Digital Sound What makes it digital?

Analog Audio

Digital Audio

Digital Recording

•sampling (1 piece @ a time)•compression (etc.)

There are two concepts you need to wrap your head around...

Slices of LifeMRI as Movie

Each Sample is a Snapshot

Sample Rate.... How often are you checking in?

audio sample rates

•11.025 kiloHertz (1000 samples per second)•22.050 kHz•44.100 kHz (standard CD audio)•48.000 kHz (standard film production audio)

Compression

Uncompressed audio such as an .aiff file or .wav file uses almost 9MB for 1 minute.

A normal CD holds about 700MB of material which means about 80 minutes of music..

**

Waveform Audio File Format (uncompressed format developed by Microsoft.

Audio Interchange File Format (uncompressed Mac format.)

I’m an audio-phile....wav file

.aiff file

.mp3 fileMPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer 3 (compressed file developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group.

which are compressed and which are uncompressed????

Sound Design

How does sound define an

experience for viewer/listener?

Examples

This American Life: “Something for Nothing”http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/62/something-for-nothing

Radiolab: “Words” http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/

African Perspectives

What Can Sound Design Do?

● Suggest a mood, evoke a feeling● Set a pace● Indicate a location● Provide story information● Heighten realism or diminish it● Draw attention to a detail● Smooth transitions between shots

or scenes (sound bridge)

• Dialog

• Ambience/backgrounds

• Music

• Voice over / narration

• SFX (sound effects, can be from production or from library)

Sound Elements

Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic Sound

Diegetic sound comes from within the world of the film.

Non-diegetic sound comes from outside of the world of the film.

Examples of Diegetic Sound:

• Voices of characters

• Sounds made by objects in the story

• Music represented as coming from instruments in the story

Diegetic Sound Can Be:

• on screen or off screen

• external diegetic: heard by everyone in the world of the film

• internal diegetic: heard by only one character (often as a way of of revealing character’s interior life)

Non-Diegetic Sound

• Narrator’s commentary

• Sound effects created for dramatic impact

• Music that doesn’t come from inside the story (a score that sets mood)

Speech Can Be:

• External dialogue

• Interior monologue (diegetic voiceover)

• Non-diegetic voiceover – the voice of a storyteller from outside the world of the story (more common in documentaries)

Music Can Be:

• Source music (diegetic)

• Score music (non-diegetic)

Noise Can Be:

• Ambience (room tone)

• Hard sound effects – footsteps, door slams

Where do soundtrack elements come from?

• Production sound, or location sound, which may include sound recorded in sync with an image (direct sound) or sound recorded without a corresponding image, called wild track or wild sound, such as room tone (ambience).

• Post-production sound, including music scoring, library effects, foley and ADR (automated dialog replacement, also called looping)

Dialog 1

Dialog 2

Voice Over 1Voice Over 2/SFX 1

SFX 1

AmbienceSound Elements are split out onto separate tracks for editing and mixing

Interactive Feature from V&V website

http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/97802408115812e/resources.asp

Mono vs. Stereo Source Clips

Steps in Sound Editing & Mixing

Edit Dialog - (show ron alford to re-emphasize how much you cut up dialog)Add music and effectsFill in backgrounds - no sound “holes”Set levels (https://library.creativecow.net/devis_andrew/audio-editing-basics/1)Add transitions Output - stereo, mono, surround

Where to get sound effects

• Production• Sound Effects Libraries

Example: www.sounddogs.com• Foley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpdNPsUnDqU

• ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement)http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/adr-automated-dialogue-replacement-tips-and-tricks/(start at 5:48)

Common Music Pitfalls

1. Use music only where it is necessary. Avoid “wall-to-wall” music.

2. Don't try to evoke an emotion that isn’t already there. Support what is

in the dialogue or scene..

3. Too loud!

4. Lyrics tend to fight with dialogue for attention.