The first step in digitalising an analogue waveform is to change an occurrence that happens in ‘continuous time’ into one that is chopped into slices of ‘discrete time’.

This principle is used when filming, for example when someone watches a film they see a smooth motion, but in actual fact they only see 24 photos (frames) per second. (See figure 1)

The problem with chopping continuous time into slices of descrete time is that distortion can occur if the slices aren’t small enough, this is known as Aliasing.

The result of aliasing can cause two problems, the first is that frequencies above half the sample rate (Nyquist frequency) may get into the sample and hold circuit, and the second is that a low sample rate will not

Some topics in this essay:
Bite LSB, A/D D/A, Dynamic Range, Practical Demonstration, DVD Audio, 16 bit, bit recording, maximum limit, 16 bit recording, Investigation Introduction, figure 6, 24 bit, sample hold, quantisation levels, quantisation steps, hold circuit, figure 11, sample hold circuit, = 20 log, 24 bit recording, simple synthesis producing,