Final answer:
To improve sound quality in digital recordings, an audio engineer should increase the sampling rate and use lossless compression to better preserve the quality of the original analog signal.
Step-by-step explanation:
If an audio engineer notices a deterioration in sound quality after digitizing an audio recording, he should consider increasing the sampling rate. Real-world data, such as sound, are often analog, which means they can vary continuously. When we convert these analog signals into digital format, we create a digital representation by taking samples of the audio at specific intervals—this is the sampling rate. A higher sampling rate translates to more samples per second and a better representation of the original sound.
Moreover, using lossless compression rather than lossy compression can also preserve the sound quality during and after digitization. Lossless compression ensures that all data from the original signal is preserved, while lossy compression removes some data, potentially affecting quality.
On the other hand, reducing the bit depth would likely lead to a further loss in quality, because bit depth determines the resolution or detail of each sample in a digital audio file. Therefore, increasing the sampling rate and using lossless compression are the two changes that the audio engineer should consider to enhance the sound quality of digital recordings.