Digital Audio

Digital Audio is the process of turning analogue information into digital information also called digitizing.

An audio signal is analysed by an A/D (analogue to digital).

The A/D converter analyses the waveform of an analogue signal and samples that wave.. For examples 48KHz = waveforms analysed 48,000 times per second. Higher samples equal higher resolution frequency.

Professional Audio Files types

.AIFF Files

Audio Interchange file format

Developed by Apple.

.WAV Files

Waveform Audio Format

Developed by Microsoft (Most commonly used)

.BWF Files

Broadcast Wave Format

by the European Broadcast Union

The BWF is used as the next generation of the WAV file and new industry standards.

MP3 Files

MP3 commonly known as a compressed audio file that is popular in the mass media market. Mainly used for sharing over the internet.

MIDI

Musicla Instrument Digital Interface

Allow computers and musical equipment to communicate and synchronise

(The Sound Effect Bible - Ric Viers)

Jack Foley

Jack Donovan Foley - April 12, 1891; Yorkville, New York – November 9, 1967; Los Angeles, California 

He was the developer of many sound effect techniques used in film making. He is attributed with inventing the art of Foley, which is the process of adding sound effects such as footsteps and environmental sounds to films. His founding role in the development of Foley is documented in the 2009 book The Foley Grail.

He worked on the pictures such as Melody of Love, Show Boat (1929), Dat Ol' Ribber, Spartacus, and Operation Petticoat.

Foley received many awards, including the Golden Reel Award.

(Wikipedia 2013 Jack Foley)

What is a Sound Effect?

Hard Effects:

Hard Effects intend to work for images on screen. Many effects used in this category include car horns, gunshots, and punches. The performance is not an issue, when comparing with Foley the performance is important to make it seem convincing.

Foley Sound Effects:

Foley, name after sound artist Jack Foley is the key process of performing sounds in sync with visual picture. With Foley, the common effects used are footsteps, clothes movement, and impacts which give off this sense of realism.

Background Effects:

This is also known as ambiences or atmos. The sounds intend to fill in the empty space on screen and give the user a sense of location and surroundings within the environment. These include traffic, room tone, and wind. They do not intend to have a relationship with any specific event on screen.

Electronic Sound Effects/Production Elements:

Popular sound effects for science fiction effects in the 60s and 70s. Many production elements are the electric static, zips, and whooshes heard during radio station IDs. Synthesizers and keyboards are an important aspect. Many are then processed or filtered to alter the sound effect.

Sound Design Effects:

These effects can range from a pin drop. Sound designers that have mastered the manipulation of sound waves to create a realistic approach to sound effects.

Creating the mood with Sound Effects

There are quite a few videos that have inspired me for my project and they come from a game called Bioshock Infinite. 

The sounds used to create the mood are fantastic and can be seen right from the very intro of the game with the first sounds of a piano as the camera pans and show it's unique location of the floating city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYpAOY-Cy8s

That 'feel' you get is almost as if you are floating and always capturing various images in your mind. Thinking about the surroundings and how they sound.

Another part of the game you enter an amusements with games and really old types of machines. 

The way in which you interact with characters and the sound effects within this really sets the mood and general feel of the room with the nostalgia type of sounds.

http://youtu.be/84fbOaNXFAI?t=1m55s

You can also hear various different sounds whilst exploring the room which relate to this arcade surrounding.

The Ten Sound Editing Commandments

1. Thou Shalt Name Thy Sound 

2. Thou Shalt Save Often 

3. Thou Shalt Work Non-Destructively 

4. Thou Shalt Copy Thy Media Files from Thy Sessions 

5. Thou Shalt Crop Thy Sound 

6. Thou Shalt Honor the Stereo Field to Keep It Even 

7. Thou Shalt Not Cut Off Thy Sound 

8. Thou Shalt Remove Unholy Clicks and Pops from Thy Sound 

9. Thou Shalt Use Wisdom in Making Thy Cut 

10. Thou Shalt Protect Thy Ears 

Ric Viers, The Sound Bible P.171 The Ten Sound Editing Commandments

Research and Atmos

I found a video on the sound design about the film Life of Pi. I really found this interesting in terms of recording the atmosphere and different techniques they used to create effects that really brings you into the film. 

SoundWorks Collection - The Sound of The Life of Pi from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Mood, Sense of Place

During Easter Holidays I was able to visit Bridlington and record many of my sounds needed for my project.

I captured many sounds such as:

Seagulls

Amusements

Pebbles/Footsteps

Waves/Sea

Atmos

Children playing

Above are some of the images I captured whilst I was there. It was a very cold day however I enjoyed the whole process very much. Now onto editing..

Understanding Logic Pro

In this session we had a look at Logic Pro and some of the most important short cuts and tools needed to know.

Bin - Loaded files on ther system

Loop - Ready made instruments

Library - Software Instruments

Browser - Local Files

Green Cursor - Loop Specific Audio (Drag) (Cycle Region)

Ctrl + Alt and Click to Zoom

Esc - Brings up all Tools (Scissors Tool)

Output - All tracks Affected

Hover top right to loop track

Caps - To turn Piano on.

Project Ideas

For my project idea I want to try and incorporate something using surround sound. An idea I had of mine and it of great interest in terms of history, popularity is Bridlington Beach. I want to be able to visit Bridlington and record many sounds which represents how it is today and perhaps manipulate these sounds into something eerie and scary perhaps. What its like living on the coast? Still as popular or dying out? Difference between summer and winter population. Comparison between 19th and 20th century. I could also perhaps record my journey to Bridlington via train. Get a real feel of the surroundings.

In terms of recordings I could gather some really nice sounds.

• Sound
• Atmos
• Amusements
• Children playing
• Sea

Quote

'It's not how it used to be'

When I have gathered recordings I could have a play around with these sounds within soundtrack pro and logic and use the pan tool to create some nice effects as well as all the other effects within the program.

Hoping to create this sense of place and a eerie feel to it. Using various mics to get specific sounds. Perhaps get my sounds working with a few still images. I aim to make the project around 3-5 minutes.

Key settings within Soundtrack Pro with Surround Sound

In the session this week, we went through some basic setting in Soundtrack Pro which could then enable us to focus and edit work without having to go through the setting numerous of times and to also get familiar with the sound proof studio.

Some key seetings to note down for when it comes to editing my project work:

Apple>System Pref>Sound>Output>Avid HDX

Input (Same) Avid HDX

Recording Tab - Avid HDX.

The seesion was also an opporutnity to learn a bit about Surround Sound and how to work best with it.

Adjusting settings:

Double click surround sound panel enabled extra features

Boost Base - LFE

Surround Pan X (Left and Right)

Surround Pan Y (Font and Back)

Can also record mono and set to different surround speakers (each corner). Moving and 

adjusting, sense of realism.

Microphone Pickup Patterns

One of the first sessions was going through different types of microphone patterns using various mics. Some of the microphones that I'm already familiar with include the shotgun and omnidirectional. Usually when recording in mono it intends to be recorded omnidirectional which can then be edited within software to create surround sound and set into a particular speaker.

Shotgun mics mainly excels at picking up sounds in front of it, while rejecting sounds to the sides and rear. Shotguns are designed to have a narrower focus than an average microphone.

Cardioid microphone picks up from the front, while minimal noise is picked up from the rear and only marginal noise is picked up from the sides.

Hypercardioid patterns are similar to cardioid patterns in that the primary sensitivity is in the front of the microphone.

During the session I was able to fully understand the way each pattern worked and which is best to use for a particular task.