The IDMIL digital audio workbench: An interactive online application for teaching digital audio concepts

Abstract

The Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (IDMIL) Digital Audio Workbench (DAWb) is a web application designed for experimentation with key concepts in digital audio theory with interactive visualizations of each stage of the Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog Conversion (DAC) processes. By experimenting with the simulation settings, numerous key concepts in digital signal theory can be illustrated, such as aliasing, quantization, critical sampling, anti-aliasing filtering and dithering. The interactive interface allows the simulation to be explored freely; users can modify parameters and examine the resulting signals visually through numerous graphs or listen to the resulting signals. The workbench has been extensively used during the 200-level Introduction to Digital Audio course at McGill University in Fall 2020.