Audiovisual

 to content or technology that combines both sound and images.

 It includes things like movies, TV shows, presentations, and animations, where viewers can both
hear and see what's happening

Audiovisual Production

 creation of content that combines audio (sound) and visual (sight) elements.

Focus: Primarily focuses on producing video-based content such as films, television shows, commercials,
music videos, documentaries, and animations.

Medium: Content is typically presented in a linear format, where viewers passively consume the audio
and visual elements in sequence.

Examples: Movies, TV shows, commercials, and online videos are examples of audiovisual productions.

Multimedia Production

 integration of various forms of media, including text, graphics, audio, video, and interactive
elements.

Focus: Encompasses a broader range of content types beyond just video, including interactive
presentations, websites, educational software, virtual reality experiences, and video games.

Medium: Content can be non-linear and interactive, allowing users to engage with the multimedia
elements in different ways and explore content at their own pace.

Examples: Interactive websites, educational software, video games, and multimedia art installations are
examples of multimedia productions.

Audio-visual editing i

 art of combining and editing audio and video clips to create a visually engaging and coherent
final product.

TYPES OF EDITING TECHNIQUES

LINEAR EDITING

 traditional editing technique, video footage has been edited from beginning to end in sequential
order.

NON LINEAR EDITING

 to access and edit any segment of video material at any moment, enhancing flexibility and
efficiency.

CUT EDITING
  trimming and deleting parts of the film to make the flow seem natural.

TRANSITION EDITING

 to create natural transitions between scenes, such as dissolves, wipes, and fades, is beneficial.

COLOR EDITING

 Modifying video footages color and tone to improve overall quality

SOUND EDITING

 adjusting volume, adding sound effects and synchronizing audio and visuals

Sound

 result of pressure of compression

 decompression waves travelling through the air.

Two major of Sound

 Frequency
 Loudness

Frequency

 count of how many times per second the air pressure of the sound wave cycles from high
pressure
 used to be known as the number of “cycles per second”

1 hertz (abbreviation Hz)

 one cycle per second.

Heinrich Hertz

 who fundamental research into the wave theory in the nineteenth century.

The lowest frequency

 can handle is about 20 Hz.

16-Hz

 added to other notes to give them depth.

Low frequencies

 the hardest to reproduce

Loudspeakers

 tough time reproducing much below 80 Hz.

The ear

 can handle frequencies of up to 20 000 Hz (- 20 kHz (kilohertz)-)

The standard specification for high-fidelity audio equipment is that it should handle frequencies
between 20 Hz and 20 kHz equally well.

Stereo FM broadcasting

 restricted to 15 kHz, as is the NICAM system used for television stereo in the UK

The standard tuning frequency “middle A” is 440 Hz,

The “A” one octave below that is 220 Hz, and an octave above is 880 Hz.

Octave is achieved by doubling or halving the frequency.

Instruments also produce “harmonics”.

 multiples of the original “fundamental” note.

The power ratio between the quietest sound that we can just detect in a quiet, sound-insulated room
and the loudest sound that causes us pain is 1 : 1 000 000 000 000 “1” followed by twelve noughts is one
million.

To be able to handle such large numbers a logarithmic system is used the unit, called a bel, can be
thought of as a measure of the number of noughts after the “1”.

The ratio shown above could also be described as 12 bels. Similarly, a ratio of 1 : 1000 is 3 bels, and a
ration of 1 : 1 – no change – is 0 bels.

Decreases

 are described as negative, so a ratio of 1000 : 1 – a reduction in power of 1/1000th – is minus 3

bels.
 the bel is too large a unit to be convenient
 the unit used every day is one-tenth of a bel

The metric system term for one-tenth is “deci”, so that unit is called the “decibel”.

Alexander Graham Bell

 the inventor of the telephone and founder of Bell Telephones,

 abbreviation is “dB” – little “d” for “deci” and big “B” for “bel”

 3 dB represents a doubling of power; 6 dB represents a doubling of voltage

 10 dB increases sounds to twice as loud; 10- dB decreases sounds to be half as loud. ( Power equals
Voltage x Current; double the voltage and you also double the current.)

Analogue and Digital Audio

Analogue audio signals

 consist of the variation of sound pressure level with time being mimicked by the analogous
change in strength of an electrical voltage
 a magnetic field, the deviation of a groove, etc.

Broadcaster with a “live” circuit

 can be little or no warning of a deteriorating signal.

 the quality remains audibly fine until there are a couple of splats, or mutes, then silence.

Analogue has the advantage that you can hear a problem developing and make arrangements for a
replacement before it becomes unusable.

Wow and flutter

 eliminated from digital recording systems

 along with analogue artifacts such as frequency response and level changes.

If the audio is copied as digital data, then it is a simple matter of copying numbers and the recording may
be “cloned” many times without any degradation.

This applies to pure digital encoding, however, many modern systems, such as Minidisc and Digital Radio
and Television, use a “lossy” form of encoding.

Audio CD and DAT

 lossy to some extent, as they tolerate and conceal digital errors.

Pulse and digital systems

 considered to have started in Victorian times. Perhaps the best-known pulse system is the Morse
code. Like much digital audio, this code uses short and long pulses.

Morse

 combined with short, medium, and long spaces between pulses to convey the information.

The numbers that convey the instantaneous value of a digital audio signal are conveyed by groups of
pulses (bits) formed into a digital “word”.

The number of these pulses in the word sets the number of discrete levels that can be coded.

The compact disc uses 16-bit words giving 65 536 states. NICAM stereo, as used by television, uses just
10 bits, but technical trickery gives a performance similar to 14-bit.

