Sound Recording Solutions
Sound Card Recorder
Powerful voice activated microphone recorder for Windows. Click here to learn more.Compact Disc
A compact disc (or CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. It is the standard playback format for commercial audio recordings today. A standard compact disc, often known as an "audio CD" to differentiate it from later variants, stores audio data in a format compliant with the red book standard. An audio CD consists of several stereo tracks stored using 16-bit PCM coding at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Standard compact discs have a diameter of 120 mm, though 80 mm versions exist in circular and "business-card" forms. The 120 mm discs can hold 74 minutes of audio, and versions holding 80, 90 or even 99 minutes have been introduced. The 80 mm discs are used as "CD-singles" or novelty "business-card CDs". They hold about 20 minutes of audio. Compact disc technology was later adapted for use as a data storage device, known as a CD-ROM. The design of the CD was originally conceived as an evolution of the gramophone record, rather than primarily as a data storage medium. Only later did the concept of an 'audio file' arise, and the generalising of this to any data file. As a result, the original CD format has a number of limitations; no built-in track names or disc naming for example. Online services such as CDDB were developed to work around these shortcomings in the computer age. The format of the audio disc, known as the "Red Book"/Sony standard, was laid out by Sony and Philips in 1981. Philips is responsible for the licensing program of the intellectual property pertinent to the Compact Disc including the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo that appears on the disc. In broad terms the format is a two-channel (four-channel sound is an allowed option within the Red Book format, but has never been implemented) 16-bit PCM encoding at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate. Reed-Solomon error correction allows the CD to be scratched to a certain degree and still be played back. The sampling rate of 44.1 kHz is inherited from a method of converting digital audio into an analog video signal for storage on video tape, which was the most affordable way to get the data from the recording studio to the CD manufacturer at the time the CD specification was being developed. A device that turns an analog audio signal into PCM audio, which in turn is changed into an analog video signal is called a PCM adaptor. This technology could store six samples (three samples per each stereo channel) in a single horizontal line. A standard NTSC video signal has 245 usable lines per field, and 59.94 fields/s, which works out at 44,056 samples/s. Similarly PAL has 294 lines and 50 fields, which gives 44,100 samples/s. This system could either store 14-bit samples with some error correction, or 16-bit samples with almost no error correction. There was a long debate over whether to use 14 or 16 bit samples and/or 44,056 or 44,100 samples/s when the Sony/Philips task force designed the compact disc; 16 bits and 44.1 kilosamples per second prevailed. The Sony PCM-1610 and PCM-1630 are well known examples of PCM adaptors used in conjunction with the Sony U-matic VCR.
Phone Call Recorder
Must have software for voice modem. Record all phone calls automatically, watch Caller ID information, create you own powerful answering machine. Perfect sound quality. Click here to learn more.3d audio effect - 3gp - a-law - aac - acm - adc - aiff - aliasing - amplifier - amr-wb - amr-wb plus - amr - apev2 tag - asf - atrac - audio codec - audio compression - avi - bitrate - bitrate peeling - chord - codec - comfort noise - compact audio cassette - compact disc - compression - compression artifact - compression ratio - contact microphone - container format - dab - data compression - digital audio - digital camera - divx - dolby digital - dolby digital plus - dsp - dvd-audio - dvd - effects unit - equalization - ffmpeg - flanging - fourcc - frequency spectrum - hi-fi - high-end audio - hiln - id3 - joint stereo - laser microphone - line level - lossy - loudspeaker - matroska - mcf - microphone - midi - mixing console - mp2 - mp3 - mp3 surround - mp3 sx - mp3pro - mp4 - mpeg-1 - mpeg-21 - mpeg-3 - mpeg-4 - mpeg-7 - mpeg - mu-law - musepack - music - mxf - nut - osm - parabolic microphone - pcm - perception - phonograph - pink noise - pqf - psychoacoustics - qdesign - quadraphonic - radio receiver - ratdvd - realaudio - red noise - reverberation - rhythm - ribbon microphone - riff - rmvb - sbr - signal processing - sound - sound card - sound effects - sound recording - spdif - speech encoding - speech recognition - speex - stereo - subwoofer - surround sound - synthesizer - tape recorder - tdm - tweeter - video - video compression - vob - voice analysis - vorbis - wav - white noise - wma - woofer