However, to be communicated to a computer, the changes in air pressure must be captured as discrete events and communicated digitally. It could be argued that sound is an inherently analog phenomenon, the result of waves of changing air pressure that continuously reach our ears. Related to this debate is the field of “string theory,” which the reader may find interesting. Many now view the universe as operating under a wave-particle duality and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. But the question of whether the universe is essentially analog or digital is actually quite controversial among physicists and philosophers, a debate stimulated by the development of quantum mechanics. One might think, intuitively, that all physical phenomena are inherently continuous and thus analog. In contrast to analog processes, digital processes measure a phenomenon as a sequence of discrete events encoded in binary. A two-level system is a binary system, encodable in a base 2 number system. In the case of computers, there are exactly two levels – like 0 and 1, or off and on. The word digital refers to things that are represented as discrete levels. However, communicating continuous data to a computer is a problem. The diaphragm inside a microphone can move continuously in response to changing air pressure, and the voltage sent down a wire can change continuously as it records the sound level. For example, a volume dial on a radio can be turned left or right continuously. Physical devices can be engineered to behave in a continuous, analog manner. In a time-based analog phenomenon, one moment of the phenomenon is perceived or measured as moving continuously into the next. Consecutive integers are completely separate and distinct, which is the basic meaning of discrete.Īnalog processes and phenomena are similar to continuous number systems. This is not the case with discrete number systems, like the set of integers. For any two points on the line (i.e., real numbers), an infinite number of points exist between them. The set of real numbers constitutes a continuous system, which can be thought of abstractly as an infinite line of continuously increasing numbers in one direction and decreasing numbers in the other. The difference between analog and digital processes runs parallel to the difference between continuous and discrete number systems. Understanding the difference between analog and digital processes and phenomena is fundamental to working with sound. With the evolution of computer technology in the past 50 years, sound processing has become largely digital.
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