Audio files used on the Internet are often only 8-bit in resolution, while systems used for telephone
answering etc. may only be 4-bit systems or less

1-bit = 2 7-bit = 128 13-bit = 9192 19-bit = 524 287

2-bit = 4 8-bit = 256 14-bit = 16 384 20-bit = 1 048 575

3-bit = 8 9-bit = 512 15-bit = 32 768 21-bit = 2 097 151

4-bit = 16 10-bit = 1024 16-bit = 65 536 22-bit = 4 194 303

5-bit = 32 11-bit = 2048 17-bit = 131 071 23-bit = 8 388 607

6 bit = 64 12-bit = 4096 18-bit = 262 143 24-bit = 16 777 21

Sampling Rate

 one number can describe the positive transition and the other the negative transition of a
single cycle of audio called

The Nyquist limit after Harry Nyquist of Bell Telephone Laboratories

 who developed the theory.

 For practical purposes, a 10 per cent margin should be allowed.
 the sampling rate figure should be 2.2 times the highest frequency

20 kHz

 regarded as the highest frequency that most people can hear, this led to the CD being given a
sampling rate of 44100 samples a second (44.1 kHz).

The odd 100 samples per second is a technical kludge.

 Originally digital signals could only be recorded on videotape machines

 44.1 kHz will fit into either American or European television formats.
 These “beat” with the sampling frequency and produce spurious frequencies that not only
represent distortion
 These extra frequencies are called alias frequencies, and the filters are called anti-aliasing
filters.
 sometimes see references to “over-sampling”; this technique emulates a faster sampling rate
(4x, 8x, etc), and simplifies the design of the filters.

Errors

 A practical digital audio system has to cope with the introduction of errors, owing to noise and
mechanical imperfections, of recording and transmission.
 can cause distortion, clicks, bangs and dropouts when the wrong number is received.
Digital systems incorporate extra “redundant” bits.

Redundancy
  provide extra information to allow the system to detect, conceal or even correct the errors.

Decoding software

 able to apply arithmetic to the data, in real time, so it is possible to use coding systems that can
actually detect errors

CDR burnt

 computer CDROM storing wave file data has a lower capacity than the same CDR using the same
files as CD- audio

CD-ROMs

 to use a more robust error correction system, as NO errors can be allowed.

 standard CDR can record 720 Mbytes of CD audio (74 minutes) but only 650 Mbytes of computer
data. Having detected an error,

CD player may be able to:

1. Correct the error (using the extra “redundant” information in the signal)

2. Conceal the error, which is usually done either by sending the last correctly received sample
(replacement) or by interpolation, where an intermediate value is calculated.

3. Mute the error- a mute is usually preferable to a click.

Multi-generation copies

 made through the analogue sockets of your sound card will lose quality.
 Copies made digitally to DAT will be better, but still accumulate errors.
 a computer backup as data to DAT (4mm) should be error-free (as should any other form of
computer backup medium.
 first thing to realize is that each datum bit can only be “0” or “1”.
 if you can identify that a particular bit is wrong, you know the correct value – if “0” is wrong then
“1” is right, and if “1” is wrong then “0” is right.

The major weapon is a concept called parity.

 simplest this consists of adding an extra bit to each data word, and this bit signals whether
the number of “1”s in the binary data is odd or even.

The parity bit

 set so that the number of “1”s is an even number (zero is an even number)

odd parity the extra bit is set to make the number of “1”s always odd.

Quite complicated parity schemes

  can be arranged to allow identification of which bit is in error, and for correction to be
applied automatically.
 parity bit itself can be affected by noise.

Parity

 assessed both “vertically” and “horizontally”.

Hamming code

 data are sent in the normal way, with the data and parity bits intermingled
 2 associated parity bits would

Dither

 granular nature of digital audio can become very obvious on low-level sounds
 the die-away of reverberation or piano notes.
 almost magical ability to enable a digital signal to carry sounds that are quieter than the
equivalent of just 1 bit. D.

Granularity

 can be removed by adding random noise, similar to hiss, to the signal.

 level of the noise is set to correspond to the “bottom bit” of the digital word.

Trequency distribution of the hiss

 tailored to optimize the result, giving noise levels much lower than would be otherwise
expected. This is called “noise-shaping”.

Time Code

 resolved down to fractions of second by counting the data blocks.

 conventionally called frames, and there are 75 every second.

CDs

 originally mastered from three-quarter inch U-matic videotapes where the data where
configured to look like an American television picture running at 30 video frames per second
(fps).

1967

 the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) created a standard defining the
nature of the recorded signal and the format of the data recorded.
 use with videotape editing.

Data

 separated into 80-bit blocks, each corresponding to a single video frame.

 The way that the data are recorded (Biphase modulation)

 allow them also to be read from analogue machines when the machines are spooling at medium
speed, with the tape against the head, in either direction.

Three common video frame standards

 25 fps (European TV)

 30 fps (American)
 for technical reasons, a more complicated format known as 30 fps drop frame, which
corresponds to an average to 29.97 fps.

Analogue machines the highest numbered track is used; track 4 on a 4-track; track 16 on a 16-track,
etc.

 It is a nasty screeching noise best kept as far away from other audio as possible

Time code

 Also sent to a sequencer (via a converter) as MIDI data, allowing the sequencer to track the
audio tape.

The simple relationship between bars, tempo and SMPTE time as shown by sequencers like Cubase is
only valid for 120 beats per minute 4/4 time.

MIDI time code generators

 to be programmed with the music tempo and time signature used by the sequencer, so they
can operate (in a gearbox fashion) so that the sequencer runs at the proper tempo.

