1. The document is a glossary of terms related to sound design and production for computer games created by Joshua Crooke. It contains definitions of terms researched from various websites and describes how some of the terms relate to Joshua's own production practice.
2. The glossary includes terms like foley artistry, sound libraries, audio file formats (wav, aiff), audio limitations (sound processor unit, digital sound processor, RAM), mono/stereo audio, surround sound, audio recording systems (analogue, MIDI), software plug-ins, and constraints on audio sampling like bit-depth and sample rate.
3. Joshua recorded sound effects using an analogue recording system and edited sounds using software plug-ins in
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IG2 Task 1
1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
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 Crooke 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 "A sound effects technique for synchronous effects or live effects"
http://filmsound.org/foley/
We used this when we were
recording the sound effects for
editing.
Sound Libraries “a collection of sounds stored on file (for example on CDs, DVDs, or as
digital audio files)”
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sound-library
We put all the sounds that were
recorded into a sound library, but we
also accessed other sound libraries in
college.
SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed “Uncompressed audio files are the most accurate digital representation of a
soundwave, but can also be the most resource-intensive method of
recording and storing digital audio, both in terms of storage and
management”
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/uncompressed-audio-file-formats
.wav “WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform Audio File Format, is a Microsoft and
IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs”
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
This is the format we used to save
our edited sounds that were finished.
.aiff “Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used
for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio
devices. The format was developed by Apple Computer in 1988 based on
Electronic Arts' Interchange File Format (IFF, widely used on Amiga systems)
and is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.aif
We did not use this format because
all the work was edited and save on a
windows PC.
.au “the standard audio file format used by Sun, Unix and Java. The audio in au
files can be PCM or compressed with the ulaw, alaw or G729 codecs”
http://www.nch.com.au/acm/formats.html
We did not use this.
.smp “a motion picture accompanied by synchronized recorded sound” We did not use this.
2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
2
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sound%20motion%20picture
Lossy Compression “Lossy file compression results in lost data and quality from the original
version.”
http://www.techterms.com/definition/lossy
We did not use this.
.mp3 “MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) is a lossy data compression format for audio.
Using it makes smaller computer files containing digitized music and other
sounds.”
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
We did not use this.
AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) “The SPU is the unit responsible for all aural capabilities of the psx. It
handles 24 voices, has a 512kb sound buffer, has ADSR envelope filters for
each voice and lots of other features.”
http://psx.rules.org/spu.txt
This is the sound card in the
computer, if we did not have this we
wouldn’t of be able to listen to the
playback of the sound.
Digital Sound Processor (DSP) “Short for digital signal processing, which refers to manipulating analog
information, such as sound or photographs that has been converted into a
digital form. DSP also implies the use of a data compression technique.”
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DSP.html
The computer does this, so the
sounds that were recorded, can be
used by the computer.
Random Access Memory
(RAM)
“Random access memory (RAM) is the best known form of computer
memory. RAM is considered "random access" because you can access any
memory cell directly if you know the row and column that intersect at that
cell.”
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ram.htm
RAM helps the computer run
application that are being used on
the computer, for example Reaper
was the programme we used to edit
the sound recording.
Mono Audio “Mono or monophonic describes a system where all the audio signals are
mixed together and routed through a single audio channel.”
http://www.mcsquared.com/mono-stereo.htm
We recorded our sounds as a mono
recording.
Stereo Audio “Stereo or Stereophonic sound is created by two independent audio
channels or speakers and provides a sense of directionality because sounds
can be heard from different directions.”
http://stereos.about.com/od/introductiontostereos/a/soundformats.htm
We did not use this.
Surround Sound “Surround sound audio is, simply put, sound that completely surrounds you.
It means a speaker in virtually every corner of the room, projecting high-
quality digital sound at you from all angles just as though you were in a
theater.”
http://peripherals.about.com/od/speakersandheadphones/a/whatis_ss.htm
We did not use this.
3. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
3
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.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation
We did not use this.
AUDIO RECORDING
SYSTEMS
Analogue “Analog (or analogue) recording (Greek, ana is "according to" and logos
"relationship") is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which
among many possibilities include audio frequency, analog audio and analog
video information for later playback.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_recording
We used a sound recorded to record
the sounds that we were going to
edit later. The sound recorder is an
analogue recording system.
Digital Mini Disc “A compact digital audio disc from Sony that comes in read-only and
rewritable versions.”
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/47064/minidisc
We did not use this.
Compact Disc (CD) “A compact disc [sometimes spelled disk] (CD) is a small, portable, round
medium made of molded polymer (close in size to the floppy disk) for
electronically recording, storing, and playing back audio, video, text, and
other information in digital form.”
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/compact-disc
We did not use this.
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”
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/DAT-Digital-Audio-Tape
We did not use this.
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, which emit music.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/MIDI.html
We used this to make our own
sounds, instead of editing sound
recordings.
Software Sequencers A sequencing software package designed to be loaded into a computer.
Software sequencers usually have more features and have the advantage of
showing you a lot more information at once because they use the
computer's screen and aren't locked into the knobs or buttons or display of
a hardware sequencer.
http://www.wannaplaymusic.com/get-started/keyboard-terminology
We did not use this.
Software Plug-ins There are three broad classes of audio plug-in: those which transform
existing audio samples, those which generate new audio samples through
sound synthesis and those which analyse existing audio samples. Although
all plug-in types can technically perform audio analysis, only specific formats
provide a mechanism for analysis data to be returned to the host.
We used plug-ins so we could edit
the sounds we had made, also the
sounds we had recorded.
4. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_plug-in
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.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-midi-keyboard.htm
We used this to make our own
sounds on the computer.
AUDIO SAMPLING File Size Constraints - Bit-
depth
In digital audio , 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.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/bit-depth
We render our finished sounds in 16-
Bit.
File Size Constraints - Sample
Rate
The rate at which the samples are captured or played back, measured in
Hertz (Hz), or samples per second. An audio CD has a sample rate of 44,100
Hz, often written as 44 KHz for short. This is also the default sample rate
that Audacity uses, because audio CDs are so prevalent.
http://www.voxforge.org/home/docs/faq/faq/what-are-sampling-rate-and-
bits-per-sample
Different files formarts have different
sample rates.