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Digital dynamics and volume level ????

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Posted on March 31, 2000 at 09:06:13
Sean


 

If a digital signal is typically on or off, how does it interpret volume levels and dynamics ? I can understand how an analogue signal varies in level and intensity but am lost trying to contemplate what happens with digital.

What brought this up is the fact that i just picked up a CD that is quite dynamic and recorded very well ( Blue Man Group: Audio ). It consists of almost all home-made PVC tubing based instruments, most of them being percussion oriented. I bought this after seeing their "show" ( long running "stage art" here in Chicago ) as i really dug the music. Volume levels were pretty loud, actually shaking the floor and our seets at 100 foot distance on some "drum" whacks.

The CD volume level is pretty even except for one cut, which is much lower than the rest. On first listening, i almost thought that my girlfriend had snuck up and turned the volume down or that something happened to my system.

If digital is either off or on, how does it interpret the various levels ? Anybody have an explanation that we can understand ? Sean
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Re: Digital dynamics and volume level ????, posted on March 31, 2000 at 09:36:13
Rodney Gold


 
Digital is not 1 or 0 , it uses a a series of 1's and 0's to represent a number in the binary system. Thus when a signal is sampled both its freq and amplitude are sampled properly (Big numbers) and the number is then converted to a digital word of 0's and 1's for storage - its not a case of the music being on or off.


The level a CD is percieved to be is relative to its peaks , In digital there is no signal above 0dbfs (the max a signal can be in the digtal domain) so one makes sure the peak reaches that , if one has to push down the average level of the rest of the music to make sure the peak doesnt exceed 0dbfs then that track might sound softer then the rest - generally most CDs are mastered to sound the same in average level and a compressor is used on the peaks , IE instead of pushing the av level down , the peaks are reduced to enable the average level to be higer.

 

This intro by Philips might help you understand better..., posted on April 2, 2000 at 20:42:48
Nemo


 
http://www-us.sv.philips.com/newtech/cd.html


 

Oops! Sorry Rodney! My previous post was for Sean :-) [nt], posted on April 2, 2000 at 20:48:06
Nemo


 

 

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