Mastering the Digital Domain: Demystifying Bit Depth (Sampling Theory 2) | Simon Hutchinson

An overview of digital audio resolution--bit depth--and related ideas in digital sampling.

Bit depth, along with sample rate, plays a significant role in the fidelity of a digital recording. Resolution, the number of discrete amplitudes our recording can represent, affects our signal-to-noise ratio and the amount of quantization error our recordings will have. We can use dither to reduce the harmonic distortion of quantization error, but, as dither introduces low-level hiss, knowing when and how to use it is important.

Once again, if we understand how digital sampling works, we can use that knowledge to inform our decisions in selecting the best settings for a given situation.

#digitalaudio #bitdepth #dither #bitrate

0:00 Intro, Reviewing Sample Rate
0:51 Defining Bit Depth
2:05 Binary Counting
3:43 Resolution and Dynamic Range
4:18 Listening to Different Bit Depths
5:43 32-Bit Float
6:16 CD-Quality Audio
6:33 Quantization and Quantization Error
7:24 Dither
8:33 Bandwidth and Bit Rate
11:07 Recap

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I’m a composer, sound-designer, and new media artist trying to bring a global perspective to music technology. This channel contains performances, experiments, and instructional videos for artists and audiences searching for new ideas and avenues of musical expression.

[chiefthomson]

haha, good analogy for a byte/bite :-D
liked the recordings at different bit depths, really good demonstration, wasn't aware of the dithering process, nice to know. cool vid as always.

[BobIrving]

Fabulous tutorial -- clear and organized! I love your teaching! Question from a vinyl head: is there an actual verifiable way to say that sound quality is better on vinyl than CD?

[peterhelck]

I just started watching this series and it is quite interesting and informative. I am wondering what is the name of the app which is playing the 1/2/4/6/16 etc bit depths?

Hello how to archieve 1, 2or 4bit with audacity? Because Audacity is not supported 1 or 2bit sample just 4bit adpcm or 8bit unsigned and upper such as 16bit 24bit 32bit.

[johneygd]

Just imagine wearing headphones while listening to fhat 1bit & 2bit part here, o, o, o.