I think the subtlties of analogue to digital conversion may be lost on some people here. This, of course, has the same scope as with music. When you record someone singing or playing an instrument (just as with taking a picture) you make an approximation of your data.

By definition, analogue data can have an infinite number of values where as digital data cannot. The best analogy I can think of is for you to draw a sin wave on a piece of graph paper (squared paper). Colour each column upto the line. However, if the line goes below the half way line of a square, leave it blank. If it goes above the half way line, fill it all in.

You should now find your nice smooth curve all nice and *jaggy*. Immediately you have lost information in the process of conversion. However, if done on a grand scale this approximation (like in digital cameras and CD audio) is kept to an acceptable level (ie you can hear or see the difference).

The rest is about trying to keep the space that your approximation takes up as small as possible (as discussed already).

SP

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