Unit 4 - Audio Systems Technology NOTES

Audio generally refers to a recording made of sound. It can include anything from voice and music to animal or machine sounds. Sound is manifested as vibrations (sound waves) in a medium. For us, the medium is usually air (could be water if you are swimming, for example). he source is whatever causes the medium to vibrate. Sound waves move as expanding concentric spheres out from the source, getting wea!er as the travel. he sound energy is dissipated by the wor! re"uired to vibrate the molecules of the medium it travels through.

hat sound moves spherically (in all directions) out from the source is important to remember when recording. Sound reflects off ad#acent surfaces and returns as echoes. he echoes are out of sync (they have to travel further) with the original sound and can cause distortion in the recording. $a!ing a clean audio recording re"uires control of echoes. his is usually accomplished by ma!ing sure there are no reflective surfaces in the recording studio. Sound absorbing materials are applied to the walls, floor, and ceiling.

his effect is described by the Inverse S"uare %aw. It is an important issue for audio recording, especially of live events. $usicians hold microphones close to their mouths so that microphone sensitivity can be ad#usted to exclude extraneous noise. Sports reporters use parabolic reflectors to amplify sound and focus it on the microphone, which also ma!es the microphone more directional (records sound from a narrow portion of the spherical sound wave). An examination of the sound wave over time&which is also over a distance&(for example along a line extending out from the source) reveals the pattern of the sound and shows how it decreases in intensity (amplitude of the wave) as it travels out from the source.

Sound is a continuously variable (analog) wave. 'f course most sounds don(t produce smooth sound waves. $ore typically, they are li!e the following example.

Audio is recorded in analog format on audio cassette, vinyl records, and analog video ()*S, +mm, and *I+). In addition, audio transducers (devices used to convert energy from one form to another) such as microphones, are initially analog devices. hat is, the analog sound energy causes a corresponding mechanical vibration in the microphone diaphragm. he diaphragm is directly connected to a electromagnetic device which develops a corresponding analog electrical voltage. his analog voltage is recorded as a corresponding magnetic pattern on audio tape.

Digital Audio
Audio Capture Hardware

$a!ing digital audio from an analog signal re"uires use of an A,- device. he sound card in a computer is #ust such a device. $ost sound cards have two types of input. $ic, or microphone&designed to wor! with, well..., microphones & usually has a mini stereo #ac! (two sets of inputs). %ine.in, designed to ta!e input from tape recorders, or other e"uipment with audio out #ac!s, may also be a mini.stereo #ac!. Input #ac!s are generally colour coded. %ine.in is blue and microphone is red (sometimes pin!).

Audio Capture So tware

Software is re"uired to use soundcard input devices. /ou are already using one application, v-lass, that digiti0es output from the microphone and sends it to others in your class where it goes through the ,A- in their sound card and is converted bac! to analog voltage to drive their headphones. 1indows includes a simple audio capture application called Sound 2ecorder.

Sound 2ecorder will wor! with your microphone. It allows you to capture audio clips for inclusion into email or other applications. Sound 2ecorder has very limited editing capabilities. -ommercial sound capture and editing applications are available in wide variety with features ranging from basic waveform editing to full music compositing functions. At the entry level, free software (Audacity, for example) provides functions needed to do recording of content from the line.in or microphone #ac!s, import audio from other applications, perform basic editing of content, and export to a wide variety of formats.

Editing Analog Audio

3diting audio files, for purposes of this lesson, consists of cutting, editing, and pasting sound clips, and applying audio filters and effects to the sound.

3diting of analog audio on magnetic audio tape re"uires physical cuts to the tape, and a rearrangement of the segments.

Note4 /ou cannot see the pattern of magnetic encoding. It is shown here to indicate individual sound clips on the tape.

As you can see from the previous figure, editing analog audio was a time consuming process, with many difficulties and frustrations. ape had to be physically cut, sometimes between words in a sentence, then rearranged and taped bac! together with splicing tape.

Editing Digital Audio

Although digital audio is encoded as a stream of 5(s and 6(s, editing software presents the information onscreen in a human.friendly format. he software, in effect, acts as a ,A- and draws the audio (picture( as a waveform. his is the shape of the sound as an analog signal. It is this shape that, when amplified, drives spea!ers and enables us to hear the audio.

Audio editing software presents sound in trac!s. 3ach trac! is a representation of sound over time. 7asic editing consists of selecting pieces of the waveform, copying (or cutting) them, and pasting them in a new location. In effect you are digitally cutting and splicing, rather than mechanically cutting and splicing.