Theory of sound:
Waveform – As the source of sound expands and contracts a pattern of changing air pressure energy moves away from the source of sound. This pattern of energy is called a sound wave, sound radiates out in all directions from a sound source.
Pitch – The frequency range of 20 Hz to 20k Hz is equivalent to about 10 octaves in pitch. An octave on a piano equals 12 notes, the higher the frequency the higher the pitch.
Hertz (Hz) – Hz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. It is the description of the sine wave, the wave which is used in radio and audio applications.
Decibel level (dB) – The dB is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified reference level.
Sound generator – A device used in synthesizers to produce high-frequency sound effects, products such as a Radio or an iPod.
Basics of sound recording:
Signals – An audio signal is an analog representation of sound, as an electrical voltage. Audio signals may come from a transducer such as a microphone, musical instrument pickup, phonograph cartridge, or tape head. Loudspeakers convert an electrical audio signal into sound and digital representations of audio signals exist in a variety of formats.
Signal to noise ratio – Signal to noise is a measure by using science and engineering, it helps compare the level of signal to the level of background noiseto the audio. A ratio higher than 1:1 indicates more signal than noise, while SNR is commonly quoted for electrical signals, this indication ratio can also be applied to any form of signal.
Analogue distortion – Analogue distortion alters one analogue pattern into another, it changes the message of the music recording sound to make it sound different. It changes the nature of the sound making it less like the original music, the distortion damages the signal and loses some of the required information.
Digital distortion – Digital distortion occurs when there is too much signal being sent to a track. The sound the track makes after this happens is of a higher frequency making clicks and pops, or crackles.
Mono and stereo – Mono is used mostly for podcasting but some output formats, such as radio and audio CD are produced in a stereo format to make it a better quality.
Sound recording media – Recording equipment can be range from mixing console, multi track recorder, microphones and reference monitors. More advanced recording equipment includes a digital audio workstation, a music workstation, outboard effects, such as compressors and reverbs to get the best quality of sound available.
Digital audio file formats – Audio file formats can come in many different types; mp3, wav, mid, ogg, wma, aif and many more. You may wish to convert a file to commonly reduce the file size to be more compatible with uploading onto websites and speed up the playing time. Another reason for changing the audio format is so the digital audio can be streamed to other devices.
Analogue versus digital:
Comparison of analogue and digital sound – An analog signal is continuous; there are no breaks or interruptions. While digital signals are the opposite as they are not continuous; they use values to represent information. Digital signals represent a sound wave as a series of values; they represent pitch and volume over the length of the recording.
Advantages and disadvantages of production techniques – Digital media includes CDs, DVDs and sound files but these uncompressed digital sound files can be too large for people work with. Audio engineers will try and fix this by compressing these files to make them more manageable, but this can affect the sound quality.
Issues with digitisation of analogue material – Advances in analog to digital conversion methods have improved the quality of digital recordings. High sampling rates and increased precision have erased any distinction between digital and analog, but people who disagree with this and want high quality sound use audio files to produce sound.
Quality issues – The quality issues of analogue is when played back you hear scratches and pops which are not originally recorded in the sound, these noises can interrupt the content of the disk and can be less enjoyable for the listener. The quality issues of digital is that the file can be converted from higher quality to lower quality but not any in the middle, this is a problem as the higher quality file can be too large and the smaller option is really bad quality.
Applications:
You Tube –
YouTube videos are a big part in the interactive media group; these videos include adverts that pop up at the beginning, giving you an option to skip in a few seconds to let you watch your selected video quickly. Other parts of the interactive media consist of changing the quality of the video from low to HD, changing the volume and sometimes, optional subtitles shown in the screen shot above. This website includes this interaction to make the website more inviting for as many web users as possible, making it a popular site to use. An example of a good interactive YouTube video is the President Obama weekly speech, a good example as the video supplies subtitles to people who are deaf or have problems hearing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1S1LdkUeg
Smart Phones –
The smart phone holds a numerous amounts of interactive media; this includes options to turn different effect sounds off. You can also change different picture backgrounds, and adding different apps to personalize your phone. These interactive parts to the smart phone are included to enhance the product, all these additional features help the audience feel that their phone is personal to them; this makes the phone even more popular as many people today use their phone for everything. This is because personalization helps the phone do more, with different apps to include train times, newspapers and email alerts, keeping the person more up to date with the world around them. A phone which includes these special features is the iPhone 4s which additional has voice recognition, helping the user get to the information quickly without having to search the phone.
Video Games –
Video games are a great example of interactive media, giving the gamer complete control of what happens to their character. Giving options for the gamer to choose different equipment to uses, decisions on different adventures, the type of character they want to play with and different options to turn of the sound effects. These games have a unique selling point as unlike a DVD you can be involved with how the story turns out, you can be a part of the action. This is why many people have hooked themselves on with these games because they want to take control.
Smart Boards –
The smart board advertises itself as an interactive product; this board gives teachers and business people a chance to present pieces of work with easy access to their presentation. With options to change the volume of the sound effects on the board, the colours of pens you draw diagrams with and how you chose to use the touch screen effect, either uses your hands or the pen provided. This is a unique product and with the different tools, equipment’s and software’s it carries it sells itself as a must have board for the new generation of learning.
Computers –
TV
TVs have a big part in the nation hearts, but in recent years it has grown even more, building the TV to a higher speck adding software to hold internet to connect with iplayer and YouTube. The TV all include much more interactive media as it hold options to turn the description on for the deaf and options to translate the programme to a different language. This expanded the market for these TV as over the years it had gown accommodate to all types of people’s needs.
Use of sound:
Carrying dialogue – Sound can help carry dialogue by keeping the audience engaged in what is being said in the video, it makes the video footage more interesting as there is more to listen to which makes it easier for the audience to develop a bigger idea of the mood of the video.
Enhancing mood or tone – Sound helps enhance mood and tone of a situation or feeling as it is a base to changing people’s feeling. Music is used to develop a set mood as it gives people a story to think about due to the lyrics or the tempo which is the base to all music. This story will help change people’s feelings to make the mood of the sound they are listing to.
Indicators – Music in the form of a soundtrack for a piece of moving image can help indicate to the audience that danger might be approaching or a big action scene is approaching. This can help the quality of the movie or advert as it helps keep the audience engaged with what is happing and connect with the feeling of the character.
Emotion – Music can help change the emotion to the listeners by replacing the feeling of that person with the feeling of the song. If you play a happy song, which represents a good life that music will lift the feelings of the person and make them happy. If you play a sad song on the other hand which talks about heartbreak and a bad life that emotion will reflect on the person and make them unhappy.
Guiding users – Sound helps guide people who may be at a disadvantage such as people who are blind, sound helps show disable people which keys they are using as the different sounds indicate which keys you are hitting. Audio description also helps the blind, this sound describes the actions on the TV screen to help the person what TV.
Alerts – Sound is used to alert people in daily life, some of these alerts can be lifesavers such as a fire and burglar alarm. Other alerts involve technology; theses alerts such as ringtones and text messages help make the owner of the phone aware of somebody trying to connect them.
Entertainment – Sound is an entertainment source for many people, this comes in many formats as radio, music and storytelling. The sound is a base to all TV and films which constantly entertains and educates many people.
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