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High-end home-cinema and audio-visual presentation products and solutions.
Speakers, surround systems, sources, preamps and crossovers, power amps, decoders, interfaces and switchers, LCDs and screens, projectors, controls, stands and mounts, acoustics treatments, distributed audio, theatre furnishings, accessories, interconnect, custom products, and more.The following article, Digital versus Analogue, Part 1, covers the technical concepts surrounding analogue (or analog) and digital audio, the audio production and conversion processes, and the issues surrounding the creation of a digital audio stream, as well as the relative merits of each type of audio system. Every engineer, producer or audio-interested layperson should familiarize themselves with these basic concepts, to allow them to better appreciate the technical and practical applications and limitations of each of the steps that makes up the production process, many of which involve an analogue to digital or digital to analogue audio conversion process.
Digital vs. Analogue - Part 1
Analogue Recording
What is analogue, as opposed to digital audio, anyway? Before we delve into that, let's quickly cover the fact that recorded audio is generally produced in stages - three stages, to be exact..... first, the basic audio tracks are recorded, after which they are mixed, and may possibly be edited during the mix process (though editing is not always performed), and finally, the completed mix is mastered. Either an analogue, or a digital process might be used at any stage. So, it's quite possible to have a completed project that has both analogue and digital aspects contained in it. For example, a recording might be made on analogue tape, but then be mixed down to a digital file on a computer, and then mastered and put on a CD, rendering a product that is ADD.... that's not a disorder...... the track is said to be Analogue/Digital/Digital. To be clear, a final product that is AAA would have been recorded onto analogue tape, mixed down to an analogue master tape, and mastered to an analogue final format, such as a vinyl LP record, or a cassette, with no digital conversions ever taking place in the process. Why is this important? Because it is the conversion process that permanently changes the audio from its prior natural state, as a collection of fluid, evolving waveforms, into a graphed-out, finite numerical representation of their net result at the recording input.... and somehow, that's just not quite the same thing. Now, let's further recall that all acoustic audio energy is analogue by nature, and as such, the analogue component of audio cannot ever be fully replaced by the digital systems we have adopted for much of the technical processing used in modern commercial facilities. So, as a result, any process that uses a digital component, requires at least two conversions to be performed - the first, to convert the audio from waveshapes to numbers, and the second, to decode the number stream, so we can hear the result again in playback. Let's talk about digital conversion for a moment, and why this makes such a serious difference to what we hear....
The Mission: Take a constantly-changing, natural, infinite-resolution thing like a sound pressure wave travelling through air, and create a string of numbers that precisely represents it.... now, the issue, here, as you might note, is the sheer amount of descriptive information that needs to be created to do this. The thing is, audio waveshapes that we can hear, range in frequency from roughly 20 vibrations, or cycles per second, also called Hertz, or Hz, in abbreviation, all the way up to about 20,000 vibrations, or cycles per second....... now, imagine how much writing you'd have to do, to tell the story of every small detail of a waveshape's evolution, from its beginning to end (which could be a long sound going on for minutes), describing each tiny change of it's vibrational rate, content or loudness that appears, as it unfolds, when complete cycles of its existence occur, and repeat, as fast as 20,000 time every second.... as you can see, there would be pages of information, to describe even a couple of seconds of sound in this way.
The Solution: Using the binary number system (every number is only made up of 0s or 1s, in long strings) to make a machine-readable code, the waveshape's movements are sampled, much like a series of "snapshots", taken one after the other, at rates ranging from 44,100 samples each second, in standard CD-quality audio, up to 192 kHz (192,000 samples every second!), for the highest-speed studio recording systems, which creates a "list" of instantaneous sample points, each one of which is then assigned a number from the "table of possible values". This assigned number is one which fairly exactly describes the amplitude of the wave at that exact moment in time, and so, when the list is re-assembled, the sample points are reconstructed in order, in a stream, and replayed at the same rate they were sampled at, thus re-creating the waveshape.... more or less. To give an idea of the size of the "table", we need to understand the impact of wordlength, or, the number of 0's and 1's in each sample's assigned table value, or digital word. Using a standard audio CD, called the Redbook CD standard, audio is sampled and then "listed" in the audio file in "words" of 16 bits each, meaning there are 16 0's and/or 1's in each word. This 16-bit wordlength renders a total of 65,536 possible combinations (different possible words to choose from in mathematically "describing" the dynamic level of the sampled audio for playback). Using a 24-bit audio system, the number of permutations increases logarithmically to 16,777,216 - a huge increase, for only adding eight more digits to each word - and yet, even this number of descriptive elements falls short of providing a perfect reproduction of the audio sampled into it. So....
