HTG Explains: What Are the Differences Between All Those Audio Formats? Digital audio has been around a very long time so there’s bound to be a plethora of audio formats out there. Here are some of the more common ones, what differentiates them, and what to use them for. Before we talk about everyday audio formats, it’s important you understand the basics, and that means understanding PCM. After that, we’ll tackle compressed formats. PCM Audio: Where It All Starts Pulse-Code Modulation was created back in 1937 and is the closest approximation of analog audio. True sound, in the real world, is continuous. Image from Wikipedia I know there’s a lot here that may not be second-nature unless you’re an engineer, physicist, or an audiophile, so let’s pare it down further with an analogy. Let’s say that the water flowing from an open faucet is your “analog” audio source. Bit depth is a little trickier. As previously mentioned, PCM is the foundation for digital audio, along with its variants. The Uncompressed Bunch: WAV, AIFF Image by codepo8 Image by CyboRoZ
Aaron Marks Special: So, You Want to Be a Sound Designer? : Designing Sound People often ask why I’m a sound designer and how I ended up with an active career creating sounds. It’s not something I specifically sought out but now that I’m a dozen years into doing it professionally, I’m really happy that I’m here. I actually started as a composer with the dream of scoring blockbuster Hollywood films but with the unpredictability of life, I ended up on the video game side of the industry instead and haven’t looked back. Every sound designer I’ve talked to over the years has their own story – most fell into it by accident, others followed a calculated path – but they all have the same things in common. What is a ‘sound designer’? ‘Sound Designer’ means something a little different depending on which industry you are working in. Games are a completely different animal. ‘Sound designer’ skills With such a broad scope of possible duties for a ‘sound designer’, how can you tell if you even have the right talent and knowledge to be a good one? Creating a solid demo reel
Tele-Present Water by David Bowen visualizes intensity and movement of the water in a remote location #maxmsp #arduino Created by David Bowen, Tele-Present Water installation draws information from the intensity and movement of the water in a remote location. Wave data is collected in real-time from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data buoy station 46075 Shumagin Islands Alaska. The wave intensity and frequency is scaled and transferred to the mechanical grid structure resulting in a simulation of the physical effects caused by the movement of water from this distant location. The installation uses MAX/MSP to drive an Arduino mega running servo firmata. It uses 11 x 24volt dc motors with drivers for the movement. In May this year Tele-Present Water received one of three ex aequo awards in Alternative Now: The 14th Media Art Biennale WRO 2011, Wroclaw, Poland. //thanks for the tip Joost 11 x 24volt dc motors Photo by Alicja Kołodziejczyk - source Photo by Ewa Wójtowicz - source
Digital recording Audio levels display on a digital audio recorder (Zoom H4n) In digital recording, digital audio and digital video are directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure (sound) for audio and chroma and luminance values for video through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or moving image. Analog audio (sound), or analog video made of a continuous wave must be converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, and chroma and luminance values for video. Beginning in the 1980s, music that was recorded, mixed and mastered digitally was often labelled using the SPARS code to describe which processes were analog and which were digital. Timeline history[edit] Process[edit] Recording Playback Recording of bits[edit] Techniques to record to commercial media[edit] Concerns with digital audio recording[edit] Word size[edit] Sample rate[edit] Error rectification[edit]
EQ Chart | ObiAudio This is from a thread on Future Producers..I did not write this and do…to an extent…agree with most of this. I just copied and pasted the good stuff: To understand EQ and its intricacies you need hands-on experience, but to help you get started, here’s a table of general uses and the different ranges that EQ can affect. As every sound is different, though, these are necessarily very general guidelines… Kick Drum Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. 50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom to the sound 100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness 250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area 5-8kHz ~ Adds high end presence 8-12kHz ~ Adds Hiss Snare Try a small boost around 60-120Hz if the sound is a little too wimpy. 100-250Hz ~ Fills out the sound 6-8kHz ~ Adds presence Hi hats or cymbals Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. 250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area 1-6kHz ~ Adds presence 6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity 8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness Bass Try boosting around 60Hz to add more body. Vocals Piano Electric guitars Acoustic guitar 1.
