Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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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: Paulina Karolina Kucharska 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* A Foley Artist is a person who creates (or re -creates) sounds for movies. For example, i f the sound of an actor's footsteps were not recorded well or lost when

the voice was re-recorded, a Foley artist will recreate them. In fact, except for dialogue and music, almost all

the sounds you hear in Hollywood films i s Foley sound.

Foley artists work in a Foley studio, a room with many props , a viewing screen and recording equipment. The

artist watches the film and creates the sound in real time. http://www.mediacollege.com/employment/film/foley-artist.html

Foley artistry i s a method in which the additional sound is added in real time to a recording. It usually includes special effects or just the normal ones

which were either not recorded properly or at all. After the recording I may l isten again to the track

and think of what else I can add. Then with

recorder again I can create more sounds, by doing various actions (e.g. moving my hand in grains or

drop something heavy) and hear the outcome. Before the recording I was thinking what sounds I can make with what objects and readied the broken light bulb to make a fairy sound. Foley artistry is a pleasant technique if the creator has

imagination for creating sounds.

Sound Libraries* A col lection of sounds s tored on file (for example on CDs , DVDs, or as digital audio files) http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/so

und-library

Sound libraries are either paid for or for free. They s tore sound files which can be shared and re used for future tracks. If I would lack sounds or music, then I can look into

free sound l ibraries, which a llow people to store and borrow sounds.

Sound libraries are a quick and easy source of any sounds we are looking for. I was using college

libraries to search for some desired tracks. It also

allows sorting and organising audio, making the

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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search more efficient.

SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed Uncompressed file formats are exact copies of the original data. As such they take up more space than

compressed formats. […] the cost of storage has reached a point where the extra storage requirements and associated cost for uncompressed formats is negligible. [Uncompressed audio files are: AIFF, FLAC and WAV]

http://www.audiostream.com/content/guide-common-mus ic-file-types

Uncompressed sound files keep the original data without any lacking tones. However they do take

more space than lossy file formats. To have the original sound recording without any noise missing I should use the files, which will keep the sound recording uncompressed. I may do that

whi le recording and collecting sounds, dialogue and mus ic and before joining them together into a s ingle piece of track.

.wav* Short for WAVeform Audio Format, it is normally used in an uncompressed format on the Microsoft Windows

platform. This raw audio format, which was developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, stores audio data in blocks.

On the digital music scene, its usefulness has diminished

over time with the development of better lossless audio formats, such as FLAC and Apple lossless. It is a standard

that wi ll probably be used for some time yet due to i ts widespread use in professional music recording and is

s ti ll a very popular format for audio/video applications. http://mp3.about.com/od/glossary/g/WAV_def.htm

This file format will be probably used by us , as we work on Windows system. As it is an uncompressed

format, i t will be good to keep the full recording without losing the small bits of it. However, i t may

take a lot of space in the folder.

Wav is the format I was saving my manipulation

exercises with. It doesn’t compress a sound but takes space (my 4second recording takes 1.36 MB

of space, whereas 1 min 46sec recording takes 29.2 MB of space).

.aiff Stands for "Audio Interchange File Format." AIFF i s a file format designed to s tore audio data. It was developed

by Apple Computer, but is based on Electronic Arts ' IFF (Interchange File Format), a container format originally used on Amiga systems. A s tandard AIFF file contains 2 channels of

uncompressed stereo audio with a sample s ize of 16 bi ts , recorded at a sampling rate of 44.1 kilohertz. This is

a lso known as "CD-quality audio," since CDs use the same audio specifications.

http://techterms.com/definition/aiff

This format is used by Apple computers.

.au Audio file introduced by Sun Microsystems; used

primarily on Sun or other Unix-based machines and has been adopted by several audio programs, including

Adobe Audition and QuickTime; s tores the data in three

parts : a header (24 bytes), a variable length annotation

One of audio formats, used by both Adobe Audition

and QuickTime.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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block, and the actual audio data.

http://fileinfo.com/extension/au

.smp Music file used by SmartMusic, a music practice application for band, orchestra, and voice; saves an accompaniment that can be used for practicing solos and other musical parts

http://fileinfo.com/extension/smp

The smp format is suitable for saving the music recordings, however I am not a musician, and I would only use it for recording dialogue.

