Chapter 4

Sound
 Overview
• Introduction to sound.
• Multimedia system sound.
• Digital audio.
• MIDI audio.
• Audio file formats.
 Overview
• MIDI versus digital audio.
• Adding sound to multimedia project.
• Professional sound.
• Production tips.
 Introduction to Sound
• Sound is the best way to attract attention.
• Often audio provides the only effective way
to convey an idea, elicit an emotion, or
dramatize point.
• Sounds also can be combined in a
multimedia presentation to provide
information and enhance the other media
being presented.
 Introduction to Sound
• Why sound important
– To set the mood
– To catch the interest of the audience
– To alert the audience
– To include narration: effective for training
and educational application.
 Introduction to Sound
• Vibrations in the air create waves of pressure that are
perceived as sound.
• Sound waves vary in sound pressure level (amplitude)
and in frequency or pitch.
• Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating
variable with each oscillation within an oscillating
system.
• Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating
event per unit time.
 Introduction to Sound
• ‘Acoustics’ is the branch of physics that studies sound.

• Sound pressure levels (loudness or volume) are

measured in decibels (dB).

 Multimedia System Sound
• System sounds are assigned to various system events such as

startup and warnings, among others.

• Macintosh provides several system sound options such as glass,

indigo, laugh.

• In Windows, available system sounds include start.wav, chimes.wav,

and chord.wav.

• Multimedia sound is either digitally recorded audio or MIDI (Musical

Instrumental Digital Interface) music.

 Digital Audio
• Digital audio data is the actual representation
of sound, stored in the form of samples.
• Samples represent the amplitude (or
loudness) of sound at a discrete point in time.
• Quality of digital recording depends on the
sampling rate, (or frequency) that is, the
number of samples taken per second.
 Digital Audio
• The three sampling frequencies most often used in
multimedia are CD-quality 44.1 kHz, 22.05 kHz and
11.025 kHz.
• The number of bits used to describe the amplitude of
sound wave when sampled, determines the sample
size.
• Digital audio is device independent.
• The value of each sample is rounded off to the
nearest integer (quantization).
 Digital Audio
Crucial aspects of preparing digital audio files are:
– Balancing the need for sound quality against
available RAM and hard disk resource.
– Setting appropriate recording levels to get a
high-quality and clean recording.
 Digital Audio
• Audio resolution determines the accuracy with which
sound can be digitized.
• Size of a monophonic digital recording = sampling
rate x duration of recording in seconds x (bit
resolution/8) x 1.
• Size of stereo recording = sampling rate x duration of
recording in seconds x (bit resolution/8) x 2.
 Monophonic
• Commonly called mono sound, mono or non-
stereo sound, this early sound system used a
single channel of audio for sound output.
• Monophonic sound is the most basic format
of sound output.
• Mono (monophonic, or monaural) is sound
from a single source.
• All speakers in a mono system (like an
intercom) will carry the same signal.
Example of Monophonic
 Stereophonic
• 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 channeled to the left and
others to the right.
• Stereo (stereophonic) is sound from two sources,
ideally spaced apart, and reproduces sound the
way we hear it naturally, with two ears.
Example of Stereophonic
 Digital Audio
• Once a recording had been completed, it almost always

needs to be edited.

• Basic sound editing operations include:

– Trimming- removing the ‘dead air’ or blank space from the front

of a recording and any unnecessary extra time off the end is

your first sound editing task (using mouse cursor and menu

command such as cut, clear, erase or silence)

 Digital Audio
– splicing and assembly- using the same tools
mentioned in trimming, which will probably want
to remove the extraneous noises that inevitably
creep into a recording.
– volume adjustments- select all the data in the
file, and raise or lower the overall volume by
certain amount.
– working on multiple tracks - being able to edit
and combine multiple tracks (for sound effects,
voice-over, music, etc.) and then merge the
tracks and export them in a ‘final mix’ to a single
audio file is important.
 Digital Audio
• Additional available sound editing operations include:

– format conversion- in some case, your digital audio editing

software might read a format different from that read by your

presentation or authoring program.

