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. 12cm plastic disc; 1.2mm thick; One- sided; Red Laser; 1.6 microns between tracks; 125 nanometer pits






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






3. Defines the number of sample per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal; Governs the frequency response of digital audio






4. Measure of sound pressure over the frequency spectrum - for which a listener perceives a constant loudness when presented with pure steady tones






5. Cable used to transmit data; Inner cable is surrounded by a plastic insulator - which is surrounded by a wire mesh conductor that insulates the internal signal wire from external interference and an outer casing that functions as a ground






6. Accuracy with which an electronic system reproduces the sound or image of its input signal






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






8. Multi-Bit Words; (Pulse Code Modulation)






9. Low Pressure; Part in a longitudinal wave where the particles are spread apart






10. Very selective method of lowering buffer levels by halting different levels of audio processing






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






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






13. MPEG; Standardizing body of audio coding






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






15. Eight channel digital surround sound system by Dolby






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






17. Sony and Philips optical disc format; Utilizes sigma delta DSD to offer higher resolution; 1- bit; 2.8224 MHz; 6-Channel






18. CBR; Codecs encodes data at a constant rate regardless of density of the audio file






19. A digital filter's time domain output sequence when the input is a single sample is input






20. 1st commercially successful AoE format for the transmission of digital audio - video - and control signals over 64- channel 100Mbps Ethernet networks






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






22. The difference between the analog value and the approximated digital value due to the 'rounding' that occurs while converting the analog signal to digital






23. 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






24. Data transmission protocol over which computer network traffic travels; Poorly suited to real- time transmission but numerous attempts have been made to harness the technology because of its flexible routing; Uses simple Cat5 cabling; Resists interfe






25. 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






26. Decibels Full Scale






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






28. Playback; I/O Connections; CPU (Streaming); Conversion from DAW or Software






29. Removes high frequency images and noise and smoothes the stair case output coming from of the sample and hold circuit; Also called a SMOOTHING FILTER






30. EBU






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






32. Perceptual coding technique that uses louder sounds of a similar frequency to decide what information is to be saved during data reduction






33. The ability of a digital system to perform complex DSP without running into problems with overflow or loss of resolution






34. Measure of the amplitude of a longitudinal wave






35. Level above which audible sounds are painful (125 - 130 db)






36. Governs the frequency response of a digital system; The highest- frequency component that can be captured with a sampling rate; always 1/2 of sampling rate; Also called the limiting frequency






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






38. Increases D/A sample rate from nominal rate to oversampling rate by turning series multi- bit PCM samples into 1- bit samples; (ex. => 44.1kHz sample rate converted to 2.8MHz and simultaneously converts multi- bit samples to 1- bit); Low Pass Filter






39. Same as 'aliasing'






40. ADPCM; Pulse code modulation that produces a digital signal with a lower bit rate than standard PCM; Records only the difference between samples






41. Built into DAWs; Bits are added when signals are mixed together to avoid clipping






42. Process that begins with a fast FFT analysis of the spectra of two input signals - then the multiplication of like frequencies - and IFFT to finalize the process






43. 16-Bit; 44.1 kHz; PCM; Stereo






44. Represents the amplitude component of the digital sampling process; Technique of incrementing a continuous analog event into a discrete set of binary digits (bits)






45. Measures the highest levels of a signal being recorded or mixed; Monitors for clipping - which occurs at 0dBFS); Does not always reflect perceived volume of signal






46. 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






47. Snippets of time in which frequency analysis takes place in a perceptual codec






48. Root Mean Square; Refers to taking the square root of all instantaneous amplitudes; Takes the average of those squares; (-6 Peak Level is approximately equal to -20 RMS)






49. Psychoacoustic model of data reduction used for general audio compression that aims to transmit only features perceptible to the human ear; Useful for mastering streaming media






50. Method used in digital recording and reproduction in which a signal is sampled at various points and the resulting value is translated into binary numbers