Lossy Compression Any audio compression algorithm which does not retain every bi t of data but only reproduces a s ignal that sounds more or less like the original. Examples are MP1,

MP2, MP3, AAC.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lossy+audio+co

mpression

Lossy compression cuts off the unwanted bits of data making the whole file to take less space on a memory disc. They often sound very s imilar to an

original track, but more the file is compressed, the worse quality i t is.

Instead of wasting space on memory card as with

uncompressed sounds, I can use sound file formats for a lossy compression. Lossy compression, same

as with pictures, takes away bits of sound we can’t hear and remains similar to the original track.

.mp3 There are many audio file formats of which the first was MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 -- or more commonly referred to

as MP3. It i s a lossy compression algorithm that removes certa in frequencies that humans can't hear. When creating an MP3 fi le, the bitrate that is used to encode

the audio has a big effect on the quality of the sound. Setting a bitrate that is too low can produce a file that has poor sounding quality.

http://mp3.about.com/od/glossary/g/mp3def.htm

Mp3 is the most familiar format for me, it will be sui table for a copy of the finished recording, as it

won’t take much space. It may be also more easily put on YouTube (if needed).

AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) Like i ts graphics counterpart, the GPU, the APU (audio

Processing Unit] helps increase overall PC system performance by off-loading audio effects processing

from the CPU. Unl ike traditional sound cards with

extremely limited function sets, an APU is defined by the fol lowing three parameters:

An advanced architecture featuring, at a minimum, support for hardware acceleration of 256 2D voices and

64 3D voices, and advanced 3D positional audio.

Ful l support for all DirectX 8.0 features and capabilities.

It’s s imilar to a sound card. It stores the decoded

data of an audio, and then plays it back through speakers. In contrast to normal sound cards SPU is

more advanced and enhances the sound quality.

It supports programmes such as DirectX (which supports game software and video) and Dolby

Digi tal.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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The ability to incorporate support for Dolby Digital 5.1

and a Dolby Digital encoder in hardware to deliver an uncompromised, cinematic-quality audio experience. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/apu.html

Digital Sound Processor (DSP) Digi tal Signal Processors (DSPs) take real-world signals l ike voice, audio, video, temperature, pressure, or

pos ition that have been digitized and then mathematically manipulate them. A DSP is designed for performing mathematical functions like "add",

"subtract", "multiply" and "divide" very quickly.

http://www.analog.com/en/content/beginners_guide_to_dsp/fca.html

It converts data of audio in both ways – digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital. It manipulates

sounds going through it. The sounds is first taken from real world, digitized and again it returns back in ei ther analogue or digitised form.

Random Access Memory (RAM) RAM is made up of small memory chips that form a

memory module. These modules are installed in the RAM s lots on the motherboard of your computer.

[…]Running programs from the RAM of the computer a l lows them to function without any lag time.

http://techterms.com/definition/ram

In order to run files and programmes smoothly, the

computers read information from RAM. The more RAM the computer (or any other hardware) has,

the better the performance.

Mono Audio* Mono or monophonic describes a system where all the audio s ignals are mixed together and routed through a s ingle audio channel. Mono systems can have multiple

loudspeakers, and even multiple widely separated loudspeakers. The key is that the signal contains no level and arrival time/phase information that would replicate or s imulate directional cues. […]The big advantage to

mono is that everyone hears the very same signal, and, in properly designed systems, all listeners would hear

the system at essentially the same sound level. This makes well-designed mono systems very well suited for speech reinforcement as they can provide excellent

speech intelligibility. http://www.mcsquared.com/mono-stereo.htm

Whi le playing the recording from simple headphones or speakers, i t is better to keep them in mono. It will help focusing more on l istening and

i t wi ll be best when working on the audio. It is a lso easier to join sounds in audio; however, i t doesn’t create any depth to the recording.

