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. More aggressive lossy data reduction techniques that require further manipulation of the stereo field; Examples are 'Intensity' & 'M-S'






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






3. Samples are duplicated and the playback sampling rate correspondingly increased; Significantly raises the Nyquist limit to a range well beyond human hearing; Processing 'pushes' the distortion resulting from quantization error into these higher frequ






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






5. When recording you want the smallest buffer available; When mixing you want the largest buffer available






6. DAW's and software must buffer when converting or bouncing and this latency can add up if not monitored






7. Deviation from a normal - steady pulse or tick of a clock that contributes to misrepresentation of a signal; Result of small timing irregularities that become magnified during the transmission of digital signals as the signals are passed from one dev






8. The continuous loss of signal strengths as a signal travels through a medium






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






10. Serial Copy Management System; main difference between AES3 & S/PIDF






11. More accuracy in low amplitudes and less in higher amplitudes






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






13. 8.75 GB; DS/SL






14. 7.95 GB; SS/DL






15. 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






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






17. ADAT Optcal; 8- in/8- out on two cables; Fiber- optic - TOSLINK connector






18. Splits the input signal and mixes it with an analog copy so that no latency is present






19. AES






20. Improper (false) sampling of high frequencies that cause much lower frequencies to be produced when the audio is reconstructed; Foldover happens at higher frequencies as harmonics reach levels that exceed the Nyquist limit.






21. 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






22. Waveform of a pure tone showing simple harmonic motion






23. 12.33 GB; DS/ML






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






25. Discrete incremental distinctions made between the value of one sample and the next; Breaks down bit depth into a series of evenly spaced intervals






26. Method of sampling data at a higher resolution (higher sample rate) as a means of reducing harmonic content during D/A conversion; (x2) oversampling gets rid of all odd harmonic content






27. 12cm plastic disc; 1.2mm thick; One- sided; Red Laser; 1.6 microns between tracks; 125 nanometer pits






28. Each bit in the bit depth is equal to a _____ increase in dynamic range






29. Used as the main disc from which other discs are made; Composed of ground glass with a very fine photoresistor layer; An imaging laser burns pit and land patterns in preparation for duplication






30. The elapsed time it takes for a packet of data to arrive at its destination; Lagging or pause of an audio signal as digital processing occurs; Can be managed utilizing several forms of 'audio monitoring'






31. Process of building a complex tone by starting with the fundamental frequency and adding pure tone harmonics






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






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






34. High Pressure - Part of a longitudinal wave where the particles of the medium are close together






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






36. 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)






37. The set of rules that computers use to move files from one computer to another on an internet






38. Signal conversions are mixed with playback tracks resulting in near-zero latency






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






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






41. Have odd numbered harmonics






42. Very quiet digital amplifier that produces a series of output pulses with the audio signal coded the same as the width of the output pulses; Pulses are used to represent wave forms and are either on or off; Intense signals have long pulses with short






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






44. Also known as equal loudness curves; Graph that indicates the average ear sensitivity to different frequencies at different SPL levels (as volume increases - these curves flatten out)






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






46. Rate at which energy is drawn from a source that produces a flow of electricity in a circuit; Expressed in volts






47. Series of dots and dashes representing the letters of the alphabet; Most common letters are represented by the shortest dots and dashes; Example of entropy coding






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






49. 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






50. Sum of all harmonics; Sum of sine and cosine waves which have frequencies f - 2f - 3f - 4f...