Audio

History|Sound Definition|Digital Audio|Codecs|Trends|Softwares

The History of Audio
Recording
Acoustic Era
• Edison’s original Phonograph, 1877.
• Berliner’s Gramophone, 1887.
• One of the early problems with cylinders was
the difficulty of mass production.
• Discs won the format war within twenty years.
Electric Era
• In 1925, the acoustic era came to an end and
the electric era began.
• Instead of horn, a microphone was used to
capture the sound.
• There now had a greater control of sound and
could blend voices and instrumentation
• There were still no editing capabilities.
Tape Era
• Magnetic recorders began in the early 1900s,
beginning first with wire recorders.
• It was not until the mid 1940s that the quality
of tape recorders rivaled or surpassed that of
disc recorders.
• For the first time a musical performance could
be edited.
• The next big advance in tape recording was
multitracking.
• Multitracking also led to many new
innovations.
• Overdubbing
• Bouncing down
• Magnetic tape suffers from one annoying
problem— tape hiss.
Digital Era
• Digital recordings were introduced during the
1980s.
• Many of the special effects that previously
were done with specialized equipment can
now be done with software.
• The digital process expanded some of the
capabilities of tape multitracking.
• Editing has been greatly improved in the
digital era.
Sound …

Is a form of energy produced & transmitted by

vibrating matter
Sounds are produced by vibrating matter.

1. reeds 3. membranes
Package
Package

2. strings 4. air columns

Package
Package

Sound is a mechanical wave (longitudinal).

It will not travel through a vacuum.
 What is sound wave?

A sound wave is a wave of alternating high-

pressure and low-pressure regions of air.
• Figure 1 - Sound Waves
 How sound waves interact ?

 In-Phase waves reinforce each other.

 Out-of-Phase waves cancel each other.
 Two simple waves combine to create a
complex wave.
Sound Recording and Reproduction

It is an electrical or mechanical inscription and

re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken
voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound
effects.
 2 Classes

 Analog Recording
 Digital Recording
Analog recording is one where a characteristic of
a physical recording medium is made to vary
in a manner analogous to the variations in air
pressure of the original sound.
digital recording is produced by converting the
physical properties of the original sound into a
sequence of numbers, which can then be
stored and read back for reproduction.
 Elements of Sound

 Wavelength

The distance between any point on a wave and

the equivalent point on the next phase.
 Amplitude

The strength or power of a wave signal. The

"height" of a wave when viewed as a graph.
 Frequency

The number of occurrences of a repeating event

per unit time.
 Waveform measurements

 Amplitude
Reflects the change in pressure from the peak
of the waveform to the trough.

 Cycle
A single, repeated sequence of pressure
changes.
 Frequency
Number of cycles per second.

 Phase
Position of a waveform in a cycle.
 Wavelength
The distance between two points with the
same degree of phase.
Audio Transmission
How is sound recorded digitally?

Digital recorders
first digitize the
Analog recorders signal by rapidly
Sound is a time record this signal taking samples of
Sound waves can dependent by storing the the voltage
be transduced pressure variation varying voltage on
(converted to in air. A magnetic tape as a
another form) microphone varying
using a translates this to a magnetization in a
microphone. varying voltage on strip of tape
a wire. coated with a
magnetic material.
 Analog and Digital Recording (or Audio),
Transducers
• Analog recording is one where a property or
characteristic of a physical recording medium
is made to vary in a manner analogous to the
variations in air pressure of the original sound.
Its advantages are:
• Absence of aliasing distortion
• Absence of quantization noise
• Behaviour in overload condition
 Analog and Digital Recording (or Audio),
Transducers
• Digital systems have are very uniform source
fidelity, inexpensive media duplication (and
playback) costs, and direct use of the digital
'signal' in today's popular portable storage and
playback devices.
How does audio get
digitized on your
computer?
Audio analogue to digital
converters work by
repeatedly measuring the
amplitude (volume) of an
incoming electrical
pressure soundwave (an
electrical voltage), and
outputting these
measurements as a long
list of binary bytes
 Sample Rate and Bit Depth
• Sample rate - the rate at which the samples
are captured or played back, measured in
Hertz (Hz), or samples per second.