When trying mono audio, the sound appears flat, therefore boring. It makes a lot of constrains for

an audio sequence, since it doesn’t allow to create a depth and dimensionality of the sound.

Stereo Audio* True s tereophonic sound systems have two independent

audio s ignal channels, and the signals that are

reproduced have a specific level and phase relationship

Stereo is better to be used after joining the

di fferent sounds as a final phase of work. It will

take more time and I’ll need to try to imagine from

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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to each other so that when played back through a

sui table reproduction system, there will be an apparent image of the original sound source. Stereo would be a requirement if there is a need to replicate the aural perspective and localization of instruments on a stage or

platform, a very common requirement in performing arts centres.

http://www.mcsquared.com/mono-stereo.htm

what direction the sounds come, either right or

left. Stereo audio is much better option for any sound sequence, as there I can freely manipulate the

panning, so the chosen sounds have a movement, making it more interesting to the ear when e.g.

someone runs past. It’s the most basic for a

designer and good when people use only headphones or two speakers to listen. It’s like a

practice before moving onto surround sound. Surround Sound Surround sound is a term used to describe a type of

audio output in which the sound appears to "surround the l istener" by 360 degrees. Surround sound systems use three or more channels and speakers in front and behind the listener to create a surrounding envelope of

sound and directional audio sources. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/surround_sound.html

Surround sounds will be the trickiest to mix, and i t

wil l involve many speakers, which we don’t have in class. However, surround sound will add more exci tement to the audio recording when finished. If the speakers won’t be to use, then I may s tay just

with Stereo.

Direct Audio (Pulse Code Modulation – PCM)

Pulse code modulation (PCM) is a digital representation of an analog signal that takes samples of the amplitude of the analog signal at regular intervals. The sampled

analog data is changed to, and then represented by, binary data. […]Each sample in a PCM is quantized, approximating a very large set of possible values by a

relatively small set of va lues, which may be integers or even discrete symbols. No matter how complex they

are, a ll analog data may be digitized. This includes analog data such as full-motion video, sound, telemetry and vi rtual reality.

http://www.techopedia.com/definition/24128/pulse-code-modulation-pcm

PCM al lows analogue recordings to be converted and saved as digital data.

AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEMS Analogue As humans, we perceive the world in analog. Everything we see and hear is a continuous transmission of information to our senses. This continuous s tream is what defines analog data. Digital information, on the

other hand, estimates analog data using only ones and

Analogue data, though better in quality, is much harder to edit, as the recording is saved in a continuous l ine. It also can’t be stored on computers unless digitised, so this data

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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zeros .

For example, a turntable (or record player) is an analog device, while a CD player i s digital. This is because a turntable reads bumps and grooves from a record as a continuous s ignal, while a CD player only reads a series

of ones and zeros. […]analog data is actually more accurate than digital

data. However, digital data can can be manipulated

easier and preserved better than analog data. More importantly, computers can only handle digital data,

which is why most information today i s stored digitally. http://techterms.com/definition/analog

Digital Mini Disc A pre-recorded MiniDisc is exactly like a CD, except smaller. […]A recordable MiniDisc is a magneto-optical device capable of storing 140 megabytes of information.

Mus ic can be scattered all over the disk and the player can "put i t together" correctly when playing the disk. This means that you can erase and re -record songs on a MiniDisc without having to worry about how they fit together. This is tremendously convenient compared to

a cassette tape, where you have to basically re -record the entire tape if you want to change any of the songs

on i t. There are also 4-track MiniDisc recorders for

mus icians, which are great for recording songs as they are performed and then mixing the tracks.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question55.htm

As the definition shows, the Mini Disc is suitable for recording music, much better than a regular CD. It’s good for few songs, or tracks, so it may be used to

s tore our sound recordings.

