AUDIO

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AUDIO

• 1. Basic physics of Sound
• 2. Types of Sound
• 3. Reception Modes of Listening

4. Sound Art 5. Recorded sound 6. Audio Examples
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What is sound?

• It is basically a pattern formed in the vibration
  or movement of molecules of air.

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What is sound?

• It is basically a pattern formed in the vibration
  or movement of molecules of air.
• When a sound is made, air molecules move out from
  the source in waves

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• When a sound is made, air molecules move in waves
  

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• The waves radiate out 360 degrees and in 3
  dimensions from the source until it dissipates

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• When a sound is made, air molecules move in waves
  
• The waves radiate out 360 degrees from the source
  until it dissipates
• Analogous to a drop of water in a pool

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• Sound is intentional vs. noise which is unwanted
  or unintentional

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• In very general terms, a sound wave has two
  important characteristics
• Intensity
• Pitch

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INTENSITY

• Intensity wave amplitude volume loudness
• This is a measurement of the height of the sound
  wave

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• Measured in decibels dB
• The human ear responds to a great range of sound
  intensities from 0dB (threshold of hearing) to
  135dB (the threshold of pain)
• VU meter in sound production is a volume unit
  measure

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Typical Sound Levels

• Jet aircraft taking off....125 dB
• Rock concert120 dB
• Heavy traffic. 90 dB
• Interior of a car _at_ 40mph. 80 dB
• Normal conversation. 60 dB
• Broadcast studio 20 dB

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PITCH

• Frequency
• Refers to the characteristic of the sound

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PITCH

• Frequency
• Refers to the characteristic of the sound
• For example we talk about womens voices being a
  higher pitch than a mans voice or a violin is
  higher pitched than a cello

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PITCH

• It is NOT a difference in loudness (amplitude)
  but of tonal quality

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PITCH

• It is NOT a difference in loudness (amplitude)
  but of tonal quality
• Pitch refers to how often the wave repeats itself
  in one second.
• Each complete pattern of the wave is called a
  cycle

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PITCH

• Measured in the number of cycles per second Hz
• The lower the number the deeper or more bass the
  sound
• a frequency of 20 Hz would sound like a very low
  note on a pipe organ - almost a rumble
• 20 - 20000 Hz covers most audible frequencies

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Temporal Terms

• a sound or sound event has a structure and a
  temporality

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Temporal Terms

• a sound or sound event has a structure and a
  temporality
• the initiation of the sound is called the attack

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Temporal Terms

• a sound or sound event has a structure and a
  temporality
• the initiation of the sound is called the attack
• this is followed by a sustain How long is it
  held? How long is it at full volume?

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Temporal Terms

• a sound or sound event has a structure and a
  temporality
• the initiation of the sound is called the attack
• this is followed by a sustain how long is it
  held? How long is it at full volume?
• finally the sound fades away decay

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Temporal Terms

• These 3 stages are parts of the
• sound envelope and apply to any and all sounds

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Canadian composer, artist R. Murray Schafer

• In his book Voices of Tyranny Temples of
  Silence, 1993 is an essay called Ive never seen
  a sound with some wonderful thoughts

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• No sound can be repeated exactly Not even your
  own name. Every time it is pronounced it will be
  different. And a sound heard once is not the same
  as a sound heard twice, nor is a sound heard
  before the same as a sound heard after.

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• Every sound commits suicide and never returns.
  Musicians know this. No musical phrase can be
  repeated exactly the same way twice.

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• Sounds cannot be known the way sights can be
  known. Seeing is analytical and reflective. It
  places things side by side and compares them
  (scenes, slides, diagrams). This is why
  Aristotle preferred sight as the principle
  source of knowledge.

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• There is no silence for the living.
• We have no earlids.
• We are condemned to listen.

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• Everything in this world has its sound - even
  silent objects. We get to know silent objects by
  striking them. The ice is thin, the box is empty,
  the wall is hollow.

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• Here is a paradox two things touch but only
  one sound is produced. A ball hits a wall, a
  drumstick strikes a drum, a bow scrapes a string.
  Two objects one sound.

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Types of Sound in Film

• 3 main types of sound
• voice
• sound effects
• music

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- Voice -

• - dialogue
• - interview
• - narration
• - voice over

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• - Sound Effects -
• add realism to a scene
• - synchronous sound matches what we see (ie.
  someone playing the piano, the sounds of a piano
  are heard)

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• - Sound Effects -
• - synchronous sound matches what we see (ie.
  Someone playing the piano, the sounds of a piano
  are heard)
• - asynchronous we dont see the source of the
  sound (ie. the sound of an ambulance is used as
  background sound while the image portrays an
  arguing couple)

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- Sound Effects -Ambience Presence

• Ambience is usually the background sounds
  available in the environment
• can be recorded in the original production
• or it can be recorded separately and deliberately
  added to the sound track to provide acoustic
  space around the rest of the dialogue

