eli5: How does digital audio work?

Question

I’ve always wondered how audio can be recorded to electricity then played back as perfect audio.

In: Technology

Answer 1

Sound is made up of vibrations – things moving back and forth a little bit in regular patterns.

Imagine a beach. The waves go up and down in regular ways. If you sat on the porch and marked down the exact time each wave crashed onto the sand, you could reproduce the rhythm of the waves later. That’s essentially what an electronic recording does – it records the movement of a little reed (thin vibrating sheet) inside a microphone, then makes a reed inside a speaker repeat those movements later.