SECTION
1: The Basics Of Digital Mixing
6
FIG 1.1
Waveforms as represented in analogue and digital
systems
FIG 1.2
Distortion in analogue and digital systems.
328 FOCUS: AUDIO QUALITY
Spirit has earned a reputation over the years for
very high audio quality at affordable prices, and
the Digital 328 carries on that tradition. As well as
its high-quality converters see Using Dither
on this page the Digital 328 also offers very high
resolution (56 bits) in its internal processing. This
is important because everything that happens
inside a digital mixer combining two signals,
changing a level, deriving a feed to an external Aux
or internal FX send involve making calculations,
and these calculations must be carried out with as
high a degree of precision as possible. Each time a
calculation is performed, you need a longer
wordlength to store the result without rounding
off the result, and thereby losing precision that
carries valuable information about the sound. So,
although the Digital 328 starts with 24-bit num-
bers at one end, and ends up with 24-bit numbers
at the other, using 56-bit precision for the pro-
cessing along the way means that repeated pro-
cessing steps can be applied without adding noise
or distortion.
Guide.qxd 02/03/1999 11:25 Page 6