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Presence

• a locations aural fingerprint nonspecific
  sounds on the upper end (around 2,000 - 8,000 Hz)

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Presence

• a locations aural fingerprint nonspecific
  sounds on the upper end (around 2,000 - 8,000 Hz)
• each room has a distinct presence of subtle sounds

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Presence

• a locations aural fingerprint nonspecific
  sounds on the upper end (around 2,000 - 8,000 Hz)
• each room has a distinct presence of subtle sounds

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Presence

• provides a continuous sounding background
• may smooth pauses in dialogue and give the
  feeling of life in a deadened studio recording
• gtgt otherwise we would perceive there to be a
  failure of the sound system

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- Music -

• background music adds emotion and rhythm

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- Music -

• background music adds emotion and rhythm
• not meant to be noticeable

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- Music -

• background music adds emotion and rhythm
• not meant to be noticeable
• provides a tone or emotional attitude toward the
  story and/or the characters depicted

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- Music -

• background music adds emotion and rhythm
• not meant to be noticeable
• provides a tone or emotional attitude toward the
  story and/or the characters depicted
• could foreshadow an event, an approaching menace,
  etc.

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- Music -

• background music adds emotion and rhythm
• not meant to be noticeable
• provides a tone or emotional attitude toward the
  story and/or the characters depicted
• could foreshadow an event, an approaching menace,
  etc.
• can be used to links scenes (ie. a motif for a
  particular character)

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• French sound theorist
• Michel Chion has described
• 3 Modes of Listening

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• CAUSAL
• SEMANTIC
• REDUCED

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- CAUSAL -

• the most common form consists of listening to a
  sound in order to gather information about its
  cause (or source)
• the source can be visible or invisible with
  similar effects on us
• think of a phone ringingit can be in the scene
  or off screen

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- CAUSAL -

• can also be more ambiguous in that what we
  recognize is only the general nature of the
  sounds cause
• for instance we may (unconsciously) tell
  ourselves that must be a mechanical sound or
  that must be some human, etc.

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- SEMANTIC LISTENING -

• refers to a code or a language to interpret a
  message spoken language as well as other kinds
  of codes
• it is something we interpret in aid of the
  narrative
• a spoken word is not abstractit has a linguistic
  meaning regardless of tone or accent

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- REDUCED LISTENING -

• a mode of listening that focuses on the traits of
  the sound itself, independent of its cause or its
  meaning

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- REDUCED LISTENING -

• a mode of listening that focuses on the traits of
  the sound itself, independent of its cause or its
  meaning
• it takes the sound -- verbal, musical, sound
  effects or whatever -- as itself the object to be
  observed instead of as a vehicle for something
  else

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- REDUCED LISTENING -

• The descriptive inventory of a sound cant be
  understood in one listening
• - often used for ambience or presence or more
  unconscious effects
• - very important in relation to Sound Art

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Sound Art

• Made by artists whose materials include physical
  media, sound, and environments.

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Sound Art

• Sound artists tend to be poorly represented by
  the modes of discourse that seem satisfactory for
  "pure" musical or visual art
• They are poorly represented by the forms of
  presentation available

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• There are an infinite number of concerns,
  methods, styles and approaches
• Some sound artists work with their sound
  physically, allowing the physical contact with
  materials to influence their choices. Their work
  is a dialogue between the creation of physical
  objects and the sound generated by those objects.

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• Because sound art falls between musical and
  visual realms, approaches to the materials can
  incorporate what the artist desires from either
  tradition
• For example Robert Racines Sound Signatures that
  uses the recording of the sound of 22 signatures

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• Johan Goedhart has created installations using
  large amounts of computer printers continuously
  printing.
• In addition to spitting out reams of paper which
  was eventually fed back through the printers, the
  sounds generated were processed and made audible
  again through various media.
• The choice of documents to be printed in such an
  installation then becomes a compromise between
  the visual and audible output from the printers.
• The sound is a direct result of the artist's
  choice of physical materials.

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• While others are interested in responding to
  mediated sound events through appropriation,
  sampling, re-recording and digital modification
  of those events
• For instance the work of V. Michael (aka The
  Spacewurm) uses modified police scanners,
  intercepts cell and cordless phone calls and
  digital messaging systems
• Or Fred Szymanski whose sources for Feeder 8 are
  computer-generated cycles of feedback sounds from
  computers themselvesspinning hard-drives, etc.

