Analogue vs Digital Glossary Home Digital: Digital means discrete. Computers carry out all their operations using binary digits, describing information in a series of switches that are either on or off (1 or 0). As all information is dealt with using these two digits, we talk of the digitalization of text, images, video etc. when these things are to be stored or processed by computers. Describes a method of storing, processing and transmitting information trough the use of distinct electronic or optical pulses that represent the binary digits 0 and 1. Adjective referring to information in a discrete, rather than continuous (analog), form. In communications and computer technology, digital refers to a method of encoding information using a binary system made up of zeroes and ones. In communications technology this takes the form of two very different electrical voltages, several volts positive and negative, to represent the two values. This substantial difference in voltages for each state makes it unlikely that minor fluctuations in voltage due to electro-magnetic interference will change the way a signal is interpreted when received. In digital networks, voice is converted to a series of discrete samples that represent the original analog signal to be transmitted. Digital networks are fast, replacing analog ones as they offer improved sound quality, secure transmission and can handle data directly as well as voice. A digital telephone transmits and receives voice information as a stream of bits. Long-playing phonograph records are analog recordings. That is, they capture information in a continuously-variable form. A fluctuating waveform. Telephone lines work on the same principle. Digital, in contrast, involves binary numbers--1's and 0's. MIDI-computing represents digital encoding. Analogue: The term for anything and everything we see in the real, non-computerized world. The direct representation of a waveform, as opposed to digital which is a coded representation. Technically, it is a continuously variable signal. This is the direct opposite of digital data, which is organized in individual, sharply delineated steps. PCs do not handle analogue signals so they are converted to digital for processing. A term used to describe a signal, such as the human voice, whose value varies continuously with time; or a transmission method, such as the traditional telephone network, which carries source signals as electrical waves. Compared with digital systems, an analogue telephone line carries data at low speed; it also requires a modem to convert the computer's digital output into a form (sound) which it can handle. A transmission method or way of sending voice, video and data using signals (such as electricity or sound waves) that are continuously variable rather than discrete units as in digital transmissions. In the context of wireless communications, analogue refers to transmission networks built in the 1980s and that use analogue technology rather than digital. Any kind of information (eg sound speech, pictures) is transmitted in continuous waveforms which the human senses are able to receive and to interpret. Analogue is an adjective used to describe things that are continuous. Think of the two types of stereo system volume control for comparison. With some, turning to raise or lower volume is smooth. This is analogue. With others, as you turn, the knob clicks between low and high; there's no setting in between the clicks. This is digital. (The digital side may offer only 10 choices, say, but is very accurate.) Traditional methods of recording onto tape or reel-to-reel machines are known as analogue recording. Analogue recording means that the recorded signal has a direct correspondence with the way the recording is created on the specific medium i.e. it can be used to bias a signal used to transfer magnetic information to the tape. Digital recording on the other hand takes snapshots or samples of the analogue stream at various moments in time and pieces together the music from these samples. The reduced (finite) amount of data that results can be more easily manipulated by machine (i.e. computer) although the battle still rages over which format or medium is the "best" for any given recording circumstance.