Audio

Revamped Version
Introduction
All sound waves are analog in nature, made of an
unbroken line without individually distinguishable
pieces or components forming the sound wave

This contrasts to digital signals, which break the

wave into many individual components that
approximate or mimic the shape of the wave

All other media are primarily visual, while sound is

perceived through the different sense of hearing

It is a complex mixture of physical and

psychological factors which is difficult to model
accurately

Introduction
All sound waves are analog in nature, made of an
unbroken line without individually distinguishable
pieces or components forming the sound wave

This contrasts to digital signals, which break the

wave into many individual components that
approximate or mimic the shape of the wave

All other media are primarily visual, while sound is

perceived through the different sense of hearing

It is a complex mixture of physical and

psychological factors which is difficult to model
accurately

Introduction
Sound wave
• The pattern of sound wave, usually displayed as a two-dimensional graph
of pressure or amplitude against time
• For periodic waveforms, a single cycle or period defines the waveform.
• Also called sound pressure function, particularly when represented digitally
• Digital sound is a sound that has been converted to or created
(synthesized) in a discrete form (numeric values) suitable for storage and
processing in a computer

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Principles of Sound
• Sound can be describes as oscillations (ayunan,
buaian, getaran) of air pressure that stimulate the
eardrum to the auditory nerves and the brain.
• The oscillations must occur in a range of frequencies
and amplitudes.
• The hearing range of the average person is
approximately 20Hz to 17KHz

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Sound waves in
air
• A single-frequency sound wave traveling through air
will cause a pressure variation in the air
• The air motion which accompanies the passage of the
sound wave will be back and forth in the direction of
the propagation of the sound
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• The idea of tuning fork resemble those created by a
pendulum
• Our ears are the main receptors for sound
• The eardrum forms a membrane that is connected to
a body of liquid and is sensitive to pressure changes
within certain wavelengths
• The pressure changes result in hydraulic action that is
converted into the electrical signals ultimately
interpreted by the brain as sound.

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• Sound wave’s amplitude = sound’s intensity
• Sound wave’s frequency = the length of time taken for the
wave to complete one entire cycle

Measured in unit Hertz (a cycle per second)

1000 Hertz = 1 KHz = 1000 cycle per second

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Frequency
• The reciprocal value of the period; it represents the number of
periods in a second and is measured in hertz (Hz) stand for a
cycles per second (cps).
[ 1 HZ = 1 cycle per second ]
• Determined by the length of time it takes the waves to
complete one entire cycle.
• One cycle is when the wave goes up, down through the line
and back up again to the starting point
• In Multimedia systems - make use of sound only within the
frequency range of human hearing - audio (acoustic signals) -
speech, music and noise (range between 20Hz to 20kHz).
• Every musical note has a related hertz value

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Amplitude
• The sound’s intensity or loudness
• Measure of the displacement of the air pressure wave from its mean or rest
position
• It has to do with the distance above and below the centerline of the sound
wave
• The center line is the horizontal line in the drawings below, it is zero degrees

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Psychology of Hearing
• The properties of frequency and amplitude have corresponding concepts
in auditory perception: pitch and loudness
• Pitch: Pitch of sound depends upon the frequency of sound. The greater
the frequency, the higher is the pitch and vice versa.
• It is the pitch of sounds that enable us to distinguished b/w a sound of man
and woman or man and dog.
• Etc. sound of a woman is shrill due to high pitch. Sound of a dog is grave
due to low pitch and low frequency.

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 Pitch
• The subjective impression of frequency, in
the same sense that loudness is the
subjective sense of the amplitude of a sound
• The perceived pitch of a sound is just the
ear's response to frequency
• Pitch is a psycho acoustic variable, and the
degree of sensitivity shown to it varies widely
with people
• The pitch of a tone or note allows it to be
placed in a musical scale; thus notes of a
scale are often called pitches, and given
names (A, B, C, C#, doh, re, mi, etc.)
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• Loudness: Corresponds roughly to the
amplitude of the note. Decibel DESCRIPTION
• The perceived loudness of a sound depends on 140 dB A gunshot or fire cracker
both the frequency and amplitude of the 120 dB A rock concert or a jet engine
physical stimulus.
110 dB A car horn
• Loudness is measured in decibels (dB)
90 dB A lawnmower
• The smallest audible sound is 0dB. A sound 10
60 dB Normal conversation
times more powerful is 10dB. Here are some
common sounds and their decibel ratings: 15 dB A whisper