People editing audio for compact disc will often

 prefer to set the time display to 75 tips to match the CD data.

 a small technical advantage to ensuring that an audio file intended for CD ends exactly at the
frame boundary, as there are occasions when not doing so will cause a click.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATIONS (DAW)

  electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio
files.
 wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an
integrated stand-alone unit, all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous
components controlled by a central computer.
 central interface that allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into
a final produced piece.
 used for producing and recording audio, music, songs, speech, radio, television,
soundtracks, podcasts, sound effects and nearly any other situation where complex
recorded audio is needed.

COURSE MATERIALS Early attempts at digital audio workstations in the 1970s and 1980s
 faced limitations such as the high price of storage, and the vastly slower processing and
disk speeds of the time.
1978, Soundstream
 who had made one of the first commercially available digital audio tape recorders in
1977, built what could be considered the first digital audio workstation using some of
the most current computer hardware of the time.
Digital Editing System,
 called Soundstream
 consisted of a DEC PDP-11/60 minicomputer running a custom software package called
DAP (Digital Audio Processor)

Braegen 14"-platter hard disk drive


a storage oscilloscope to display audio waveforms for editing, and a video display
terminal for controlling the system.
 Interface cards that plugged into the PDP-11's Unibus slots (the Digital Audio Interface,
or DAI) provided analog and digital audio input and output for interfacing to
Soundstream's digital recorders and conventional analog tape recorders.
The DAP software
 to the audio recorded on the system's hard disks
 produce simple effects such as crossfades.

The late 1980s, a number of consumer-level computers such as

 MSX (Yamaha CX5M)
 Apple Macintosh,
 Atari ST
 Commodore Amiga
 to have enough power to handle digital audio editing.
Engineers used Macromedia's Soundedit, with Microdeal's Replay Professional and Digidesign's
"Sound Tools" and "Sound Designer"
 to edit audio samples for sampling keyboards like the E-mu Emulator II and the Akai
S900.
People began to use them for simple two-track audio editing and audio mastering
Sonic Solutions
 1989, released the first professional (48 kHz at 24 bit) disk-based nonlinear audio editing
system. The Macintosh IIfx-based Sonic System, based on research
done earlier at George Lucas’ Sprocket Systems, featured complete CD premastering, with
integrated control of Sony's industry-standard U-matic tape-based digital audio editor.

1994
 a company in California named OSC produced a 4-track editing-recorder application
called DECK that ran on Digidesign's hardware system, which was used in the production
of The Residents' "Freakshow"
 Many major recording studios finally "went digital" after Digidesign introduced its Pro
Tools software in 1991, modeled after the traditional method and signal flow in most
analog recording devices.
Most DAWs were Apple Mac based (e.g., Pro Tools, Studer Dyaxis, Sonic Solutions).

1992
 the first Windows-based DAWs started to emerge from companies such as Innovative
Quality Software (IQS) (now SAWStudio), Soundscape Digital Technology, SADiE, Echo
Digital Audio, and Spectral Synthesis.
 All the systems at this point used dedicated hardware for their audio processing. In
1993, the German company Steinberg released Cubase Audio on Atari Falcon 030.
 This version brought DSP built-in effects with 8-track audio recording & playback using
only native hardware.
 The first Windows-based software-only product, introduced in 1993, was Samplitude
(which already existed in 1992 as an audio editor for the Commodore Amiga).

1996

 Steinberg introduced a revamped Cubase (which was originally launched in 1989 as

a MIDI sequencing software for the Atari ST computer
 later developed for Mac and Windows PC platforms, but had no audio capabilities
until 1993's Cubase Audio) which could record and play back up to 32 tracks of
digital audio on an Apple Macintosh without the need of any external DSP hardware.
Cubase not only modeled a tape-like interface for recording and editing
 in addition, using VST also developed by Steinberg, modeled the entire mixing desk
and effects rack common in analog studios.
 This revolutionized the DAW world, both in features and price tag, and was quickly
imitated by most other contemporary DAW systems.
 Waveform display

 another common feature.

 Single-track DAWs display only one (mono or stereo form) track at a time. [a]
Multitrack DAWs support operations on multiple tracks at once.
 Like a mixing console, each track typically has controls that allow the user to
adjust the gain, equalization and stereo panning of the sound on each track.
 In a traditional recording studio additional rackmount processing gear is
physically plugged into the audio signal path to add reverb, compression, etc.

DAW

 also route in software or use audio plug-ins (for example, a VST plugin) to
process the sound on a track.
 most significant feature available from a DAW that is not available in analog
recording is the ability to undo a previous action, using a command similar
to that of the undo function in word processing software.
 Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo are familiar and common computer commands
and they are usually available in DAWs in some form.
 More common functions include the modifications of several factors
concerning a sound. These include wave shape, pitch, tempo, and filtering
Automation data
 also be directly derived from human gestures recorded by a control surface or MIDI
controller.
 MIDI recording, editing, and playback is increasingly incorporated into modern DAWs of
all types, as is synchronization with other audio or video tools. Best Free DAWs (Digital
Audio Workstation)

A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) i

 essential for any Home Studio, but they tend to be quite pricy.
 can actually performs as good as the premium without costing any amount of money,
and all of the free audio making software on this list
 some way or another fits this description.
1. GARAGEBAND Tracks Record:
Unlimited Tracks Playback
Unlimited Recording Length:
998 measures Included Effects/Inst:
100+ Cross Platform: YES
Collaboration Feature:
No OS: Mac Pros:
 Most intuitive DAW out there
 Cross platform (Can be used on a MAC or any other iOS device) Cons:
 Only got Apple devices Garageband is an amazing DAW that comes free with any iOS
device, if you own a Mac or an iPhone you will have access to it.
 It is, essentially, a stripped-down version of Logic Pro X but completely free.

