| Audio is digitized through the use of sampling that takes "snapshots" of analog sound at intervals close enough together to sound continuos, or almost continuos, to the human ear. The primary factors that contribute to digital sound quality are sampling size and sampling rate. Increasing sampling rate increases quality as more "snapshots" of sound are taken, providing a more continuos sound. Increasing sample size also increases quality as larger "snapshots" of sound also make for a more continuos effect as well. Increasing either sampling size or sampling rate linearly increases file size as shown in the graphs below: |
| Deciding on tradeoffs between file size, sampling rate and sampling size largely depends on the nature of the multimedia project. Voice can be adequately transmitted at 8 Bit sample sizes with 11.025kHz sampling rate. To reproduce quality music, much higher sample sizes and/or sampling rates are needed. Digital sound editing can be used to get the most out of your sound file at any file size by editing out extraneous or background noises. |
Sound Editing Example
Normal 1-20 count
Same count, numbers rearranged
| Note: In rearranged count, final number (18) softened by lowering pitch and applying a noisegate filter to the first syllable to make it sound more natural as the final number in the series |