Compact Disc (CD) An optical disk approximately 4.75 inches (12 cm) in diameter, on which a program, data, music, etc., is digitally encoded for a laser beam to scan, decode, and transmit to a playback system, computer monitor, or

television set. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compact+disk

CD, a longside with pendrive, i s the most familiar way for me to save data. If the sound file will be small enough, I could keep and save them on CD, though I prefer the other s torage object.

Digital Audio Tape (DAT) DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is a standard medium and technology for the digital recording of audio on tape at a professional level of quality. A DAT drive is a digital tape

recorder with rotating heads similar to those found in a

This tape recording allows tracks recorded by i t sound more professional.

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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video deck. […]DAT has become the s tandard archiving

technology in professional and semi-professional recording environments for master recordings. http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/DAT-Digital-

Audio-Tape MIDI Stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface." It is a

connectivity s tandard that musicians use to hook together musical instruments (such as keyboards and synthesizers) and computer equipment. Using MIDI, a

mus ician can easily create and edit digital music tracks. The MIDI system records the notes played, the length of

the notes, the dynamics (volume alterations), the tempo, the instrument being played, and hundreds of other parameters, called control changes.

http://techterms.com/definition/midi

MIDI i s a useful tool for musicians who want their

songs to be recorded in a better way. It a llows them to automatically save the notes they have been playing as well as the instrument used.

Software Sequencers In digital audio recording, a sequencer i s a program in a computer or stand-alone keyboard unit that puts

together a sound sequence from a series (or sequence) of Mus ical Instrument Digital Interface ( MIDI ) events (operations).

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/sequencer

Sequencer, just like any of MIDI instruments, allows mus icians to record music digitally.

Software Plug-ins* Software that is installed into an existing application in order to enhance i ts capability. For example, plug-ins are widely used in image editing programs such as Photoshop to add some special effect. Plug-ins are

added to Web browsers to enable them to support di fferent types of content (audio, video, etc.). The term

is widely used for software, but can also refer to a plug-in module for hardware.

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/49395/plug-in

Software plug-ins can increase the efficiency of a browser, for example making some of the features to be ava ilable to use (small programmes on websites which require java plug-in) or improving

others .

Software plugins add to software, giving more choices to manipulate the audio. During the exercise we uploaded VST plugins to Reaper

software.

MIDI Keyboard Instruments A Mus ical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) keyboard is a mus ical instrument l ike a piano keyboard. The MIDI

portion indicates that the instrument has a

communication protocol built in that allows i t to

MIDI keyboards, unlike the regular keyboards, are able to connect with computer so the data of the

mus ic played is easily saved and digitalised.

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BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games IG2 Task 1

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communicate with a computer or other MIDI-equipped

instrument. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-midi-keyboard.htm

AUDIO SAMPLING File Size Constraints - Bit-depth*

In digital audio , bi t depth describes the potential accuracy of a particular piece of hardware or software

that processes audio data. In general, the more bits that are available, the more accurate the resulting output from the data being processed.

Bi t depth is frequently encountered in specifications for analog-to-digital converters ( ADC s ) and digital-to-

analog converters ( DAC s ), when reading about software plug-in , and when recording audio using a professional medium such as a digital audio workstation or a Digital Audio Tape machine.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/bit-depth

Bi t depth for audio files works in the same way as for picture files: more bits available make the music

sound more like an original track we meant to record. And less than a robotic ‘beeping’ (unless we intended to make it)

While saving any sound sequence we could

change the bit rate. More of bits meant better track as well as more taken space. I stayed with 24Bit rate.

File Size Constraints - Sample

Rate*

In developing an audio sound for computers or

telecommunication, the sample rate i s the number of samples of a sound that are taken per second to represent the event digitally. The more samples taken per second, the more accurate

the digital representation of the sound can be. http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/sample-rate

Higher sample rate of the recording makes i t sound

more accurately to an original data and therefore it ra ised its quality. In order to make my tracks sound more realistically I need to make sure they do have a high sample

rate. While saving sound sequences there is also an

option to change the sample rate. More of it meant more accurate scan of the audio while

rendering, but the render would last longer depending on file length. I stayed with 48000Hz.