Music Theory Scales and Modes Scales and Modes What Are Modes? If a sound tickles your ear, you may be hearing a mode. Have you ever listened to a piece of music and thought it sounded strange to your ear? Modes are scales. Here is a picture of the C Major scale. Modes (scales) are patterns of notes that move by half-steps (2 notes next to one another on the piano) and whole-steps (2 notes separated by a note on the piano). Can you identify half-steps and whole-steps on this keyboard? Back to top Major and Minor Scales Do you like ice cream? Just like there are many flavors of ice cream, so there are many different "flavors" of scales. I bet you know the most popular flavor of ice cream. Major scales are like vanilla ice cream because they are the most popular scales in music. The difference between these two scales is simple: the minor scale has more half steps than the major scale. To play the C major scale, find the note C (to the left of the two black keys) and play only white notes up to the next C. Other Scales Fetes
Otomata 16 Jul 2011 Click on the grid below to add cells, click on cells to change their direction, and press play to listen to your music. Update: Click here to get Otomata for your iPhone / iPod / iPad! Official facebook page: Also this reddit page has many examples: And there is a subreddit for Otomata: Otomata is a generative sequencer. Each alive cell has 4 states: Up, right, down, left. at each cycle, the cells move themselves in the direction of their internal states. This set of rules produces chaotic results in some settings, therefore you can end up with never repeating, gradually evolving sequences. If you encounter something you like, just press “Copy Piece Link” and save it somewhere, or better, share it! Here is something from me to start with: And here is an action video: Here are replies to some common questions: Q: MIDI Output?
Epic Sound - music, sound design and voice acting Lesson Plan for Making a Speaker Laboratory ©1995 The Regents of the University of California by Regan Lum Introduction: A speaker is a device that converts an electronic signal into sound. figure 1 Purpose: In this laboratory, you will explore how a speaker works. Materials: 1 permanent magnet 2 feet of wire 1 pencil tape or glue 1 Styrofoam or paper cup 1 signal source (tape player) 1 plug with alligator clips for tape player Procedure: Assemble material as shown in figure 1. Leaving about 10 centimeters on the end, wrap the wire around a pencil to make a wire coil and tape or glue it to the bottom of the cup. Conclusion Does the volume control on the tape player work on your speaker? Return to CEA Science Education Home Page
Research: Too much, too little noise turns off consumers, creativity The sound of silence isn't so golden for consumers, and both marketers and advertisers should take note, says new research from a University of Illinois expert in new product development and marketing. According to published research from Ravi Mehta, a professor of business administration, ambient background noise turns out to be an important factor affecting creative cognition among consumers. "We found that ambient noise is an important antecedent for creative cognition," Mehta said. "A moderate level of noise not only enhances creative problem-solving but also leads to a greater adoption of innovative products in certain settings." "What we found is that there's an inverted-U relationship between noise level and creativity," Mehta said. Using background noise commonly found in consumers' lives, the researchers show that, as noise increases, so does one's level of distraction. Mehta says the research is not only applicable to consumer research, but also to problem-solving in general.
Sum & Difference Monitoring - Reverse Engineering! Have you ever considered using Sum & Difference monitoring techniques to enable you to reverse engineer some of your favourite records? We all know that developing our listening skill is crucial as engineers and producers who care about the quality of our craft. Utilising some commonly found features on mixing consoles and monitor controllers, today’s blog entry outlines some interesting ways to help expose elements in perspectives you may not have heard very often. Mid / Side Basics So I am sure many of you have used mid/side techniques to record stereo signals, a technique that allows us to capture separate mid (cardioid most often) and side (figure-8) signals that can facilitate control over stereo content post-capture. In a mid/side array, the individual microphone feeds are combined in a simple matrix in order to produce and vary stereo content. Check out this useful blog post from our friends Universal Audio that explains recording in mid-side. Reversing the Matrix Listening in M/S Enjoy!
One Square Inch