Garageband

 great place to start if you want to learn about multitrack recording, using MIDI and
essentially mixing, before spending a lot of money on expensive software.
2. PRO TOOLS FIRST (Windows, Mac) Tracks Record:

4 Tracks Playback:

 16 Recording Length:
 Unlimited Included Effects/Inst:
 23 Cross Platform:
 No Collaboration Feature:
 No OS: Mac / Windows Pro:

 Free version of the most popular DAW in existence Cons:

 Loads of limitations (4 simultaneous tracks can only be recorded at once, etc.)

Pro Tools First

 includes the Xpand!2 virtual instruments and UVI Workstation 3 sample player which
give you access to a variety of sounds, from beats and loops to power chords and more
 16 tracks can be played back at the same time, this doesn’t sound like a lot but
remember that it’s the free version and you can always update.
 Pro tools First also comes with 23 effects and utility plugins, which are great for basic
mixing procedures.
3. CAKEWALK BY BANDLAB
Tracks Record:
 Unlimited Tracks Playback:
 Unlimited Recording Length:
 Unlimited Included Effects/Inst:
 33 Cross Platform:
 No Collaboration Feature:
 No OS: Windows Pro:
 Best Free DAW
 Fully Featured;
No restrictions and no need to purchase anything in order to get full functionality. Cons:
 The interface is a bit too cluttered.
Cakewalk
 to be the best free DAW out there, the one issue is that it’s only for Windows users
(Windows 7 or higher and only 64-bit), but you are getting this DAW for absolutely free.
 It’s basically a rebranded version of SONAR Platinum with all its professional features
included.
  The big difference with this DAW and the other ones on this list is that it offers an
unlimited amount of audio, MIDI, Instrument, Loop and Aux Tracks in every project.
 Once you downloaded Cakewalk, you will need to register (you can do this through
Facebook or Google, it only takes one second).
 Then you need to go to the “App” section and install Cakewalk. Cakewalk is the perfect
free DAW for any new home studio owner that doesn’t want to blow all of his hard-
earned cash on software yet.
4. WAVEFORM
Tracks Record:
 Unlimited Tracks Playback:
 Unlimited Recording Length:
 Unlimited Included Effects/Inst: 11 Cross Platform:
 No Collaboration Feature:
 No OS:
Windows, Mac, Linux Pro:
 Full DAW: No restrictions and fully featured.
No need to purchase anything.
 Loads of included features.
 Lots of colors. Cons:
 Different Workflow at first.

Waveform, formerly known as

Tracktion

 completely free, fully featured and unlimited DAW, and it looks absolutely gorgeous.
 means IS no “Lite” version, there are no track limitations, no plugin limitations, or any
other constraint of sorts like on Pro Tools First or Cubase LE.
 all you need to do is click on the little “eye” icon on the top right of the screen, and then
on the button that looks like a mixer/faders.
 upgrade to Waveform Pro, and you can even try it for free for 90 days, but what’s
interesting about it is that is the only DAW that comes with Antares Autotune and
Celemony Melodyne already built it.
5. PRESONUS STUDIO ONE PRIME Tracks Record:
 Unlimited Tracks Playback:
 Unlimited Recording Length:
 Unlimited Included Effects/Inst:
 20+ Cross Platform:
 No Collaboration Feature:
 No OS: Windows,

Mac Studio One Prime

  beginner friendly DAW.
 user interface is extremely intuitive and easy to use and it offers a hassle-free workflow.

Studio One Prime

 recommended to people with no prior experience who just want to learn the basics of
mixing music.
 The biggest drawback it has is that it can’t load VST or AU plugins.
 need to upgrade to Studio One Artist.
 to use VST/AU plugins in Studio One Artist,
 you will need to purchase a separately paid add-on for these VST/AU plugins to work.
comes with nine Native effect Plugins like delay, distortion, etc.,
6. BOSCA CEOIL Tracks Record:
 16 Tracks Playback:
 16 Recording Length:
 100 bars Included Effects/Inst:
 100+ Cross Platform:
 No Collaboration Feature:
 No OS: Browser, Windows, Mac,
 Linux The interesting thing about Bosca Ceoil is that it’s not just a downloadable
DAW,
Bosca Ceoil
 great free DAW which you should definitely check out, especially the browser
version since its super quick to get it going.
Thanks to its simplicity, everyone can enjoy it from beginners who just want to learn to seasoned
producers who just want to have some fun with it. The one issue is that you won’t be able to use
any third-party plugins, however, you won’t even need them because of how simple it is.
Pros:
 Good for retro music.
 Super easy to use/ beginner friendly.
 You can download it or use the browser version. (It uses Flash) Cons:
 A bit limited in my opinion
7. AUDACITY Tracks Record:
16 Tracks Playback:
Unlimited Recording Length:
13.5 hours Included Effects/Inst:
21 Cross Platform:
No Collaboration Feature:
No OS:
Windows, Mac,
Linux Pros:
 Simple and easy to use.
 Good for beginner home recording musicians, and podcasters.
Cons:
 Not too many features
  It’s only good for basic recording and mixing.

Audacity

 great free piece of recording/ editing software that can work as a DAW.
 It allows you to do almost anything that a regular DAW would.
 It’s an open-source program that is compatible with Windows, OS X and Linux operating
systems, which will ensure access to everyone.
 It comes with quite the number of included effects which are useful for getting the sound you
desire, from setting the levels right to changing the sound of your voice even.

