TABLE OF CONTENTS Many asset repositories may have audio stored as a video soundtrack, but it can also be a stand-alone asset. It may be music or it could be archive recordings of speeches. Even in a digital world, there is a vast legacy of analogue recordings. Just as video recording has spawned many different formats, audio content is also found in many forms. Analogue audio has always been much simpler than video, using either the vinyl disk or reel-to-reel magnetic tapes.
Digital audio is usually based on the digital audio standards specified by the Audio Engineering Society (AES). The analogue waveform is represented by 16-bit samples at a rate of 48 kHz (or 44.1 for CDs), with two channels to give stereo reproduction. This signal can be stored as a file recorded onto an optical medium (CD) or on tape, perhaps the most used being the digital audio tape (DAT) format. Audio is also stored in compressed formats like the minidisk.
This is the international standard digital audio interface. To give it the full title: 'Serial transmission format for two-channel linearly represented digital audio data'. That means it is stereo and uncompressed. It was a joint development by the AES and the EBU.The standard is based on balanced, shielded twisted pair cable, and for transmission distances up to 100 m. The usual connector is the three-pin XLR.
The AES standard supports three sample rates: 32, 44.1, and 48 kHz (Table 5.4).The usual rate that you will encounter is 48...
