Kurzweil k2500 Guia Do Utilizador

FXAlg #714: Quantize+Flange

              

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Digital audio engineers will go to great lengths to remove, or at least hide the effects of digital quantization 
distortion. In Quantize+Flange we do quite the opposite, making quantization an in-your-face effect. The quantizer 
will give your sound a dirty, grungy, perhaps industrial sound. As youÕve already gathered from the name, the 
quantization is followed by a flanger. Quantize+Flange is a stereo effect.

Quantization distortion is a digital phenomenon caused by having only a limited number of bits with which to 
represent signal amplitudes (finite precision). You are probably aware that a bit is a number which can have only 
one of two values: 0 or 1. When we construct a data or signal word out of more than one bit, each additional bit will 
double the number of possible values. For example a two-bit number can have one of four different values: 00, 01, 
10 or 11. A three-bit number can take one of eight different values, a four-bit number can take one of sixteen values, 
etc.  The 18 bits of the K2500Õs digital-to-analog converter (DAC) represents 262,144 different amplitude levels (2

18

). 

LetÕs take a look at how finite precision of digital words affects audio signals. The figures following are plots of a 
decaying sine wave with varying word lengths.