8. ZENBEATS BY ROLAND

Tracks Record:
 Unlimited Tracks Playback:
 Unlimited Recording Length:
 Unlimited Included Effects/Inst:
 23 Cross Platform: Yes
 Collaboration Feature:
 OS: Windows,
Mac Pros:
 Simple and easy to use.
 Excellent for electronic music production
 Available for every device Cons:
 Not too many features
 Not so good for regular music production

Zenbeats

 can be used on any PC or MAC , as well as iPads, iPhones and any Android device.
 mostly geared towards electronic music production;
 also capable of recording audio regularly and you can also process it in many ways.

Audio Track

 also select loops from a pretty big list and add them to it.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

PC Audio editing on a PC

 a practical proposition for professional use once the equivalent of (or better than) a Pentium
II running at more than 200 MHz was reached.
 Consider getting a ‘full tower’ case as this will conveniently sit on the floor, releasing space
on your desk.
 Floor-standing towers

 be strapped down more easily if theft is likely to be an issue.

 A reasonably full quota might be a CD-ROM drive, a CD-RW drive, a DVD drive, a removable
hard disk system, two IDE drives to separate programs and system from data,
 perhaps two SCSI drives dedicated to audio use.

SOUND CARD

 be capable of at least 16-bit audio at sampling rates of 44.1 kHz (CD standard) and 48 kHz
(DAT standard).
 Lower rates will be useful if you need to audition files intended for the Internet, as well as
for reproducing noises made by other programs and by Windows operations.
 Higher sampling rates (88.2 kHz and 96 kHz have become fashionable, and double the
length of audio files.
 If you have access to high quality analogue sources such as 15/30 ips Dolby SR recordings or
high quality microphones in quiet studios, then a higher bit rate is extremely desirable,
even if your finished recording is going to be 16-bit.
 Quite likely a few levels will have been increased during post-production, and this means
that you can end up delivering the equivalent of a 12-bit recording! (See section 5.4,
Analogue.)

Multitrack cards

 the option of handling professional levels, which are 14 dB higher than domestic levels.
They may also be able to handle ‘balanced’ feeds as well as the domestic-style unbalanced
type

Optical connectors

 use modulated red light rather than electricity to transfer the data.
 light is visible to the naked eye when a connector is carrying an output.
 two physically different optical standards; one is called TOSLINK
 the same shape and size as minijack audio connectors.

Socket

 usually dual function and can be used for electrical analogue audio or for optical digital

Sound cards

 traditionally slotted into the back of the computer, after removing the cover.

Universal Serial Bus or Firewire

 input of the computer can be used instead, and these have the advantage that they can be
plugged and unplugged without switching off the computer
  some versions of Windows 95 claim to be able to use USB,
 need Windows 98 or later for success.

Simple one-mic use for voice-overs or story readings

 plenty of devices that provide a clean amplifier for a microphone – including phantom power if
required.
 Some sound cards with breakout boxes have high quality mic inputs – usually about four will be
supplied with a software mixer, provided if you don’t want to use Cool Edit directly.

LOUDSPEAKERS/ HEADPHONES

Ordinary PC ‘games’ loudspeakers are not adequate to assess sound quality.

active’ means that the speakers have their amplifiers built in for driving directly from the sound card
output

. If you have the space, this can be a proper hi-fi system with the computer’s sound card feeding a line
level ‘aux’ input.

The popularity of Walkman-style cassette and Minidisc players with radios, it is no longer possible to
assume that all your audience is listening on loudspeakers.

HARD DISKS

 a second separate hard drive for your audio data – or even better, for the fastest operation, yet
another separate disk for handling the audio editor’s temporary files.
 This reduces head clacking where the hard disk head is flipping between the source file and the
destination file during copying.

Traditionally the advice was that these drives should be of audiovisual (AV) quality, especially if you
intended to ‘burn’ compact discs.

Early, non-AV quality disks recalibrated themselves at inconvenient times, to compensate for
temperature changes, interrupting a continuous flow of audio (or video

Modern IDE/EIDE drives

 entirely adequate for audio purposes, although many people still think that the SCSI system is
well worth the extra cost for AV work.

SCSI

 the advantage of being able to handle up 15 devices (which can include scanners as well as hard

Cartridges of 1 Gbyte or greater

 can hold enough audio to make a CD – including spare material and auxiliary files.
 These are more expensive than the commonly available 100- and 250-Mbyte cartridges
 the lower capacity media are able to take 10 or 25 minutes of CD quality stereo audio, which is
entirely adequate for short items.
The cheapest of these require you to turn off the computer to change caddies, but systems are available
that allow ‘hot’ swapping and will update the Windows drive list on-the-fly.

The caddies

 more expensive than they ought to be , as most people need more drive carriers than slots to
put them in, but it is difficult to buy the two halves of the system separately.

UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS (USB)

 become very common, and there is a great deal of equipment that can use it.

Theoretically

 over a hundred separate devices could be hung on to a single USB port, daisy-chained one after
the other. In practice, rather less than this can be used.

CD burner

 probably be limited to ´8 speed, whereas SCSI and IDE connections can be triple that. USB
scanners are slower than SCSI ones

USB2 connections

 faster but are still limited. If you are going to use USB devices
 USB hub, own individual sockets rather than having to be daisy-chained.

Hubs

 separate boxes or, these days, many monitors have hubs built in.

USB keyboards

 have chaining sockets to take a USB mouse plus, say, a Zip drive.

FIREWIRE Firewire

 alternative to USB. It is much faster, but at the time of writing there are less products on the
market for it.

PCI cards

 to add ports to existing computers.

Audio Editors

 the key to the whole operation.

 These range from full-scale Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), often using proprietary
hardware, to very simple ‘freebies’ with the minimum of facilities.

Cool Edit Pro

  combined linear/non-linear editor potentially able to handle 128 audio tracks, and a good all-
round general workhorse. Its methods are easily transferred to other editors.
 It also has a sister program
 Cool Edit 2000, which has a subset of the Pro version’s facilities.

