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Quiz about The Sound of 1s and 0s
Quiz about The Sound of 1s and 0s

The Sound of 1s and 0s Trivia Quiz


This quiz deals with the science and engineering of digital audio devices. Many of these may be found in your living room. Ever wondered how all that sound got in such a small object? Well, pop on your headphones, plug in your MiniDisc, and enjoy!

A multiple-choice quiz by Andonyx. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Andonyx
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
91,106
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
4 / 10
Plays
3581
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Question 1 of 10
1. Compact discs, (according to the original CD specifications) hold how many minutes of music? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. The sampling rate, (how many samples per second are stored) for a CD is: Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The theory that to adequately reproduce a recorded sound, the sample rate of the recording must be twice the maximum frequency in the sound is called: Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. CD Audio is stored in a format that is uncompressed, and very similar to a PC wav file, or a MAC aiff file. This particular format is known as: Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. What does DAT stand for? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. What is the sampling rate of a DAT? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. What compression format does MiniDisc use? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. What does ATRAC stand for? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. What is the name of the copy protection implemented on recordable digital audio consumer formats? (CDs by spec are NOT recordable formats.) Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. How many bits are in one sample in CD Audio? (Redbook Audio) Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Compact discs, (according to the original CD specifications) hold how many minutes of music?

Answer: 74 mins

According to many stories surrounding the origin of the compact disc, 74 minutes was settled on because it would comfortably contain all of Beethoven's 9th symphony on one disc. Although some stories reference a specific Sony higher-up who claimed this as his favorite piece of music, stories differ. All that's known for sure is that Sony insisted on this and won out over Phillips' original 60 minute proposal.
2. The sampling rate, (how many samples per second are stored) for a CD is:

Answer: 44.1 kHz

CDs reproduce 44,100 samples per second, which has a maximum frequency reproduction of 22,050 Hz, or just a hair past the upper limit of human hearing. In this way CDs can theoretically reproduce any frequency in the human hearing range.
3. The theory that to adequately reproduce a recorded sound, the sample rate of the recording must be twice the maximum frequency in the sound is called:

Answer: The Nyquist Theorem

The Nyquist theorem explains why CDs are capable of reproducing any sound that the ear can hear. This is debated by many "Vinyl Enthusiasts," but most of the time missing information is a fault of the recording or digital filtering process, not the Medium itself.
4. CD Audio is stored in a format that is uncompressed, and very similar to a PC wav file, or a MAC aiff file. This particular format is known as:

Answer: PCM

PCM format is an acronym for Pulse Code Modulation. It is essentially the unaltered stream written to disk as it came through the filtering and digitizing process. Many digital synthesizers like Casio and Yamaha used this same format to store samples.
5. What does DAT stand for?

Answer: Digital Audio Tape

DAT was almost marketed to a consumer audience, but its high price for media, and the inability to provide true random access made CDs the far more viable choice. Unfortunately DAT was not well received by music professionals since the possibility of unrecoverable drop-outs made it an unreliable medium for archiving. Luckily it found a niche in the broadcast and advertising industries where timecode was necessary, but long term data reliability wasn't.
6. What is the sampling rate of a DAT?

Answer: 48 kHz

DATs have a higher sampling rate which allows a marginal increase in frequency reproduction over CDs. What really makes DAT superior is its 24bit sample word length (most DATs are still 16 bit) which drastically increases its signal to noise ratio compared to CD which always has a 16bit sample word length.
7. What compression format does MiniDisc use?

Answer: ATRAC

ATRAC comes in varying varieties, such as ATRAC, ATRAC 3, ATRAC Type R. Sony has developed this comrpession technology and is now trying to introduce it in all sorts of digital devices such as portable music players, computers, and even camcorders.
8. What does ATRAC stand for?

Answer: Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding

This method has improved steadily in the various versions of ATRAC since it came out. It relies on the perception of audio signals at different volumes by the human ear, which does not match how an objective measuring device would react. Then, the most information is devoted to the frequencies that matter most to our ears.
9. What is the name of the copy protection implemented on recordable digital audio consumer formats? (CDs by spec are NOT recordable formats.)

Answer: SCMS

SCMS is the serial copy management system insisted on by the Music industry and implemented by sony. It prevents digital copying of masters that were originally created digitally. But you can analogue copy all day long. CSS is the digital encryption used to protect DVDs. Macrovision is the analogue copy protection developed for VHS and BetaMax, and is used on DVDs as well. Finally, Saguaro Data Shield is a joke on Cactus Data Shield, the controversial protection scheme for CDs that has been reported to crash computers and DVD players rendering CDs unplayable.
10. How many bits are in one sample in CD Audio? (Redbook Audio)

Answer: 16

Each sample is stored in binary (as evidenced by the title of this quiz.) Since a CD uses 16 bit audio, that means each bit has sixteen 1s or 0s in it. The maximum value of a sample is 65,536 - 1, or 65,535. This is because the first possible value is 0, so the 65,536th value is 65,535. Whenever you calculate the maximum value of a sample of n bits, the equation is 2^n-1.
Source: Author Andonyx

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
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