Samples & sampling is widely used term in digital music.
Sampling process can be thought as "recording" of the audio. This is done with audio-to-digital-converters (ADC).
Let me start with the very basics:
- Sampling is the process of transforming audio (analogy) signal into digital signal (i.e. bits)
- Sample is the digital result of the sampling, e.g. drum sample (aka drum sound)
There are two essential parameters affecting the sound quality of the sample:
- Sampling rate (sampling frequency)
- Bits (e.g. 8 or 16 bit samples)
In the picture above; blue dots S(t)=sample and T=time interval between samples
Thus sampling frequency is 1/T.
Dynamic range is dependent on how many bits (quantization) can represent different sample values.
More bits mean wider range & finer quantization.
As a rule of thumb; more bits and higher the sampling frequency = better sound.
In the next post, I'll dig into deeper and explain terms like Nyqvist frequency.
