Data Representation - Sound

Presentation

•

Computers

•

9th - 11th Grade

•

Practice Problem

•

Medium

Louise Lockwood

Used 71+ times

FREE Resource

8 Slides • 8 Questions

Data Representation - Sound

Analogue Sound Waves

Sound is usually in analogue form (continuously changing data)…. but the computer needs to have this in digital form as a set of binary numbers.
To store sound on a computer we need to convert the waveform into a numerical representation.

How is a sound wave converted to digital?

To convert sound from analogue into a digital form the sound wave is sampled at set intervals and the height of the sound wave (amplitude) is recorded

Sampling

Sampling takes a snapshot of the sound wave at that moment and then they are fitted together.

Sample Rate

The sample rate is the number of samples taken each second
The higher the sample rate the better the sound quality, as the better represented the analogue sound wave is
Usually measured in hertz
(1 Hertz = 1 sample per second).

Sample Resolution

The number of bits per sample
Much as with colour, you can reduce the precision by using only 8 bits per sample instead of 24, for example.

Multiple Choice

What is sampling?

Snapshot of the sound wave at that moment and then they are fitted together.

The number of bits used to represent the sound

The height of a sound wave

Multiple Choice

What is sample rate measured in?

bits

Hertz

kbps

Multiple Choice

What is sample resolution?

Snapshot of the sound wave at that moment

The pitch of the sound

The number of bits per sample

Converting a sound wave

The device that converts an analogue signal into a digital representation is called an Analogue to digital converter(ADC)
For sound waves, the analogue signal is converted as follows:
^{–Analogue sound is received by a microphone}
^{–This is converted to an electrical analogue signal}
^{–The signal amplitude(height of the wave) is measured at intervals (sampled)}
^{–The values are rounded to a level}
^{-The values are stored as a series of binary numbers}

Calculating file size

File size(in bits) = Sample rate * sample resolution * length(in seconds)

The sound engineer is using a sampling rate of 1000 Hz and a sample resolution of 8 bits. What is the minimum file size of a 4 second recording?

1000 * 8 * 4

Multiple Choice

The sound engineer is using a sampling rate of 2000 Hz and a sample resolution of 4 bits. What is the minimum file size of a 10 second recording? Your answer should be given in bits.

80,000

10,000

800

Multiple Choice

The sound engineer is using a sampling rate of 4000 Hz and a sample resolution of 2 bits. What is the minimum file size of a 5 second recording? Your answer should be given in bytes.

5000

30,000

40,000

Multiple Choice

The sound engineer is using a sampling rate of 1000 Hz and a sample resolution of 8 bits. What is the minimum file size of a 10 second recording? Your answer should be given in KB.

160,000

10,000

Multiple Choice

The sound engineer is using a sampling rate of 1500 Hz and a sample resolution of 4 bits. What is the minimum file size of a 5 second recording? Your answer should be given in bits.

375

30,000

24,000

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Data Representation - Sound

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