Recording sound has drastically changed over the past 100 years. My mobile phone can capture audio to a higher quality than professional studios would record a century ago.
Analog sound recording is achieved by measuring changes in pressure as a result of soundwaves, and these waves are then imprinted on a medium such as a vinyl record. The soundwave vibrations can be transformed into an electrical current using a microphone. this current can then be converted into a magnetic field. A representation of the sound is then made using a magnetic tape.
Digital sound recording focuses on sampling. Sampling is “the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time signal” (Wikipedia). Digital audio files consist of binary code (1s and 0s) which represent audio signals, whereas analog audio features a physical reproduction of soundwaves. A digital file has to be converted back to analog soundwaves in the reproduction process.
Editing Sound
A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is the most common name for a computer-based audio editing software. Most DAW software features a similar layout with a horizontal timeline and separate sections representing different ‘tracks’.
I recorded a clip of me reading last week’s blog post, and then edited the track using garageband. I changed the volume in parts, added a fade in/out and clipped some of the track out.
Digital Media: Theory and Critique 