Test your basic knowledge |

Digital Audio

Subject : engineering
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. In order to play multiple channels at one time data is buffered as read to disk; Latency happens between play command & beginning of playback






2. The art of deciding where to place a processor in signal flow based on how that processor will be influenced by the other processors in the path






3. The loudest point of a Full Scale system






4. 'Capturing' part of digital audio; Never captures a signal perfectly






5. HD Audio format; Lossless Compression; 24- bit/96 kHz; 5.1 Surround or 24- bit / 192 kHz stereo sound






6. The difference in volume between the loudest and quietest sounds of a source






7. The act of a frequency swinging back and forth with a steady - uninterrupted rhythm






8. Unit of measurement that is equal to one billionth of a meter






9. Fractional part of a floating- point number; Also called the mantissa; Defines precision






10. Increases or decreases the digital signal so that the loudest sample is brought up to 0dBfs; Uses all bits from dynamic range and makes it even from track to track






11. A sample- by- sample operation on two signals






12. Branch of psychology concerned with the subjective perception of sound






13. AES






14. Inner ear component that attaches to the stapes and helps to decrease the amplitude of vibrations; Causes the masking phenomenon






15. Digital Word -> Series of Resistors (each with assigned charges) -> Sample- and-Hold Circuit -> Anti-Imaging Filter (Smoothing Filter) -> Reconstructed Sample






16. Number or variable that represents the number of times the base of a power is used as a factor; Defines magnitude






17. Single- pin RCA cable or fiber- optic TOSLINK connector used for digital transfer; 75O coaxial - 2- channel unbalanced; 'Consumer' format of AES3






18. Signal that uses variable voltage to create continuous waves resulting in an inexact transmission






19. Reference voltage determined by summing the voltage values of a predetermined number of previous samples; Numbers of 1 in row = waveform peak; Numbers of 0 in row = waveform trough; Basis of Sony's Direct Stream Digital (DSD)






20. Have odd numbered harmonics






21. Found that aliasing was always a problem no matter how fast you sample; Less data recorded but more accurate; 2 samples per wave length.






22. Eliminates frequencies above the Nyquist limit from becoming samples; Occurs prior to quantization






23. The process of reducing the space required to store data by efficiently encoding the content.






24. The frequency range that is allowed through a filter






25. Reduces A/D sample rate from the oversampled rate to nominal rate by turning series of one- bit samples into a series of multi- bit PCM samples; (ex. => 2.8MHz sample rate converted to 44.1kHz and simultaneously converts 1-Bit samples to multi- bit);






26. Anytime bit depth is reduced the gap gets bigger so more dithering is required






27. Uses entropy coding as the basis; Computer data compression algorithm that packages files such as .ZIP & .RAR






28. Difference in brightness between land and pit on a CD Physical Format






29. Allowance of noise floor below that which is required for the final product






30. A drive that can read and write on optical media that hold up to 50 GB on two layers; 24- bit/96 kHz for 8-Channel; 24- bit/192 kHz for 6-Channel






31. 4.38 GB; SS/SL






32. Overtones that contribute to the timbre of a sound and make up a complex waveform's physical characteristics






33. The frequency above or below which attenuation begins in a filter circuit






34. Unit of measurement that is equal to one millionth of a meter






35. Signal voltage is relayed to a register from sample- and - hold circuit; Holds reference frequencies in binary form that decrease in value; Finds approximated value & assigns binary number accordingly






36. Ratio of magnitude of the analytical signal to the magnitude of the background noise signal






37. Eight channel digital surround sound system by Dolby






38. Joint-Stereo Technique; Since the human brain is unable to localize sounds at high frequencies well sounds above 9 kHz threshold are encoded in mono






39. Apple Lossless; Windows Media Lossless; DTS HD Master Audio; Dolby True HD; FLAC






40. Specific set of instructions for carrying out a data reduction technique that determines how to 'save' binary data information efficiently






41. Contains all even and odd harmonics associated with a fundamental tone - making it a rich source for modeling other sounds; Amplitude of each overtone decreases exponentially as a ratio of the harmonic's frequency to that of the fundamental






42. The number of compressions or rarefactions in one second; The higher the frequency the more compressions & rarefactions per second; Measured in Hertz






43. Measuring equipment in A/D conversion that processes voltage and provides a value for that voltage






44. Ultra low- latency - 512- channel (on a gigabit network) - less flexible AoE format; Routed like audio cables...not network cables






45. Based on psychoacoustics - these are the basis of frequency analysis for a perceptual codec;






46. The mathematics - algorithms - and the techniques used to manipulate signals after they have been converted to digital form






47. Stores only one copy of a stereo signal and assigns it to both channels in order to save 50% of original bandwidth






48. Data reduction technique that selectively removes original information in order to significantly reduce the file size; Some data is lost; Files can be reduced up to 99% in size (90% with no perceived sound quality loss); Bit rate effects the perceive






49. 1.) Bit Rate x Sample Rate (you'll get b/sec) 2.) Multiply by 60 if converting seconds to minutes 3.) Divide by 8 to convert bits to Bytes and get B/min 4.) Divide by 1 -024 to get KB/min and keep doing it until you get desired bit rate specification






50. Only 2 digits used; The value of each place (ones - hundreds - etc.) are as follows from greatest to least: 128 - 64 - 32 - 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1