LINEAR EDITORS

 Editors fall into two methods of working: linear and non-linear.

Linear editors

 handle one stereo, or mono, audio track at a time.

Copying a 40-minute stereo file can take several minutes.

NON-LINEAR EDITORS

 do not change the audio files being edited in any way, but instead create ‘Edit Decision Lists’
(EDLs)
 handle more than one audio file at a time and play from different sections of a single audio file
simultaneously.

Edit Decision Lists’ EDLs

 allow the playback to skip from instant to instant within and between tracks.

Program trail

 one edit decision list, and the broadcast programs another

MULTITRACK

 to handle complex EDLs yourself, as the non-linear editor presents itself, on screen

The Non-Linear Editor Shares,with Multitrack Tape

 the ability separately to record individual tracks in synchronization with existing ones.

Track ‘Bouncing’ (copying from one track to another)

 virtually instantaneous.

Multitrack audio editors.

provides screen shots (at 800 ´ 600) of the same four audio files loaded into Cool Edit Pro on a PC,
and Cubase and ProTools on Macintosh machines.

Cubase and ProTools

 separate windows.
 transport control is on a floating window, unlike the fixed control on Cool Edit.
 moving from one to another is rather like driving different makes of cars

AUDIO PROCESSING

 standard tricks of an audio editor are cut and paste, as in a word processor,
 plus the ability to crossfade between two pieces of audio.

Many editor programs have the facility for their user to buy ‘plugins’ that will add specialist (or
enhanced quality) effects.

Some of the most sophisticated of these can cost more than the editor they plug in to.

The Most Important Processing Options are:

 Normalization.

 standardizes the sound level of each item

 although not necessarily the loudness.

 Reverberation.

 sometimes known as ‘artificial echo’, this will add a room (or hall) acoustic to your recording.
 most often used with music recording.

Compression

 reduces the range of volume between the quietest and loudest sound. Used with care, it
can enhance your recording. Used carelessly, it can make your item offensively difficult to
hear. The overall effect is to make your material louder while remaining within the
constraints of the maximum digital level available. It has the disadvantage of bringing up
background noise and making voices breathy.

 Noise reduction

 not be confused with the noise reduction used on analogue tape systems like dbx, Dolby A,
B, C, S or SR.
 These are ‘companding’ systems, where programme material is compressed for recording
but expanded back to its original dynamic range on playback.

Dolby A and Dolby SR

 used in professional studios

Dolby B, C and S

 domestic systems

 Declicking

 Old 78 rpm recordings and vinyl LPs are plagued by clicks as well as noise, and will
benefit from electronic declicking
  Filters.

 useful for filtering out constant sounds as well as sound at the extreme ends of the
frequency range.

Cutting the bass

 remove rumbles coming through the wall, or from underground trains.

Mains hum

 a problem, and special ‘notch’ filters are available to remove the worst of this.

Different settings of mains systems.are

 American (60 Hz)

 European (50 Hz)

 Equalization.

 sophisticated form of ‘tone’ control usually referred to as ‘EQ’.

Domestic Tone Controls Normally


only affect the top and bottom frequencies; equalizers can also do useful things to the
middle frequencies.
 MASTERING Mastering
 process of creating a recording that is usable away from the PC.

 CD RECORDING SOFTWARE
 logical medium for distributing your item.

Commercial CDs

 pressed, not recorded individually, and for a long time this route was not practical.

The advent of the recordable CD (CDR) has therefore been a boon to all creators of audio material.
However, it is still constrained by a number of factors:

1. Some early ordinary audio CD players may not recognize a CDR. relatively unusual, and is unlikely
to be a problem in a professional environment.

2. There are many different types of CD: CD-ROM, multi-session CD, etc. Domestic CD audio players
(and many professional ones as well) only recognize one CD format – the original audio format.

3. There are also stand-alone CD recorders that take an audio or digital audio signal and record discs
in real time. Many of these will only use so-called ‘copyright paid’ consumer blanks, which cost up to
six or eight times as much as computer data blanks.
 4. You can also buy ‘rewritable’ CDs that can be erased when the data they contain is finished with.
They can be recorded as standard audio CDs, but while most computer CD-ROM drives and DVD
players can play them, very many audio CD players cannot.

5. Most CD writers come bundled with basic software.

These are Track At Once (TAO) and Disc At Once (DAO).

Track At Once

 literally this: each CD track is burnt as a separate action by the software, with the laser
being turned off between tracks.
 This usually imposes 2-second pauses between tracks.

Disc At Once

burns the entire disc in one go without switching off the laser. With simpler software
this provides no gaps at all between tracks.
 DVD Digital Versatile Disc
 audio format as its more common video usage.

The standard also makes provision for more sophisticated audio formats, notably ‘5.1’ channel surround
sound.

Audio CDs

 restricted to two-channel stereo.

Playback machines

 rapidly becoming as widespread as CD players.

MIDI many Digital Audio Editors

 set up to handle MIDI. If you are just using audio, then these facilities can be ignored.

MIDI

 only useful if you are planning to include synthesized music sessions within your
programme, or you are synchronizing the audio to other events,
 used to synchronize different PC programs.
 used for external control of the audio output.

 CONTROL SURFACE
 lots of graphical displays of knobs and sliders for the user to operate.
 With a mouse, you only have one ‘finger’ to operate the controls.
 RECORDING
eight-track ADAT tape
 line only if you have an ADAT machine and your computer is set up to record its tracks
 either by analogue or using the optical ADAT eight-track digital interface.
 specified the sampling rate you require.

