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- Analog to Digital (AD) and Digital to Analog (DA) audio converters are used to transform an analog alternating current (or series of voltages) into digital binary information to be used in computers and digital processors or vica versa. These converters are found in the smallest and simplest devices such as a simple DA converter in an iPod to a complex AD converter of a high quality recording system. Anytime a microphone or speaker is connected to digital audio a converter is doing it’s job.
– Converters function in the realm of PCM digital audio where information is sampled a certain amount of times per second. This is called the sample rate commonly defined in kHz (44.1kHz, 48kHz, or 96kHz meaning 44,100 to 96,000 samples per second). Every converter has an internal master clock that defines the steadiness of the sample rate. A better clock provides a smoother and more accurte sounding signal. When multiple converters are used in a system they must all slave to one master clock to avoid clocking errors (where devices become out of sync).
– As computer-based DAWs progressed in the late 1990s every piece of the puzzle was separate. You had to have a mixing board and a seperate AD/DA converter that connected to the computer through a PCI card or some port. The converter was just inputs and outputs, no mic preamps, level controls, or headphone outs. All of those functions were found on the mixing console. The audio interface that we know today imerged from this dicotomy. Now one unit contains mic preamps, AD/DA converters, level controls, and headphone outputs. Subsequently most home studios no longer require a mixing board at all. |
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