Noting that a revolution in sonic high fidelity occurred during the 1980s as digital-based audio production methods began to replace traditional analog modes, this paper offers both an overview of digital audio theory and descriptions of some of the related digital production technologies that have begun to emerge from the mating of the computer microchip with components of the traditional audio production process. Digital recording is explained as the process of describing sound in terms of numbers as the voltage changes created by the microphone are converted by way of an analog-to-digital converter to digital information that can be manipulated like any other computer data. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is cited as one of the first applications of digital recording technology. Digital audio production components are then described, they are: (1) the compact disk family, which includes WORMs, the recordable compact disk; (2) digital audio tape (DAT) cassettes; (3) digital audio workstations (DAW); and (4) 3-D audio and digital audio broadcasting (DAB). These descriptions include discussions of technical and policy issues associated with the use of these technologies. (16 references) (BBM)