Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

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: Joshua Grey 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 Foley effects are sound effects added to the film during post production (after the shooting stops). They include sounds such as footsteps, clothes rustling, crockery clinking, paper folding, doors opening and slamming, punches hitting, glass breaking, etc. etc. In other words, many of the sounds that the sound recordists on set did their best to avoid recording during the shoot.

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Foley effects - sounds added to a piece of film post production so that the levels of sound can be altered so it isn’t louder than the main focus of the clip like someone talking, a foley effect could be a door slamming which would be added in post production at a lower volume than in real life so it isn’t louder tan the people talking

Sound Libraries a collection of sounds stored on file (for example on CDs, DVDs, or as digital audio files)

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A digital library of music and film stored on a computer.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed Uncompressed audio files are the most accurate digital representation of a sound wave, but can also be the most resource-intensive method of recording and storing digital audio, both in terms of storage and management. Their accuracy makes them suitable for archiving and delivering audio at high resolution, and working with audio at a professional level, and they are the 'master' audio format of choice.

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The original audio file that has not been changed in any way, this is useful for audio professionals who want the clearest and best audio clip for editing at a later date. Because they are uncompressed they are a larger file size than an audio clip that has been edited or changed.

.wav A Wave file is an audio file format, created by Microsoft, that has become a standard PC audio file format for everything from system and game sounds to CD-quality audio. A Wave file is identified by a file name extension of WAV (.wav). Used primarily in PCs, the Wave file format has been accepted as a viable interchange medium for other computer platforms, such as Macintosh. This allows content developers to freely move audio files between platforms

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A .wav file is an audio file that is primarily used on PC but works on Mac too. It is the industry standard file format for transferring audio files across platforms and different hardware.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

.aiff AIFF is short for Audio Interchange File Format, which is an audio format initially created by Apple Computer for storing and transmitting high-quality sampled audio data. It supports a variety of bit resolutions, sample rates, and channels of audio. This format is quite popular upon Apple platforms, and is commonly adopted in professional programs that handle digital audio waveforms.

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An audio format used for sending high quality audio data. Was created by Apple and is now used in programs that use digital audio waveforms.

.au A digital audio file format from Sun that is used on the Internet and can be played by a Java program. It provides toll-quality sound and uses the .AU extension. It generally uses the u-Law (mu-Law) encoding method, and raw u-Law files and AU files are the same except for the file header.

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An audio file used on the internet and played by a Java program providing sound, java is used for things such as websites and internet based games.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

.smp An ".smp" file may be one of several different types of audio file. For example, it could be a Sample Vision audio sample file. Turtle Beach Sample Vision originally used this 16-bit audio file; you can open it with Adobe Auction, Sound Forge Pro or Awave Studio. It could also be a sample file for AdLib Gold, a PC sound card released in 1992; Scream Tracker, a mid-1990s music editing program; or Swell. Reason, a music recording and production program, uses the ".smp" extension for sampler instrument patches.

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An SMP file could refer to various audio file formats used for different tasks. It can be opened by a variety of software.

Lossy Compression Lossy compression reduces a file by permanently eliminating certain information, especially redundant information. When the file is uncompressed, only a part of the original information is still there (although the user may not notice it). Lossy compression is generally used for video and sound, where most users will not detect a certain amount of information loss.

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Lossy compression is when the computer takes out parts of an audio file to make the file smaller for transfer. Doing this reduces sound quality but it is not noticeable to the vast amount of people. An alternative would be lossless compression which re-writes a file into a smaller memory size and then re-writes into the original file at the other end.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

.mp3 MP3, is an audio coding format for digital audio which uses a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio streaming or storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players.

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A coding format used for streaming and storage of music, it is one of the most widely used audio file formats and plays on a variety of hardware.

AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal computer expansion card that facilitates economical input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs. The term sound card is also applied to external audio interfaces that use software to generate sound, as opposed to using hardware inside the PC. Typical uses of sound cards include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition, editing video or audio, presentation, education and entertainment (games) and video projection.

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This enables sound to and from a computer and is used in a variety of applications like games, music and videos.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

Digital Sound Processor (DSP) Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) take real-world signals like voice, audio, video, temperature, pressure, or position 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.

