Ig2task1worksheetelliot 140511141816-phpapp02

Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

Produce a glossary of terms specific to the methods and principles of sound design and production. Using a provided template, you must research and gather definitions specific to provided glossary terms. Any definitions must be referenced with the URL link of the website you have obtained the definition.

You must also, where possible, provide specific details of how researched definitions relate to your own production practice.

Name: Elliot Black RESEARCHED DEFINITION (provide short internet researched definition and URL link)

DESCRIBE THE RELEVANCE OF THE RESEARCHED TERM TO YOUR OWN PRODUCTION PRACTICE?

SOUND DESIGN METHODOLOGY

Foley Artistry “Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other mediums in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass.”

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)

Foley atristry is relevant as During our coursework it is required that we make our own sounds that could be used in various game genres so we may be required to make a gunshot by clapping to items together and making a bang etc...

Sound Libraries “A sample library is a collection of digital sound recordings, known as samples, for use by composers, arrangers, performers, and producers of music.”

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_library

We use a sample library to see all of our sounds an d available sounds in one place and in a way that they are easily found and used.

SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed “There is one major uncompressed audio format, PCM, which is usually stored in a .wav file on Windows or in a .aiff file on Mac OS. “ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format#Uncompressed_audio_format

Since we save in .wav most of the time, uncompressed audio is the main format we use to save our audio.

.wav “Waveform Audio File Format is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs.”-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wav

Any audio we create is usually saved as a .wav format as It is the main format used on Windows systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio.

.aiff “Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Computer in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File Format (IFF, widely used on Amiga systems)

.aiff files are very much similar to

.wav files in that they are uncompressed audio formats. .aiff however is the mac equivalent to the


and is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIFF

windows .wav and since we use PC’s in our work, they aren’t that relevant.

.au “The Au file format is a simple audio file format introduced by Sun Microsystems. The format was common on NeXT systems and on early Web pages. Originally it was headerless, being simply 8-bit µ-law-encoded data at an 8000 Hz sample rate.” -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_file_format

.au is a common format for sound files on UNIX machines. It is also the standard file format for the java programming language. Again, our machines are windows based therefore, .au is pretty useless for our work when we already have formats like .wav and mp3.

.smp “An "smp" file may be one of several different types of audio file. For example, it could be a SampleVision audio sample file. This 16-bit audio file was originally used by Turtle Beach SampleVision; you can open it with Adobe Auction, Sound Forge Pro or Awave Studio.”-http://www.ehow.com/info_12198596_file-smp.html

.smp files are used for various audio files like sample-vision and has to be opened in a special programme like Awave studio, therefore, it is very impractical in our work where we have to listen to and edit sounds constantly.

Lossy Compression “Lossy compression is a data reduction method that reduces the amount of data during the coding process, but retains enough information to be useful. For example, an MP3 file is a lossy music file that discards some of the original data but is still acceptable for music listening.”-http://stereos.about.com/od/stereoscience/a/lossy.htm

Lossy compression is helpful for when we need to reduce the size of the audio file, without losing too much quality as sometimes, files can be quite large especially when they need to be uploaded.

.mp3 “MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an encoding format for digital audio which uses a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio streaming or storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players.”-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

.MP3 is the most common format for saving audio files, as it's lossy compression doesn’t sacrifice too much quality, whilst leaving the file acceptably small.

AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) “Integrated circuit that generates an audio signal and sends it to a computer's speakers. The sound card can accept an analog sound (as from a microphone or audio tape) and convert it to digital data that can be stored in an audio file, or accept digitized audio signals (as from an audio file) and convert them to analog signals that can be played on the computer's speakers. On a personal computer, the sound card is usually a separate circuit board that is plugged into the motherboard.”

We need sound processing units in our computers in order to hear the sound we are creating and using, through our headphones.


-http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Audio+processing+unit

Digital Sound Processor (DSP)

“Short for digital signal processing, which refers to manipulating analog information, such as sound or photographs that has been converted into a digital form. DSP also implies the use of a data compression technique.”-http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DSP.html

A digital sound processor typically features an input for sending analogue sound from a source (such as a microphone) into the processor and an output, which sends the transformed digital sound signal to an ultimate source, such as a recording software program.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Random-access memory is a form of computer data storage. A random-access memory device allows data items to be read and written in roughly the same amount of time regardless of the order in which data items are accessed.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory

RAM helps us do many tasks at the same time, such as using many sounds in different layers with different VST's on them whilst having other windows open such as chrome.

Mono Audio “Mono or monophonic describes a system where all the audio signals are mixed together and routed through a single audio channel.”-http://www.mcsquared.com/mono-stereo.htm

We use Mono audio for most sounds when there isn’t any pan In the actual track as the sound is only being routed through one audio channel anyway.

Stereo Audio “True stereophonic sound systems have two independent audio signal channels, and the signals that are reproduced have a specific level and phase relationship to each other so that when played back through a suitable reproduction system, there will be an apparent image of the original sound source.”-http://www.mcsquared.com/mono-stereo.htm

In reaper, we have the ability to change which speaker a certain audio stream comes out from, therefore, stereo audio is a very beneficial factor in our work.

