Sound Engineering Explained, 2nd Edition

10 Digital audio

Part 1

In the previous edition of this book, published in 1997 – not many years ago – I suggested that digital equipment was at that time likely to be rather too expensive for the amateur and semi-professional reader! Things change. Good quality digital recorders and associated devices are now very affordable.

Historical

In the UK, the first widespread application of a digital audio system came towards the end of the 1960s, when BBC research engineers developed a system for combining the television sound signal with the pictures for distribution to transmitting stations. The sound signal was converted from an analogue form into one consisting of pulses which were ‘tucked into’ the composite vision signal. This system, known as ...