This is why many records released as a single CD have to be issued as a double album on vinyl - 12-inch sides typically top out around 22 minutes, but albums designed for CD typically spill over 60 minutes - and why many 7-inch singles feature edits of songs that are normally extended over the five-minute mark. But there's also a limit to how much sound can be crammed onto a side of vinyl of any size before the quality of the audio deteriorates because the grooves are too narrow to contain all of the detail of the sound recording. A standard 7-inch single is smaller than a full-length album because it contains less music, and is intended to be less expensive. Vinyl comes in different sizes mainly based on how much music is contained on the record. Whoa, why are records in all these different sizes and RPMs?
There is no objective way to analyze the end result to determine whether the source was digital or analog because we cannot actually hear digital code or analog voltage fluctuations.ġ6. This sounds terrible, but the reality is that the end result of an analog or digital signal is exactly the same after it is processed through an amplifier and played through speakers: You hear a continuous sound wave. To imagine this visually, it's like plotting points on graph paper.
The benefit of binary code is that by breaking down information to its smallest possible form, it can represent virtually anything with only two elements. This is binary code, so everything is broken down into one of two directives, which is typically described as 0 and 1. Sound does not naturally break down, so a digital system subdivides it into bits, the smallest possible form of information.
They are discrete, which means that they send a series of samples of an audio signal's power at precise intervals. And how is that different from digital?ĭigital signals are not continuous.