Surround Sound “Surround sound is a technique for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with additional audio channels from speakers that surround the listener (surround channels), providing sound from a 360° radius in the horizontal plane (2D) as opposed to "screen channels" (centre, [front] left, and [front] right) originating only from the listener's forward arc.”-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surround_sound

Using surround sound would allow us to hear precisely where an audio source is coming from.


Direct Audio (Pulse Code Modulation – PCM)

“Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, Compact Discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amplitude of the analog signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, and each sample is quantized to the nearest value within a range of digital steps.” -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation

Pulse code modulation digitizes analog signals to digital signal with little or no compression. Its uded in many formats such as cd;'s and dvd audio so if we needed to render our sounds to DVD or CD, PCM would do that.

AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEMS

Analogue “Analog (or analogue) recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which among many possibilities include audio frequency, analog audio and analog video information for later playback.”-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_recording

Analogue recording is what we use when we record real life sounds that can be converted into digital so we can edit them.

Digital Mini Disc “The MiniDisc (MD) is an obsolete magneto-optical disc-based data storage device for 74 minutes and, later, 80 minutes, of digitized audio or 1 gigabyte of Hi-MD data. The Sony brand audio players were on the market from September 1992 until March 2013”- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc

MiniDisk is now obsolete and even if it wasn't, it would be extremely impractical since if we were ever to export it to an external form of media, it would most likely be a CD anyway.

Compact Disc (CD) “Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format. The format was originally developed to store and play back sound recordings only (CD-DA), but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Several other formats were further derived from these, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Disc (VCD), Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD), Photo CD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced Music CD. Audio CDs and audio CD players have been commercially available since October 1982.“- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD

If we wanted to export our audio to a form that could be played elsewhere, CD's would probably be the easiest and most useful form.

Digital Audio Tape (DAT) “Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a Compact Cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As the name suggests, the recording is digital rather than analog. DAT has the ability to record at higher, equal or lower sampling rates than a CD (48, 44.1 or 32 kHz sampling rate respectively) at 16 bits quantization. If a digital source is copied then the DAT will produce an exact clone, unlike other digital media such as Digital Compact Cassette or non-Hi-MD MiniDisc, both of which use a lossy

Digital audio tape is also obsolete and since we do everything on computers, and export mostly to CD's, Digital audio tape is irrelevant to our own production work.


data reduction system. “- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape

MIDI MIDI (short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a protocol, digital interface and connectors and allows a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers and other related devices to connect and communicate with one another. A single MIDI link can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device.- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI

In order to create our own sounds in Reaper, we have to create a blank MIDI item where we can use a variety of VSTi's to give the MIDI item different sound effects such as a drum or a piano.

Software Sequencers A music sequencer (or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically MIDI or CV/Gate, and possibly audio and automation data for DAWs and plug-ins. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_sequencer

Our main audio editor, Reaper, is a Software sequencer that we use to create , manipulate, save our produced audio and also export it to other formats such as .wav, .mp3 etc..

Software Plug-ins In computing, a plug-in (or plugin, extension, or add-on / addon) is a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing software application. When an application supports plug-ins, it enables customization. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_%28computing%29

In reaper, many of the VST's and VSTi's we use did not come with the main download and are actually plug ins that had to be downloaded via the internet.

MIDI Keyboard Instruments A MIDI keyboard is typically a piano-style user interface keyboard device used for sending MIDI signals or commands over a USB or MIDI cable to other devices connected and operating on the same MIDI protocol interface. This could also be a personal computer running software such as a digital audio workstation (DAW) that listens to and sends MIDI information to other MIDI devices connected by cable or running internal to the personal computer system. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_keyboard

Keyboard instrument recreate sound from actual instruments, so in our work in which we have to create music pieces, its very beneficial.

AUDIO SAMPLING File Size Constraints - Bit-depth

“Bit depth (sometimes called also resolution) affects file size. All other things being equal, a 32 bit file is twice the size of a 16 bit file, and an 8 bit file half the size of a 16 bit one. Bit resolution also affects CPU use. If you are recording for immediate export without editing, 32 bit recording may offer no advantage over 16 bit recording if you only have a 16 bit sound device. Most built-in consumer sound devices on computers (and even many cheaper sound cards) are only 16 bit.”

- http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Bit_Depth

The reaper bit depth of which we usually render at, is the default 24-bit PCM.


File Size Constraints - Sample Rate

“Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per second, measured in Hz or kHz (one kHz being 1 000 Hz). For example, 44 100 samples per second can be expressed as either 44 100 Hz, or 44.1 kHz. ”- http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Sample_Rates

The Reaper sample rate of which we sue to render is 44,100HZ which is a standard sample rate for most audio as it's maximum frequency is 20Khz, which is the highest frequency audible by humans.


File Size Constraints - Sample Rate

“Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per second, measured in Hz or kHz (one kHz being 1 000 Hz). For example, 44 100 samples per second can be expressed as either 44 100 Hz, or 44.1 kHz. ”- http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Sample_Rates

The Reaper sample rate of which we sue to render is 44,100HZ which is a standard sample rate for most audio as it's maximum frequency is 20Khz, which is the highest frequency audible by humans.

Design

Ig2task1worksheetelliot 140511141816-phpapp02