Audio Input

In all microphones, sound waves (sound pressure) are translated into mechanical vibrations in a thin, flexible diaphram. These sound vibrations are then converted by various methods into an electrical signal which varies in voltage amplitude and frequency in an analog of the original sound. For this reason, a microphone is an acoustic wave to voltage modulation transducer.

Digital Audio

Computer audio is one of the most overlooked aspects of a computer specification.

All audio that is recorded or played through a computer system is digital, but all audio that is played out of a speaker system is analog. The difference between these two forms of recording play an important role in determining the ability of sound processors.

Analog audio uses a variable scale of information to try and best reproduce the original sound waves from the source. This can produce a very accurate recording, but these recording degrade between connections and generations of recordings. Digital recording takes samples of the sound waves and records it as a series of bits (ones and zeros) that best approximate the wave pattern. This means that the quality of the digital recording will vary based on the bits and samples used for the recording, but the quality loss is much lower between equipment and recording generations.

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