CD-DA

Compact Disc-Digital Audio (Red Book)

The standard for storing digital audio information. Developed in 1980 by Sony and Philips. It is the original and oldest compact disc standard and the foundation for all the other standards developed later. It's an audio only format and is still used on every music compact disc. Compact Disc Digital Audio can store up to 74 minutes of high quality stereo audio.

The Red Book defines the scan system at its lowest level, building from there to the EFM (Eight-to-Fourteen-Modulation) modulation process, a method for the synchronization and storing of control in-formation (the length of the title, for example) and the CIRC (Cross Interleave Reed-Solomon Code) procedure for correcting errors. With the help of this process, the CD can even be played back when it is dirty or scratched. It is only at the highest level - and only this level is truly specialized in music - that it is defined how music is encoded on a CD (CD quality): 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo.

Close Window