Understanding Sound Boards Before you attempt to troubleshoot a problem with a soundboard, you should have an understanding of how the board works and what it must accomplish. This type of background helps you when recommending a soundboard to a customer or choosing a compatible card as a replacement. If you already have a strong background in digital sound concepts and software, feel free to skip directly to the troubleshooting portion of this chapter. The Recording Process All sound starts as pressure variations traveling through the air. Sound can come from almost anywhere—a barking dog, a laughing child, afire engine’s siren, a person speaking. You get the idea. The process of recording sound to a hard drive requires sound to be carried through several manipulations (Fig. 41-2). First, sound must be translated from pressure variations in the air to analog electrical signals. This is accomplished by a microphone. These analog signals are amplified by the sound card, then digitized converted to a series of representative digital words each taken at a fixed time interval. The resulting stream of data is processed and organized through the use of software, which places the data (as well as any overhead or housekeeping data) into a standard file format. The file is saved to the drive of choice (typically, a hard drive.
