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English
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION
■ PCM (Linear PCM)
Linear PCM is a signal format under which an analog
audio signal is digitized, recorded and transmitted without
using any compression. This is used as a method of
recording CDs and DVD audio. The PCM system uses a
technique for sampling the size of the analog signal per
very small unit of time. Standing for “pulse code
modulation”, the analog signal is encoded as pulses and
then modulated for recording.
■ Sampling frequency and number of
quantized bits
When digitizing an analog audio signal, the number of
times the signal is sampled per second is called the
sampling frequency, while the degree of fineness when
converting the sound level into a numeric value is called
the number of quantized bits.
The range of rates that can be played back is determined
based on the sampling rate, while the dynamic range
representing the sound level difference is determined by
the number of quantized bits. In principle, the higher the
sampling frequency, the wider the range of frequencies
that can be played back, and the higher the number of
quantized bits, the more finely the sound level can be
reproduced.
GLOSSARY
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