Transmitting Complex Sounds

Most common sounds are complex mixtures of multiple frequencies having different and rapidly-changing amplitudes. That is true even of sounds produced by a single human voice or by most single musical instruments, but the complexity is much greater where multiple human voices and multiple musical instruments sound together. How is it possible to faithfully transmit many different, rapidly-changing, and unpredictable sound components over a single radio circuit? It is possible because of a very important fact. No matter how complex a mixture of sounds is or how fast a mixture changes all the components sum to a single value of sound pressure at a microphone diaphragm at any instant in time. Because of that, only a single-valued time function need be transmitted at each point in time to communicate any amount of monophonic sound complexity. Only a two-valued time function need be transmitted at each point in time to communicate any amount of stereophonic sound complexity. ©2005 Tigertek, Inc. All rights reserved.

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