0 dB Near total silence

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Loudness
• Human ears measure the distance the ear drum
moves when we hear a sound. The message is sent
to the brain
• The brain translates the amplitude into the loudness of
the sound
• Loud sounds have a large amplitude. They make the
ear drum vibrate very far
• Soft sounds have a small amplitude. They vibrate the
ear drum very little
• If the vibration is too small or too large, a person
cannot hear the sound

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Digital Audio
• The most common form of digital audio is the compact
disc (CD)
• Digitizing an analog waveform involves breaking it up
into many small pieces that can later be lined up
together to form a close approximation of the original,
continuous signal
• The more samples that are taken, the more pieces are
used to recreate the signal resulting in a higher
resolution signal
• Digital audio is high-quality signals that suffer from very
little distortion and noise compared to analog signals

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Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)
• Electronic equipment used to change or convert an analog (waveform
style) signal into a digital signal (made up of 1s and 0s)
• The job of the analog-to-digital converter is to take the waveform (the
analog signal) and split it up into the thousands of tiny "stairs" which
simulate the wave
• Analog signals are converted to digital signals for a variety of reasons
including to improve processing power (the ability to manipulate the
signals), to encode analog signals for later playback through a digital
medium (such as a CD or DVD) etc.

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Why is it important to change
from analog to digital?
 Computer is in digital format
 To get clearer, precise audio without noise
 Noise can be cut / reduce by using digital. (ability to
edit)
 Quality of data when transmitted – especially for long
distance transmission.

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Sampling rate
• Describes how often samples are taken
• Every nth fraction of a second, a sample of sound is taken and stored as
digital information in bits and bytes
• Three sampling frequencies most often used in multimedia are CD quality
44.1 kHz, 22.05 kHz and 11.025 kHz.

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Sampling size
• The amount of information
stored about each sample.
• The more often you take a
sample and the more data you
store about the sample, the finer
the resolution and quality of the
captured sound when it is
played back.
• Sample sizes are either 8 bits or
16 bits.

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Quantization
• The process of converting the sample amplitude to bits of data
• Value of each sample is rounded off to the nearest integer
• It can produce an unwanted background hissing sound

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Clipping
• If the amplitude is greater than the intervals available, clipping of the
top and bottom of the wave occurs.
• Clipping may severely distort the sound.

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Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)
• Electronic device that decodes
digital data (ones and zeroes) into
an analog waveform electrical
signal
• Digital signals from formats such as
CDs and DVDs are converted from
their digital form into an analog
form in order for the amplifier and
speaker to recreate sound
• Most digital playback devices (CD,
DVD, laserdisc, etc.) include a
digital-to-analog converter
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Editing Digitized Sound

• A number of software application are designed

especially for digital sound editing and modification

• Software that can be used to edit digital sound :-

 Sound Edit
 SoundForge
 Adobe Audition
 Real Audio Encoder
 Cybersound Sound FX
 Camps
 MidiScan
 Webtracks

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 File Size versus Quality

• Sampling rate determines the frequency makeup of the

recording
• Sampling at higher rates more accurately captures the high
frequency content of your sound
• Using more bits produces a recording that sounds more like
the its original.
• Stereo recordings are more lifelike and realistic because
human beings have two ears.
• Mono recordings are fine but tend to sound a bit “flat” and
uninteresting when compared with stereo recording.
• Stereo sound files require twice as much storage space as
mono files for the same length of time.

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 Sound files can be edited in a large number of ways :-
• Amplitude adjusted
• Echo effect can be added
• Pitch can be shifted
• Various filters can be applied
• Softening / Sharpening the quality of the sound
• Trimming / combining and rearranging clips

Format
File Type : WAVE (Waveform Audio File)
File extension : .wav

WAVE is a proprietary Standard originally developed by Microsoft and IBM

as part of the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) for
Window 3.1.

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Common File Types Used for
Digitized Sounds

•.aif
•.au
•.ram
•.mp3
•.mid/midi

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Adding Sound to Your Multimedia Project

1. Decide what kind of sound is needed (such as background music, special sound
effects and voice over.). Decide where these audio events will occur in the flow of your
project
2. Fit the sound cues into your storyboard, or make up a cue sheet
3. Decide where & when you want to use either digital audio or MIDI data
4. Acquire source material by creating it from scratch or purchasing it. (Be careful of
copyright issues)
5. Edit the sounds to fit your project
6. Test the sound to be sure they are timed properly with the project’s images.

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