r by closely matching the sound of mix stage and movie theater.PCM: Pulse Code Modulation. This is the sampling technique that is most familiar to us as it is the basis for the CD and for most uncompressed digital audio that we come into contact with. For the CD, we take 44,100 samples of the audio every second (44.1 kHz sample rate) and quintile it into one of the 65,536 steps in 16 bits of resolution. You definitely want to read the other three installments of "Tech Talk" if you want more information about this.DSP: Digital Signal Processing. Every time you process digital audio in any way, perhaps by using EQ, dynamic range compression, or even volume adjustments, you are performing mathematical computations. The particular algorithms, dither practices involved, and other issues greatly affect the quality of the processing and resultant sound. Also, it takes computer power to do these calculations.DSD: Direct Stream Digital. This is another digital recording technique developed by Sony, originally for their internal archival purposes. It is a 1-bit recording process using a 2.8224 MHz sampling rate. It is the process used for SACD. The one bit records whether the waveform is rising or falling, as opposed to defining the exact position as in a multi-bit system like PCM.There is an 8 bit version in use for professional applications that allows proper dithering during signal processing, but this is unimportant to the end user who is delivered a finished 1-bit master of excellent audio quality. Completely different DSP methods are required for DSD as opposed to PCM.SACD: Super Audio CD. Developed jointly by Sony and Phillips, this format competes with DVD A as the next generation of better than CD quality audio delivery to consumers. While DVD has advantages in flexibility, more extras, and easy surround sound implementation, some feel that SACD, using the DSD recording process, sounds better than even 24/96 PCM audio. How it compares to...