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Random Access Memory (RAM)

In common usage, the term RAM is synonymous with main memory, the memory available to programs. For example, a computer with 8MB RAM has approximately 8 million bytes of memory that programs can use.

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The memory a computer has. The higher the RAM the more memory the computer has and the more tasks it can preform simultaneously.

Mono Audio Commonly called mono sound, mono, this early sound system used a single channel of audio for sound output. In monophonic sound systems, the signal sent to the sound system encodes one single stream of sound and it usually uses just one speaker.

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Mono (means one) and is a type of audio sound which uses one stream of sound from one speaker as opposed to stereo sounds.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

Stereo Audio Commonly called stereo sound or just stereo, stereophonic sound divides sounds across two channels (recorded on two separate sources) then the recorded sounds are mixed so that some elements are channelled to the left and others to the right.

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Stereo sounds are mixed so that music etc is channelled to two different speakers (left and right) for a better sound quality.

Surround Sound A system of sound recording and reproduction that uses three or more independent recording channels and loudspeakers in order to give the impression that the listener is surrounded by the sound sources

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Used for cinemas and TV systems. Sound bars and speakers give you sound from different areas of your room so you are surrounded by the sound.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

Direct Audio (Pulse Code Modulation – PCM)

Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, Compact Discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amplitude of the analog signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, and each sample is quantized to the nearest value within a range of digital steps.

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Is the code that computers use to decipher sound and play it through speakers or headphones.

AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEMS Analogue Refers to recording audio in a format of continuous vibrations that are analogous to the original sound waves. Before audio recording became digital, sounds were "carved" into vinyl records or written to tape as magnetic waveforms. Contrast with digital audio.

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An old method of recording audio. It was made obsolete by digital recordings.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

Digital Mini Disc A digital disc medium for storing music or data where a small disc is housed in a cartridge and is either recordable or playback

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A small physical disc used for storing audio or video files.

Compact Disc (CD) Known by its abbreviation, CD, a compact disc is a polycarbonate with one or more metal layers capable of storing digital information. The most prevalent types of compact discs are those used by the music industry to store digital recordings.

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A disc used for storing a variety of PC data, including pictures, audio and film.

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 video deck. Most DAT drives can record at sample rates of 44.1 kHz, the CD audio standard, and 48 kHz.

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A digital recording device.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

MIDI Pronounced middy, an acronym for musical instrument digital interface, a standard adopted by the electronic music industry for controlling devices, such as synthesizers and sound cards, that emit music. At minimum, a MIDI representation of a sound includes values for the note's pitch, length, and volume. It can also include additional characteristics, such as attack and delay time.

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An interface used by musicians to change levels such as pitch, bass and other various parts of music.

Software Sequencers In digital audio recording, a sequencer is a program in a computer or stand-alone keyboard unit that puts together a sound sequence from a series (or sequence) of Musical Instrument Digital Interface ( MIDI ) events (operations). The MIDI sequencer allows the user to record and edit a musical performance without using an audio-based input source.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

Software Plug-ins A plug-in is a (sometimes essential) piece of software code that enables an application or program to do something it couldn’t by itself. One of the more common plug-ins is Adobe Flash Player. Without Flash Player you won’t, for example, be able to view BBC News bulletins embedded into web pages.

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A piece of downloadable software that is used to make the computer compatible with different hardware such as digital recorders. It is also used to play videos and audio on the internet.

MIDI Keyboard Instruments A Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) keyboard is a musical instrument like a piano keyboard. The MIDI portion indicates that the instrument has a communication protocol built in that allows it to communicate with a computer or other MIDI-equipped instrument.

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An instrument with a built in computer connectivity.

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Salford City CollegeEccles Sixth Form CentreBTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGNUnit 73: Sound For Computer GamesIG2 Task 1

AUDIO SAMPLING File Size Constraints - Bit-depth

Bit 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.

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Bit depth is the measurement of how clear the audio file will be. More bits make the audio clearer and sharper.

File Size Constraints - Sample Rate

The rate at which samples of an analog signal are taken in order to be converted into digital form. A PCs sound card typically will sample a received analog signal, such as through a microphone, and digitize it for use by the computer.

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The sample rate determines the speed analog signals are turned into audio.

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