Unit 25 : sound recording

Brief - learners will explore the theory and practice of sound recording, both in interior
and exterior environments, and record their own examples of soundtracks for identified
purposes

- Fox's pop e.g. interview

- You must not plagiarize, everything must be in your own words
- Using appropriate location to sound record

Signal paths and levels,audio-file formats

In order to understand signal paths,we must understand the differences between
analogue and digital sound :

Analogue sound is a continuous wave, it is

also an analog signal and this means one
cant detect the pitch change when capturing
this continuous wave of sound it must use an
analog recording system. Analogue sound is
believed to represent its true sound at that
moments of recording

Digital sound is not when recording actual sound

instead it's made by using binary code this is by
using zeros and ones and this is because it
represents the sounds intensity and also the pitch
of the sound. It also refers to the sequence of
discrete samples that are taken from an analog
audio waveform

The potential accuracy of an analog recording depends on the sensitivity of the

equipment and medium used to record and playback the recording.
Digital audio fidelity heavily depends on the rate at which the recording equipment
sampled the original sound wave over a specified increment of time even with the
newest technologies and techniques, digital audio still cannot create replication of an
original sound wave.

Analogue and digital converters

Analog to digital converter(ADC) and digital to analogue converter (dac) are very
imp[ortant components in electronic equipment. Since most real world signals are
analog. These two converting interfaces are necessary to allow digital electronic
equipment to process analog signals.
Sound : signal paths

Sound Decibels

A decibel is a unit used to measure the intensity of a sound or the power level of an
electrical signals by comparing it with a given level on a logarithmic scale

Normal conversation is about 60db,a lawn mower is about 90db and a loud rock
concert is about 120db.
In general,sounds above 85 are harmful, depending on how long and how often you are
exposed to them and whether you
wear hearing protections such as
earplugs or earmuffs

When recording sound,you need to be sure to record at the optimum levels

Optimum recording levels

To achieve optimal recording levels you should set your recording levels as close to the
permitted maximum level (PML) as possible, without reaching or exceeding that limit.
Reaching or exceeding the PML will result in distortion of signals

Permitted Maximum level (PML): highest volume a program or

piece of hardware can accommodate without resulting in
distortion or ‘clipping’

Digital audio can come very close to the threshold for PML
without distorting; however, clipping will occur once the peak
has been reached.
Clipping is usually indicated with a red light.
If utilizing coloured level meter:

Green is acceptable - dishwasher,

Yellow is still acceptable but approaching PML - guitar
Red indicated clipping - gun shot

Optimizing output
1.Enclosure
2.Surface area
3.sound damping

Understanding clipping
There are three primary ways to stop clipping
- Choose the right app
- Set your gain properly
- Avoid bass boost
Lossless and lossy sound
Lossless compression means that as the file size is compressed, the audio quality
remains the same - it does not get worse, Also the file can be restored back to its
original state. FLAC and ALAC are open source lossless compression formats. Lossless
compression can reduce file size by up to 50% without losing quality.

Lossy compression permanently removes data. For example, a WAV file compressed to
an MP3 would be lossy compression. The bit rate could be set at 64 kbps, which would
reduce the size and quality of the file. However, it would not be possible to recreate
1,411 kbps quality files from a 64 kbps MP3. With lossy compression, the original bit
depth is reduced to remove data and reduce the file size. The bit depth becomes
variable.MP3and AAC are lossy compressed audio file formats widely supported on
different platforms. MP3 and ACC

Uncompressed : This type of file is a RAW file which contains all the data. This file type
is without any sort of compression algorithm applied to it.
Unless you don’t have the lossless compressed option then it's advised to always avoid
selecting the uncompressed option as it can cause huge images

WAV file - this file stands for a Waveform audio format iit is
an audio file format standard.This type of file is developed
by microsoft and IBM,this is for sorting an audio bitstream
on PCs.

AIFF file - this file standards for

Audio interchange file format, this
is used for storing sound data for things such as personal
computers and other electronic audio devices.
This type of data file was created by apple in 1988.

Pulse-code modulation - This type of file is used digitally to

represent sampled analog signals.This is the standard form of
a digital audio in a computer.
 Lossless compression files : This type of file is a method of
data compression that means that the file size is reduced of
the file but it doesn't mess up the image quality. When using
this file type no data is lost when using it. Because the data is
preserved.

Apple.m4a - Apple lossless is an audio

coding format and it is a reference audio
codec implementation this is created by
apple inc for lossless data compression
and is also used for digital music.

MPEG - This type of file is an extension

pronoused as ‘em-peg’.
MPEG stands for moving picture experts
group, video file and in the format it
compressed by using either MPEG-1 or
MPEG-2 compression
Window media audio lossless - This type of file is a compressed audio CD to a range
from 206 to 411. This type of file results in a bit for bit duplicates of the original audio
file,the audio quality on the CD will be the same as the file when played back.
MP3 - this is an coding format for digital audio, MP3 is a file format commonly
designates files containing an stream of MPEG-1, this is audio and video encoded data
and is without other complexities of the MP3 standard

Vorbis - this file is an open source patent-free audio

compression format. This file format is developed as a
replacement for proprietary digital audio.

ATRAC - This file format is used by Sony

electronic devices, like the playstation
portable and also sony digitals audio
players

Mono and stereo audio files

Monophonic and stereophonic sounds differ in the number of channels used when
recording playback audio, Monophonic sound uses a single audio channel to record and
also playback but whereas stereophonic sound uses two different audio channels to
record and playback. There is a big difference between the both as stereo sounds are
capable of producing the perception of width and mono sounds are not able to do this.

Microphones

Omnidirectional
microphones - they pick up sound from all sides of the microphone and also from all
directions, this means someone can speak from the side of the microphone and will
work the same and create the same audio type if it was from the top of the microphone.

Bidirectional microphones - these microphones pick up sound sensitivity but only from
the front and back,the bidirectional microphone is referred as a figure of eight
microphones because they pattern of pick up is very similar to a figure of eight.
Unidirectional microphone - this microphone only picks up audio from one direction of
the microphone, this means that the speaker must always talk into the correct side of
the microphone when recording or using it.

Cardioid microphone - this microphone picks up sensitive audio but only from the sides
and front of the microphone if recorded from the back the outcome would be very poor
audio. The ratio from 0 to 360 degrees for the audio is shaped in a heart shape.
Hypercardioid microphone - this microphone has a very directional pickup pattern as
when its areas are between 110 and 250 degrees its at its most sensitive.
These type of microphones you would see in filmmaking

Shotgun microphones - This type of microphone is highly sensitive and directive, when
using it needs to be pointed towards the direction of the sound you want to record so it
can be picked up by the microphone. The Shotgun microphone records sound poorly
when coming from the sides or the back of the microphone, The name of the
microphone is because of the shape of the microphone.

Condenser microphones - This microphone consists of a pair charged plates they are
either forced together or apart by pressure, condenser microphone act as a sound
sensitive capacitiors.One of the sides of the microphone (plates) are made up of flexible
metal or metal called platic