Let's develop an open-source media archive standard

From: der Mouse <mouse_at_Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
Date: Wed Aug 11 22:42:35 2004

>>> What shall we do with analog audio? Sample at 44.1KHz / 16-bit PCM
>>> and call it done?
>> No! Please! Not for archival purposes!
> Just checking, but are we on the same page? If you're talking
> *music* then I'd agree with you, but if we're talking computer
> "cassette audio data storage" formats, then I would think 44.1KHz
> would be more than ample,

Oh, I agree with you there. I assumed this was for recording things
where the original intent was audio, not data that simply happened to
be encoded as audio.

>> For audio, you probably could get away with capping it at a few GHz
>> sample rate - I'm not sure air can carry frequences that high -
> Well, maybe I'm wrong, but "audio" would assume "audible"... as in
> you need to be able to hear it.

For some purposes. For uses that involve humans listening to it, yes;
but if maybe someone wants to analyze normally inaudible overtones from
a speech, they'd better be there to analyze! (Actually, the cap could
probably be in the MHz....)

> Standards say that would be 20Hz->20KHz, but I'd say DC->25KHz would
> be better...

It would. Certainly go down to the DC. I understand that a small but
decent percentage of the population (mostly children) can hear as high
as 25KHz, and I'd definitely want a good deal of headroom above that.

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Received on Wed Aug 11 2004 - 22:42:35 BST