In sound processing, quantization is the process of aligning a set of musical notes to conform to a grid. The most frequent application of quantization in sound processing lies within MIDI application software. In this case, the dimensions of this grid are set beforehand. When one instructs the music application to quantize a certain group of MIDI notes in a song, the program moves each note to the closest point on the grid. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ...
The purpose of quantization in sound processing is to provide a more uniform sound. Quantization is frequently applied to a record of MIDI notes created with the help of a musical keyboard. Roland EXR-3 Keyboard The musical keyboard, also known as the piano keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers on a musical instrument which produce notes. ...
See also Quantized Culture, an article that describes the effect of this process on the sensibilities and aesthetics of popular music which can be accessed at digitalthinktank.org/text.php
Sound can be described as a fluctuation of the acoustic pressure in time, while images are spatial distributions of values of luminance or color, the latter being described in its RGB or HSB components.
In the case of sound, in order to become aware of the consequences of the 2π periodicity of discrete-time signal spectra (see Figure 1) and of violations of the condition of the sampling theorem, we examine a simple case.
To have a visual and intuitive exploration of the phenomenon of quantization, consider the applet that allows to vary between 1 and 8 the number of bits dedicated to the representation of each of the RGB channels representing color.
Oftentimes, the resulting sound quality is referred to as having a granular, artificial sound to it.
However, through a process of noise shaping, the dither noise we introduced can be resampled and directed to frequency ranges that nearly exceed the capacity of the human ear to hear it.
This is because at lower bits quantization error has a broader square waveform resulting in greater relative distortion of the analog signal.