• bit depth - defines the dynamic range of the

sound as it describes the amplitude of the
waveform at each sample point.
 Conversion Process

When sound is digitally RAM-based sound file

Disk-based sound file formats
recorded to a hard disk, a formats are appropriate for
allow you to record music of
use with short sound
file format is assigned by any length and quality. You
samples. On the Macintosh,
the recording software. are only limited by the
System 7 sound and SND
Sound files are either RAM- amount of available storage
resource are common RAM-
based or Disk-based. space on your hard drive.
based file formats.

AIFF (Audio Interchange The WAV format is used

File Format) is one of the by Microsoft Windows
most commonly-used and the AU file format is
disk-based file formats on used by computers
Macintosh, Windows, and running the UNIX
even Unix computers operating system.
 DIGITAL AUDIO CONCEPTS
• Sound Basics

- Sound originates from a disturbance of the air by any object.

Analog Audio
Digital Audio
 2 CATEGORIES OF DIGITAL AUDIO FILE
FORMATS
• Uncompressed Audio File Formats

- vary in size and quality depending on 3 primary settings:

1. Sample Rate
2. Bit Depth
3. Number of channels ... stereo, mono, surround sound or
multi-channel
 Uncompressed Audio File Formats

Examples:

- CD audio
- DV audio
- Flac
- .aif
- .wav
 2 CATEGORIES OF DIGITAL AUDIO FILE
FORMATS
• Compressed Audio File Formats
- the 2 "categories" of audio compression:
1. Lossless. This is a process whereby clever algorithms are
employed to "compact" the data in a file without losing any
information.
2. Lossy. These codec's find ways to throw away information
in the file which it thinks the majority of listeners ears won't
miss.
 Compressed Audio File Formats

• Audio compression is employed for 3 primary reasons:

– to reduce file size so that more audio may be stored on a given media
format (MP3 players, DVD-video discs, MiniDiscs etc)
– to reduce file size so that files will download from a web site faster
– to reduce data rate so that files will stream (broadcast) over a network
such as the internet
 Compressed Audio File Formats

• Vary in size and quality depending on 5 primary setting:

– Sample rate
– Bit depth
– Number of channels - stereo, mono, surround sound or multi-channel
– Choice of audio compression codec
– Audio compression codec settings
 Compressed Audio File Formats
Examples:

- MP3
- Real Audio
- Dolby AC3 (DVD video)
TRENDS IN AUDIO TECHNOLOGY

SAMPLES
DEVICES
PLAYERS
EDITORS
 TRENDS IN AUDIO DEVICES
BEFORE TODAY
• Audio recording requires • Audio Recording devices
voice recorder and save to becomes a module and to be
the small-size cassette tape. found in a chip or as a
• Usage of Walkman on audio software for computers and
mobile phones.
recording.
• Immerging of mp3, and even
• Usage of handy audio-cd mp4 players.
players in audio playback. • Uses Game Consoles and even
cell phones and smartphones
for audio recording and
playback.
 MEDIA PLAYERS (SOFTWARES)
• Windows Media Player
• Rhythmbox
• Winamp
• AIMP2
 FEATURED AUDIO EDITORS
• Audacity
• Linux Multimedia Studio
• Mixxx
Audacity
• Open Source Audio Editing
Software licensed by GPL.
• A multilingual audio editor
and recorder for Windows,
MAC OS/X, Linux and Unix.
• It requires Lame, the add-
ins for Audacity that
exports your work into
mp3, wav and other audio
formats.
Mixxx
Mixxx is free, open
source DJ software that
gives you everything you
need to perform live mixes.
Linux Multimedia
Studio
It is a free software digital
audio workstation and is
available for the Linux and
Microsoft Windows operating
systems in which, music can
be produced by synthesizing
sounds, arranging samples,
and playing on a MIDI
keyboard by combining the
features of trackers,
sequencers and synthesizers.