– resampling or downsampling- if you recorded and edited your

sounds at 16-bit sampling rates but are using lower rates and

resolutions In your project, you must resample or downsample

the file.
 Digital Audio
– fade-ins and fade-outs- to smooth out the very beginning
and the very end of a sound file.
– Equalization – some programs offer digital equalization
(EQ) capabilities that allow you to modify a recording’s
frequency content so that it sounds brighter or darker.
– time stretching- advanced programs let you alter the
length (in time) of a sound file without changing its pitch.
– digital signal processing (DSP) – some programs allow
you to process the signal with reverberation, multitap
delay, chorus, flange, and other special effects using
digital signal processing (DSP) routines.
– reversing sounds- reverse all or a portion of a digital
audio recording (played backward).
 MIDI Audio
• MIDI is a shorthand representation of
music stored in numeric form.
• It is not digitized sound.
• A sequencer software and sound
synthesizer is required in order to
create MIDI scores.
• MIDI is device dependent.
 MIDI Audio
• Since they are small, MIDI files
embedded in web pages load and play
promptly.
• Length of a MIDI file can be changed
without affecting the pitch of the music
or degrading audio quality.
• Working with MIDI requires knowledge
of music theory.
 Audio File Formats
• A sound file’s format is a recognized
methodology for organizing data bits of
digitized sound into a data file.
• On the Macintosh, digitized sounds may
be stored as data files, resources, or
applications such as AIFF or AIFC.
• In Windows, digitized sounds are
usually stored as WAV files.
 Audio File Formats
• CD-ROM/XA (Extended Architecture)
format enabled several recording
sessions to be placed on a single CD-R
(recordable) disc.
• Linear Pulse Code Modulation is used
for Red Book Audio data files on
consumer-grade music CDs.
 MIDI Versus Digital Audio

• MIDI is analogous to structured or vector graphics, while

digitized audio is analogous to bitmapped images.

• MIDI is device dependent while digitized audio is device

independent.

• MIDI files are much smaller than digitized audio.

• MIDI files sound better than digital audio files when played on a

high-quality MIDI device.

 MIDI Versus Digital Audio
• With MIDI, it is difficult to playback
spoken dialog, while digitized audio can
do so with ease.
• MIDI does not have consistent playback
quality while digital audio provides
consistent playback quality.
• One requires knowledge of music theory
in order to run MIDI, while digital audio
does not have this requirement.
 Adding Sound to Multimedia
Project
• File formats compatible with multimedia

authoring software being used along with

delivery mediums, must be determined.

• Sound playback capabilities offered by end

user’s system must be studied.

 Adding Sound to Multimedia
Project
• The type of sound, whether background

music, special sound effects, or spoken

dialog, must be decided.

• Digital audio or MIDI data should be selected

on the basis of the location and time of use.

 Professional Sound
• Red Book (or ISO 10149) standard is a
standard for digitally encoding high-
quality stereo.
• For this standard, the digital audio sample
size is 16 bits and sampling rate is 44.1
KHz.
• The amount of digital sound information
required for high-quality sound takes up a
great deal of disk storage space.
 Professional Sound
• Compression techniques reduce space
but reliability suffers.
• Space can be conserved by
downsampling or reducing the number of
sample slices taken per second.
• File size of digital recording (in bytes) =
sampling rate X duration of recording (in
secs) X (bit resolution/8) X number of
tracks.
 Production Tips
• Recording on inexpensive media rather than

directly to disk prevents the hard disk from being

overloaded with unnecessary data.

• The equipment and standards used for the project

must be in accordance with the requirements.

 Production Tips

• It is vital to maintain a high-quality database

that stores the original sound material.

• Sound and image synchronization must be

tested at regular intervals.

 Production Tips
• The speed at which most animations and
computer-based videos play, depends on the
user’s CPU.
• Sound’s RAM requirements as well as the
users’ playback setup must be evaluated.
• Copyrighted material should not be recorded
or used without securing appropriate rights
from owner or publisher.
 Summary
• Vibrations in air create waves of
pressure that are perceived as sound.
• Multimedia system sound is digitally
recorded audio or MIDI (Musical
Instrumental Digital Interface) music.
• Digital audio data is the actual
representation of a sound, stored in the
form of samples.
 Summary
• MIDI is a shorthand representation of
music stored in numeric form.
• Digital audio provides consistent playback
quality.
• MIDI files are much smaller than digitized
audio.
• MIDI files sound better than digital audio
files when played on high-quality MIDI
device.