44.1 kHz
 for compact disc-related work, or maybe

48 kHz

 for material destined to be broadcast

INTERVIEWING PEOPLE
Preparation Editing starts here,
 not to waste your own or other people’s time and resources:

1. What is the purpose of the interview? Are you interviewing the right person? (Do they have
the information you want? Do they have a reasonable speaking voice?) Remember that the
boss’s deputy or assistant often has a better finger on the pulse of day-to-day problems, so it can
be useful to interview both, if you can.
2. Prepare your subject area for questions, rather than a long list of specific questions.
3. Choose a suitable and convenient location.

Types of Interviews
● Hard interviews
 to expose reasoning and to let listeners make up their own minds

Hard interviews

 commonly used with politicians or those in the public eye.

● Informational interviews
 getting as much information as possible, so these are likely to be a more friendly,
conversational style of interview
● Personality interviews
 intended to reveal the personality of the interviewee.
● Emotional interviews
 the most difficult type of interview, requiring the greatest tact and diplomacy from the
interviewer.

Microphone
 20–30 cm from each of you; if you have to compromise, favour the interviewee.
 make a short test recording ‘for level’.
Nominal task
 set the recording level so that it does not distort or is so low in level as to cause noise
problems when amplified for use

Traditionally, interviewers

 were supposed to ask what their interviewee had for breakfast.

 These days it is likely to produce either a monosyllabic ‘nothing’,
 or a long and involved account of some special muesli.

Faulty fluorescent tubes

 can cause interference, as can radio and computer equipment. Beware especially of
mobile ‘phones.
Audio equipment
 very prone to interference from the mobile’s acoustically silent ‘handshake’ signals with

BBC Radio Four’s first The World at One presenter

William Hardcastle

 maintained that he added to this list the non-alliterative ‘Is it on the increase
 pre-recording an interview, record the background atmosphere for 15–30 seconds
before and after the interview to use when editing.
 leaving a 2- second gap between ‘Right, we’re recording’ and the first question will give
you the cleanest pause.
(A comprehensive guide to interviewing is contained in Robert McLeish’s Radio Production –
A Manual for Broadcasters, 4th edition, published by Focal Press, 1999.) Documentary
Documentary material will also use ‘actuality’.
FX disc of a Rolls Royce
 driving off would be fine as an illustration of a car driven by rich people, but not ethical if
cued as ‘Joe Smith driving off in his Rolls Royce after my interview’.

Oral history interviews

 interviewing someone, usually an elderly person, about memories of decades before.

Charles Parker who, with the Radio Ballads

 pioneered British documentary radio. He suggested actually sitting or kneeling at the

interviewee’s feet
 effect of lowering your perceived status and emphasizes that the interviewee’s
memories and views are important

Acoustically

 the microphone naturally falls about 45 cm from both you and the interviewee, with both
bodies providing sound absorption.
 In some ways, an ideal medium is a four-track recording.
 Two tracks can be fed from a stereo microphone to record atmosphere, and the other
two by two mono microphones, one for the presenter – possibly a personal ‘tie-clip’ mic
– and the other (handheld) for whoever else is talking from moment to moment.
 An alternative might be two small portables – Minidisc or DAT – one recording
atmosphere and the other recording dialogue.
 The major disadvantage of such an arrangement is that the technology is in danger of
taking over. The person holding the mics and carrying the recorders may be employed for
his or her knowledge of the subject, rather than technical skill.

Recorders The original portable acquisition format

 direct-cut Edison cylinders.

Later, 78- rpm lacquer discs were

 used by reporters during the Second World War.

The perfection of tape recording by the Germans during that war

 the 1940s and 1950s saw the rapid appearance of more and more useful portable
tape recorders.
 Tape (like disc) had the advantage that the recording medium was the same as the
editing medium the same as the final user or transmission medium.

Removable digital media have the potential to be the same.

 either removable or can download their recordings via a USB or Firewire port, and
download times of 40 times real time are achievable.

removable media such

 hard disk that plugs in to a PCM-1A socket with a suitable port being provided on the
base computer. Small recorders using Minidisc or DAT are very attractive.

Ordinary domestic recorders

 produce superb quality at prices a fraction those of professional gear.

 readily available are recorders using memory cards.

Minidisc

 usually use ‘lossy’ data compression techniques.

XLR sockets and also a high-capacity battery

 longer recording times.

 the incidental (but not inconsequential) effect of making the reporter look more
‘professional’.
  make the difference between being granted an interview, or rejection.

Versions of both DAT and Minidisc recorders XLR sockets, and are generally more robust than
their domestic brethren.

Acoustics and Microphones

ACOUSTICS

 making a recording, realize that the microphone will pick up sounds other than the
ones you really want.

So what does a microphone hear?

1. The voice or instrument in front of it

2. Reflections from the wall

3. Noise from outside the room

4. Other sounds in the room, including voices and instruments

5. General noises, if outdoors, Separation Much of the skill in getting a decent recording is to
arrange good separation between the wanted and the unwanted sounds.

The classic ways of improving this are:

 Multi-mics

 Booths/separate studios

 Multitrack recording

 Working with the microphone closer

 Using directional microphones Multi-mics

The resulting acoustic quality will be excellent but unfortunately the discussion is likely to be
boring and stilted. This is because once you go beyond a critical distance of about 120 cm,
people stop having conversations and start to make statements.

Using directional microphones Microphones

not particularly directional and are likely to have angles of pickup of 30–45° away from the
front.