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• Others are interested in using language to break
  down semantic listening modes or to build on them
• Such as dub poet Pamela Zs Geekspeak
• Or highly conceptual works like Brandon LaBelles
  use of Roland Bathes writing in Topophony of the
  Text

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Sound Art Space

• Sound artists attempt to create environments as a
  sculptor might, but which are animated with
  sound. Some of them create sound sources which
  highlight architectural features, some deal with
  concepts of room acoustics.
• In addition to altering aspects of physical
  spaces which we inhabit, some sound artists
  present sounds from foreign spaces where we have
  never been

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• these may be imaginary, created spaces or spaces
  inside objects and bodies.
• Alvin Lucier's Music for Solo Performer amplifies
  brain waves
• John Cage and David Tudor amplified a variety of
  internal sounds from plants and machines
• Richard Lerman also has created a large body of
  work dealing with internal sounds of unexpected
  objects, like bridges, plants
• They are exploring and exploding concepts of the
  transmission of sound through different media

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Remember...

• That sound is a spatial and temporal event
• Techniques of recording, reproduction,
  intervention and even the mode of output, will
  all impact its spatial and sonic qualities.
• Try to capitalize on this in your project

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Remember...

• ...that sound often has not just one, pure
  source but at least two...three... and even more.

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Remember...

• ...that sound often has not just one, pure
  source but at least two...three... and even more.
• for instance as I am typing these notes, there is
  the sound of my fingers on the keys,

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Remember...

• ...that sound often has not just one, pure source
  but at least two...three... and even more
• for instance as I am typing these notes, there is
  the sound of my fingers on the keys, my watch
  hitting the table

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Remember...

• ...that sound often has not just one, pure source
  but at least two...three... and even more
• for instance as I am typing these notes, there is
  the sound of my fingers on the keys, my watch
  hitting the table, my breathing

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Remember...

• ...that sound often has not just one, pure source
  but at least two...three... and even more
• for instance as I am typing these notes, there is
  the sound of my fingers on the keys, my watch
  hitting the table, my breathing and incidental
  sounds such as the ventilation, the clock ticking
  and so on

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MICROPHONE BASICS

• there are different types of microphones, but
  they all do the same thing
• they transform acoustical movements (the
  vibrations of air created by the sound waves)
  into electrical vibrations. This conversion is
  relatively direct and the electrical vibration
  can then be amplified, recorded, or transmitted.

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TYPES

• Deciding on kind of microphone to use depends on
  what you want and where you are recording

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• Omni will pick up sound 360 degrees around it
  therefore doesnt emphasize any one direction or
  location
• Cardiod will not pick up very much sound from
  behind it. Used for concerts, speeches, lapel mic
• Shotgun microphone will pick up the voices of the
  talent with a comfortable amount of the
  surrounding ambient sound. Unlike the sterile,
  close mic'd sound that is typical with a
  lavaliere microphone, the shotgun mic usually
  exhibits a fuller, richer and more pleasing sound
  quality.

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REALISM?

• Live sound is very different than recorded sound
• In real life we are marvelously able to cut out
  (from our hearing) any extraneous sounds and
  focus on single sounds

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REALISM?

• Live sound is very different than recorded sound
• In real life we are marvelously able to cut out
  (from our hearing) any extraneous sounds and
  focus on single sounds
• Imagine a noisy party in which you are having a
  conversation with one person

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REALISM?

• This process of selective listening is actually
  known as the Cocktail Party Effect

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REALISM?

• This process of selective listening is actually
  known as the Cocktail Party Effect
• This becomes very difficult to do as a listener
  of recorded material thats where audio editing
  comes in

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REALISM?

• This process of selective listening is actually
  known as the Cocktail Party Effect
• This becomes very difficult to do as a listener
  of recorded material thats where audio editing
  comes inyou must mimic how we hear and that
  requires re-creating or reconstructing HOW we
  hear.

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Sound Image

• They have a very complex inter-relationship
• They are BOTH illusions constructed within a
  system of production
• We all participate in an audio-visual contract --
  one we learn in order to watch films, videos, TV

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VALUE ADDED

• Is one of the most important relationships in the
  audio-visual contract between sound and moving
  image

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VALUE ADDED

• Michel Chion states that Value Added is
• the expressive and informative value with
  which a sound enriches a given image

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VALUE ADDED

• Michel Chion states that Value Added is
• the expressive and informative value with
  which a sound enriches a given image so as to
  create the definite impression, in the immediate
  or remembered experience one has of it,

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VALUE ADDED

• Michel Chion states that Value Added is
• the expressive and informative value with
  which a sound enriches a given image so as to
  create the definite impression, in the immediate
  or remembered experience one has of it, that this
  information or expression naturally springs
  from what is seen.

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VALUE ADDED

• Gives the (eminently incorrect) impression that
  sound is
• 1) unnecessary
• 2) merely duplicating a meaning which in reality
  it brings about, either all on its own or by
  discrepancies between it and the image

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• Ingmar Bergmans Persona (1966)
• Well watch the opening sequence twice. The first
  time with sound, the second time with no sound.
• Make note of the differences in how you perceive
  the images with and without sound.

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Resources

• www.filmsound.org
• www.ubu.com
• Michel Chion Audio-Vision