The Problem: The "table of possible values" cannot possibly represent every possible option in all of nature's possible audio.... no matter how many "steps" are mathematically available in our table, Mother Nature's sounds have many more subtleties - so many, that in analogue audio, there are no steps at all, only the constant, smooth evolution of a sound wave. In digital systems, however, their mathematical limits impose a need to quantize, or slightly-reassign the natural values that are initially sampled, as they are assigned their numbers from within the limits of the table. We can think of this in much the same way as the mathematical "rounding" of numbers, to the "closest" possible value. So, for example, to seriously oversimplify this concept, let's say, with our system, that we can assign a numeric value from 1 - 10, on our table , to any actual sample point we take. So, when we go and sample ten points from an actual sound, as the wave front rises, we might get measured values of, say, 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 2.6, 2.9, 3.8, 5.0, 5.4, 6.7 and 9.5...... so, now, what do we end up with in our numeric table, after sampling, and quantizing (rounding) the values? We get "revised", quanized values of 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7 and 10...... not exactly the smooth, natural wave we sampled in the beginning, at all, as the steps we end up with are all now "squared off" like a jagged staircase. The final nail in the coffin, is that they are now forever played back as they are encoded, in their quantized form, and not as they were sampled, permanently locking-in the changes made by the encoding process. The result of this quantization error is called quantization distortion, and to the listener, it creates a noteably hardened quality about the sound, making it seem more "sterile", or "cold", to quote some listener's opinions about it.
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Recording Equipment and High-End Home Cinema Systems from Rock Shop Pro Audio
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Rock Shop Pro Audio stands for top quality, in all areas, and represents only manufacturers whose products are truly a cut above, in every respect, in the realms of both professional audio and home cinema. Rock Shop's lines in both fields span an incredible array of components, from which can be created any system or environment imaginable, from the floor and walls up - specialized construction materials and acoustics treatments, racks and furnishings, high-end audio and video equipment of all types, mounts and stands, patching and interconnect, power conditioning, and software for any audio or automation application - plus, the technical and consulting services needed to get your customized system designed, built and running just like you want it to be, included free of charge with your equipment purchase.
Rock Shop Pro Audio represents top manufacturers from both the professional audio and production industry, and the home audio and cinema sector, too. In the pro audio field, Rock Shop offers recording consoles and recording equipment from many of the world's top manufacturers. A small cross section of manufacturers follows... click on any logo to see more about that company's products.
Oram Professional Audio Ltd., located in Kent, England, builds a full line of exclusive, cutting-edge professional recording equipment, including the Oram Light Series consoles, which offer completely pure, VCA-free audio circuits, all under dynamic, motorless digital control of every parameter. Oram Professional Audio’s owner and chief designer is John Oram, a long-recognized figure in the development of classic analogue audio circuitry, getting his start on the world stage with his circuit designs for Trident Audio Developments in the 1970s and onward.
Focusrite is an esteemed British designer and builder of analogue input and processing equipment, and also, the Liquid Channel, seamlessly blending the worlds of analogue and digital audio into one exceptionally flexible device.
Gefell microphones bring incredible old-world German craftsmanship and hand built quality into the fore, with designs which not only embody these attributes, but which deliver a sonic richness and detail level uncommon at any price.
Earthworks American-built microphones offer an unusually extensive frequency response and accuracy in reproduction which make them uniquely desireable for detailed audio sources such as choirs and acoustic instruments, as well as for reference measurement applications.
Radial Engineering builds what are arguably the world's finest DI and transformer-coupling devices, as well as an extensive array of ultra-useful interconnect and audio distribution equipment, custom panels and touring rigs.
and many others.
In home cinema and home audio lines, builders such as
and
make up just some of Rock Shop's wide selection of top-shelf brands.
Working closely with you, either in person, or often, over the internet, using your photographs, videos and measurements, with considerable personal discussion, by telephone or email, as needed to clarify every aspect of your project requirements, Rock Shop Pro Audio will assess your specific room environments and the technical needs of each, and, with a firm conception of your vision in mind, design a customized, comprehensive package of requirements and professional advice to address each point, from the ground, up - Rock Shop can plan custom-designed, professionally-functional recording or monitoring spaces, advise on construction materials and techniques, room treatments and interconnect systems, mixing and switching systems, audio and video capture, monitoring, processing and storage, plus equipment racks, furnishings, accessories, and literally everything else required to complete your final vision, and will then specify each piece of material, hardware or software required to complete the project, by brand and model, if desired. To simplify things even further, Rock Shop Pro Audio can also then supply the entire specification to you, from a wide selection of some 200 lines of exclusively high-end products, and will advise on their professional installation and system commissioning, plus provide initial troubleshooting assistance, free of charge, to get the system installed, connected and operating at top capacity.
No project is too big or too small - Rock Shop Pro Audio will work with you to clarify your vision, select the equipment you require to make it a reality, and then get your system running to specification in your environment, whether that's a small, basement recording studio, a surround home cinema, or a commercial theatre, club or video post facility. Working with a select group of associated professionals to address each aspect of your project, Rock Shop Pro Audio can provide the specialized experience, accurate technical analysis and detailed solutions you require, assembled from the best equipment, hardware and software available on the planet, to create a final result that is second to none in quality, capability and professionalism, and which meets or exceeds the original vision that inspired it.
Contact Rob at Rock Shop Pro Audio today, for a no-cost, no-obligation initial consultation of your professional recording, audio, video equipment or home theatre and home cinema system requirements.
Why Choose Rock Shop Pro Audio?
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