The Basics about Audio Files and Memory
The processing of audio files within memory requires a significant amount of computing power, despite it appearing to happen quickly and easily within computers and smartphones. An audio file is continuously processed through the entire spectrum. There are many items within the spectrum, for example sample rate determines how quickly to play back the audio waves. The brain processes more selectively than a computer as audio patterns are localized in time and frequency. To process, a computer often divides the audio signals into short-term frames or windows. Each of the frames are then converted into digital signals, aka signed binary. Since computers must turn these audio signals into signed binary, almost always there is a loss of sound quality to some degree. This is because the measurements taken, and therefore the conversions to binary, are simply approximations. Thankfully, due to simplistic natural of how the brain processes audio signals, the loss of quality is now often undetectable to us.
The processing of audio files within memory requires a significant amount of computing power, despite it appearing to happen quickly and easily within computers and smartphones. An audio file is continuously processed through the entire spectrum. There are many items within the spectrum, for example sample rate determines how quickly to play back the audio waves. The brain processes more selectively than a computer as audio patterns are localized in time and frequency. To process, a computer often divides the audio signals into short-term frames or windows. Each of the frames are then converted into digital signals, aka signed binary. Since computers must turn these audio signals into signed binary, almost always there is a loss of sound quality to some degree. This is because the measurements taken, and therefore the conversions to binary, are simply approximations. Thankfully, due to simplistic natural of how the brain processes audio signals, the loss of quality is now often undetectable to us.