MULTIMEDIA : Sound

Bernardo D. Lamadrid, Ph.D.

MITC 209 Multimedia Systems
Mid Year 2017
Sound
Vibrations in the air create waves of pressure that are
perceived as sound
Sound waves vary in sound pressure level or
loudness(amplitude) and in pitch
Acoustics is the branch of physics that studies sound
Sound pressure levels are measured in decibels(dB)
Multimedia sound is either digitally recorded audio or
MIDI (Musical Instrumental Digital Interface) music
Sound
The smallest audible sound (near total silence) is 0 dB.
A sound 10 times more powerful is 10 dB.
A sound 100 times more powerful than near total silence is 20 dB.
A sound 1,000 times more powerful than near total silence is 30 dB.
Near total silence - 0 dB
A whisper - 15 dB
Normal conversation - 60 dB
A lawnmower - 90 dB
A car horn - 110 dB
A rock concert or a jet engine - 120 dB
A gunshot or firecracker - 140 dB
Digital Sound
Digital audio is created when a sound wave is represented
using numbers a process called DIGITIZING
Digitizing is a two-step process of sampling and quantizing
Samples represent the amplitude of a sound at a discrete
point in time
3 Sampling frequencies used in multimedia are CD quality
44.1kHz, 22.05 kHz, 11.025 kHz
The number of bits used to describe the amplitude of
sound wave when sampled is the SAMPLE SIZE
Digital Sound
The value of each sample is rounded off to the nearest
integer - QUANTIZATION
Digital Sound
Digital audio is device independent; dependent on
recording not quality of playback devices
Quality of digital recording depends on the SAMPLING
RATE (Number of samples taken per second) and the
RESOLUTION OF DYNAMIC RANGE (Number of bits used
represent the sample)
Crucial Aspects of preparing audio files
Balancing the need for sound quality against size of
audio file
Setting appropriate recording levels to get a high-
quality recording
MIDI Sound
MIDI Sound
MIDI is a shorthand representation of music stored in numeric form
It is not digitized sound and it is device dependent
The length of a MIDI file can be changed without affecting the
degrading audio quality
Since they are small, MIDI files embedded in web pages load and play
promptly
A sequencer software and sound synthesizer is required in order to
create MIDI scores
MIDI was invented so that musical instruments could communicate
with each other, and that one instrument can control another.
Audio File Formats
There are a variety of digital audio file formats
which may be used for
Computer systems
Audio CDs
Audio DVDs
Video DVDs
Multimedia Projects
Web sites
MP3 Players
DV Camcorders
MULTIMEDIA : Sound
Bernardo D. Lamadrid, Ph.D.
MITC 209 Multimedia Systems
Mid Year 2017