Assessment 2 & 3 – Sound Software

Stuart Matthews
Assessment 2 & 3 – Sound Software

Audio can be used for entertainment, giving information and instructions and conveying information. Audio editing software can be used to create and edit audio files for a final presentation. Audio files can be edited by using cut and paste tools and effects such as delay and phaser. Pitch and speed can be edited to change the characteristics of the sound. Audio editing software can also be used to clean up sound by using tools to remove noise. Files can be compressed to smaller files for use on the internet and in presentations. Audio files are created by converting audio to a digital format, they then need to be converted back to audio for playback. This process of converting is called audio-to-digital (A/D) when recording and requires an ADC (analog-to-digital converter) which converts an analogue input voltage to a digital number. Digital-to-analog (D/A) is the process for playback and converts a digital code to an analogue signal.

Analogue and Digital Signals

Tapes and vinyl can be converted to digital files most commonly mp3s by using editing software by plugging a tape or record player into the computer and recording a new track which can then be edited to remove hiss and use the cut tool to spilt the track into different songs. Voice and music can be recorded to create podcasts and to convey other information. Editing software has many tools and options to enhance and change voice and other sounds by moving parts of track around or changing the tone. Music tracks can be imported to edit and cut sections of the track to create ringtones or samples. Mp3s have the advantage of being able to transfer over the internet and are much smaller than other digital audio files. Editing software can be used to convert stereo files, using two audio channels, to mono, using one audio channel. Surround Sound uses multiple audio channels to give a 3d sound experience. Audio files require a lot of compromise when being used in multimedia media applications because of the size of the files. While CD-qualit sounds good the files are large and must be compressed, losing quality. Audio playback software such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player may be required to hear audio used in application. Audio editing software includes Audacity, Soundforge and Adobe Premier.