High directivity mics

 will give poor results with an undisciplined performer who moves about a lot. The
main value of directional microphones is not the angles at which they are sensitive,

Orchestral music Classical and orchestral music

  tends to be performed in a room or hall with a decent acoustic with a relatively small
number of microphones – typically a main stereo mic plus some supplementary mics

Lighter Diaphragms

 respond quickly to the attack transients at the start of sounds, better frequency
responses, and lower noise figures.

Electrostatic microphones

 reliant on some form of power supply, which will either come from a battery within
the mic or from a central power supply providing ‘phantom volts’ down the mic lead.

Directivity Directional microphones

 described by their directivity pattern.

 tracing the path of a sound source round the microphone – the source being moved
nearer or further away so that the mic always hears the same level.

Film and television crews

 very directional ‘gun’ mic with a pickup angle of about 20° either side of centre.
These are invariably used with a windshield
 the large furry ‘sausage’ often seen pointing at public figures in news conferences.

The most common directivity mic is the cardioid

 heart-shaped directivity pattern.

Cardioid microphones

 useful dead angle at the back.

Placing this to reduce spill

 more important than ensuring that it is pointing directly at the sound it is picking up.
Hypercardioid Mic
 slightly more directional (not more heart-shaped!) (
 disadvantage that it has a small lobe of sensitivity at the back and is dead at about
10° either side of the back of the microphone

Another common type of microphone is called omnidirectional, sensitive equally in all

directions

Omnidirectional microphones

 particularly suitable for outdoor use, as they are much less sensitive to wind noise and
blasting.
Barrier mics (PZMs)
 produce good results with little visibility as a result of being attached to an existing
object
The resulting pickup pattern is hemispherical; an omnidirectional pattern ‘cut in half’
  A more specialist directivity pattern is the figure-of-eight

This microphone
 dead top and bottom and at the sides, but ‘live’ front and back.
This directivity pattern is most often found in variable-pattern microphones.
Figure-of-eight mics
 give the best directional separation provided that they can be placed so that the back
lobe does not receive any spill or can be used to pick up sound as well.

Ribbon mics

 very best of dead angles and can be very useful when miking an audience that is also
being fed sound from loudspeakers.

Variable pattern mics

 (usually very expensive) microphones offer nine or so patterns.
 containing two cardioids back to back

Intermediate patterns

 obtained by varying the relative sensitivities of the two cardioids. Beware; these derived
patterns are never as good as the same pattern produced by a fixed pattern mic.

The cardioids

 retain their physical characteristics, so an omni mic pattern derived from the two
cardioids does not have the resistance to wind noise and blasting of a dedicated omni
mic.
 The dead angle rejection or a derived figure-of-eight is not as good as a ribbon.
 Most microphones are ‘end fire’ – you point them at the sound you want.
 mics are ‘side-fire’ with their sensitive angles coming out of the side of the mic.

Transducers A microphone

 type of transducer – a device that converts one form of energy into another.
 acoustic energy is converted into electrical.

Most microphones fall into one of two categories:

 Electromagnetic
 electrostatic.

Electromagnetic microphones

 are moving coil.

 called dynamic mics.
 like miniature loudspeakers in reverse;
  the acoustic energy moves a diaphragm attached to which is a coil of wire surrounded by a
magnet
 This causes a small audio voltage to be generated. A specialized form of electromagnetic mic is
the “ribbon” mic which once was very widely used by the BBC.
 inherent figure-of-eight directivity.
 They consist of a heavy magnet and a thin corrugated “ribbon” of aluminum which moves in the
magnetic field to generate the audio voltage.
 They are “side fire” mics.

Electrostatic mics Electrostatic mics,

 known as capacitor or con- denser microphones, fall into two types.

 Many require a polarizing voltage of about 50 V for them to work.
 This is not a problem in a studio that can provide the necessary power as ‘phantom’ volts down
the mic cable

Some mics contain 9-V batteries that operate a voltage boost circuit to provide their own polarizing
voltage.

 work by making the diaphragm part of a capacitor.

 capacitor consists of two plates of metal placed very close together, and when a voltage is
applied in a current flows momentarily and the plate acts as a store for this charge.
 attraction between positive and negative electricity across the narrow gap.
 very lightness of the diaphragm
 it the ability to follow high frequencies much better than the relatively heavy assembly of a
moving-coil microphone.

As the diaphragm moves inwards,

 the storage increases and the current flows in the opposite direction as the capacitor is
‘filled up’ by the polarizing voltage.
 particularly for battery-operated mics, an ‘electret’ diaphragm can be used.
 does not need the polarizing voltage, as a static charge is ‘locked’ into the diaphragm at
manufacture.
 It is the electrostatic equivalent of a permanent magnet.
 The changing capacitance changes the frequency of the oscillation, producing a frequency-
modulated signal that is converted into audio within the microphone.

RF capacitor mics

 good reputation for standing up to hostile environments and are frequently seen as ‘gun’
mics used by film and TV sound recordists.
Robustness
 likely to be dropped, blown on, driven over
 mic going to get wet or blown upon
Nondirectional (omnidirectional) mics
 least prone to wind noise, and this can be further improved by a decent windshield.
  using your own body to block the wind can be the most effective method of reducing
wind noise.
Moving- coil (dynamic) microphones
 most resistant to problems caused by moisture or rain.

Windshield

 usually enough to prevent rain from getting into the mic

 using small mics that are painted ‘television grey’.
Operas on stage are often miked
 by six or so PZM/barrier mics laid on the stage and isolated from stage thumps by a layer
of foam plastic (stage mice).
Power requirement Total reliance on phantom power fed down the mic cable
 can mean losing everything if the power supply goes down.
To state the obvious, a CDR with 80 minutes’ capacity of stereo will only have room for 20
minutes of eight-track audio.
 also video cassette-based eight-track systems, which can provide about 40 minutes’
continuous running.