[Help] A few questions on signals and conversion

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technominds

technominds

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I am building a studio with a team, and we have written up some questions that we think we need written answers to in order to find out the correct method of building our studio, if you can answer the questions below.. please help me with them..

I need to know the basic principles of alalogue-to digital conversion, and visa versa.

I would like to know the application of digital audio storage in common use.

I need to know the physics of sound with refrence to waveforms and musical instruments.. also identify sound as electromagnetic signals from analogue sources...

... if anyknow knows any forumlae and/or quantifying measurements for identifying acoustic qualities.. that would also be of use.

Thanks for any help you may be able to give with these questions
 
technominds said:
I am building a studio with a team, and we have written up some questions that we think we need written answers to in order to find out the correct method of building our studio, if you can answer the questions below.. please help me with them..

I need to know the basic principles of alalogue-to digital conversion, and visa versa.

I would like to know the application of digital audio storage in common use.

I need to know the physics of sound with refrence to waveforms and musical instruments.. also identify sound as electromagnetic signals from analogue sources...

... if anyknow knows any forumlae and/or quantifying measurements for identifying acoustic qualities.. that would also be of use.

Thanks for any help you may be able to give with these questions

i'm afaraid you should get a book for that
try recording techniques, it's a textbook that answeres all of thoes questions and it's common as dirt.
 
Yeah, giraffe's got it nailed. There's unfortunately not a single question you asked that can be answered within the context of a single Internet forum post, and some of those are the subject of entire graduate courses.

The book he referrs to is called "Modern Recording Techniques" by David Huber and Robert Runstein. I have worn though a couple of different editions of this book over the years. The latest tattered edition I have is the 4th edition printed in 1997 by Focal Press (Sam's Publishing), but I believe there's probably at least a 5th edition by now.

This book covers everything from acoustic principles to studio design and digital theory to principles of instrument tracking and digital editing. Available from Amazon and at every Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstore I have ever been in.

G.
 
I need only basic answers to them for the project... i would appriciate if you could help me answer them individually..
 
Project? Is this for school? The way those questions read sound like a take-home exam or school project to me. Time to do your homework? :p

This site has 40,000 members, 150,000 threads, 1,400,000 posts, and over five years under it's belt. And a large part of this content is devoted, in one way or another, to basically those few questions you ask.

There is a search function that is pretty handy.

I need to know the basic principles of alalogue-to digital conversion, and visa versa.

Plug an analog signal into an A/D converter. Digital comes out the other end. Plug a digital signal into a D/A converter. Analog comes out the other end.

I would like to know the application of digital audio storage in common use.

The application of digital audio storage is to store digital audio, usually on a hard drive or disc. :)

I need to know the physics of sound with refrence to waveforms and musical instruments.. also identify sound as electromagnetic signals from analogue sources...

Instruments make soundwaves. Gear turns soundwaves into voltage.

... if anyknow knows any forumlae and/or quantifying measurements for identifying acoustic qualities.. that would also be of use.
f = c / λ
where f=frequency, c=speed of sound at your altitude, temperature, and humidity, and lambda=wavelength.


Those are the very basics. This should give you some ideas of what to search for.
 
E=mc^2

Techno,

I'm not sure what you're looking for when you say "basic answers". The way the questions are phrased, it's honestly like asking, "I need a basic answer as to how quantum physics works." "Quantum physics is the idea that energy comes in discrete packets instead of a continuum of energy values." may be a "basic answer", but it really doesn't explain anything.

Likewise, for your question, "I need to know the basic principles of analogue-to digital conversion", I could answer, "To convert an analog signal to digital you regularly 'sample' the analog signal many times a second and then convert those samples into numbers". That would be a basic answer, but it sure doesn't tell you all that much that you'd proably find useful.

And as far as, "I need to know the physics of sound with refrence to waveforms and musical instruments", I have one basic answer for that: "Yikes!" An entire doctorate thesis would have to be written just to begin to address that question.

Maybe your questions are just too broad, especially when you're talking about needing the answers in order to build a studio. At least half those questions are way too broad to be relevant. If you have more specific questions, we could give those a shot perhaps.

Otherwise if your looking for a real theoretical underpinning, you'd be far better off spending the lousy $30 for that book, which does address many of those questions in it's necessary 450+ pages, and you'll have the text in print for easy reference, complete with pictures, diagrams and photos.

G.
 
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