tags: mus-407 digital-audio

Quantization Error

The discrepancy between an analog [signal]'s true value and its [quantized] approximation is called quantization error.

• the amount of rounding we had to do to fit the [samples] into our [digital] recording system
• quantization error is heard as [noise] in the digital signal
  • quantization is effectively adding a small random value to the original value of a sample - over many samples, this comes off as noise
  • noise itself is just random values in the digital realm

In general: greater bit depth --> higher sample resolution --> smaller quantization error --> better signal-to-noise ratio

Sources

• MUS 407