fourier transform of the sound instead of sampling like that" and then after a quick bit of Googling I realized I just described how mp3s work.

[TheSadButMadLad]

So the Tascam has two little elves inside it furiously writing down numbers just like cameras have little elves in them furiously drawing and colouring in pictures?

[TheLeonmafioso]

This channel must be used at technical schools in electronics classes. You explain things like teachers should explain. Congratulations.

[moejoejoe]

Please cover the Nyquist Theorem in your next episode. It is a very important part of digital audio sampling.

[alex]

My brain overheated from learning. Is that what was supposed to happen in school?
Thanks man, you are a true nerd, i like your explanations. You probably play in class rooms all around the world by now, uh?
Looking forward to the rest of the series. Cheers.

[MJ-uklu]

Great video. It would be nice if there would be a video about getting out better analog signal from computer, something like debunking some myths of "audiophiles" or enlighting us. Maybe something that touches sounds cards. This could a series like it was with LaserDisc and that would be super awesome.

[vladg]

Great video! There is no one quite as good as you when it comes to summarizing the historical evolution of the development of various technologies. Even if I already know a lot about a particular topic, your historical approach is always enlightening. Thank you for all your awesome work!

[AcydDrop]

I've been around ADC/DAC since forever and I've never heard anyone pronounce ADC until you. So bravo good sir, well played.

[C.I...]

One note to add: technically, ADCs don't directly draw straight lines between the points on the graph (really, really old/cheap ones might hold the value instead).
Instead, a line (read graph solution) is drawn that both goes through all the points on the graph, and does not contain any frequency above that of half the sampling rate.
Due to how the formula for deriving this line works, there is only one solution that can fulfil both criteria, and this is our original analogue waveform (pending rounding/dithering).

[RealLatinGeek]

Loved the video. The dolly shots and macros look gorgeous, your stuff has come a long way in such a short time! And your explanations balance thoroughness and approach-ability in a fantastic way, it's the kind of thing that inspires me to take the time and prepare classes for my students.

[RÅNÇIÐ]

Sooo...theoretically, if I turned my ears insde-out, I could turn my head into a loudspeaker? Neato!

[DraftyCrevice]

I have been binging your videos the past few days and fell in love with your charisma, your easy explanations, but mostly the depth you dig into the subjects, sidetracks, revisits and trivia you discuss. Thank you so much!

[banalMinuta]

You should be a teacher man. Bravo! I'm always amazed at how interesting you can make seemingly any topic!

[Ogaitnas]

Alexander Grasl inspired me to express my gratitude for your channel. I'm so glad streaming has allowed driven, creative, ambitious and generous people like you to create content we could only fantasize about when tv was the norm.