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Sound.

Sound is vibrations moving through the air and can be heard when being reflected onto our ear drums. When the sound travels through the air they are known as sound waves which are then measured in decibels (db.) The sound waves vibrate in the direction that they are travelling. The vibrations are caused by the source which could be your voice box or a speaker.

Acoustics are simply the properties in the environment around you. These can be any hard surface that is able to reflect the sound. Reverb time is the time it takes for the sound to die out – this prolongs the sound onto every hard surfaces in the environment until the energy in the sound dies down. Some sound can be absorbed into items with soft surfaces. For example a wall would reflect sound from wall to wall as it is a hard surfaces whereas a sofa would absorb the sound due to its soft surfaces and shape. There are ways to make sure the acoustics for a room before recording are to a good standard. Some of these are:

• Absorption – which is a foam that flutters echoes.
• Diffusion – which keeps sound waves from grouping together.

Acoustic treatment in the studio must be placed flat against the wall and spread out evenly across the room for best results.

Microphones.

There are many types of microphones that are used in the media industry. They have similarities but also have differences that if not taken at caution could ruin the equipment. The main types of mics are: handheld, lavelier, direct connected, boundary microphone, parabolic, noise cancelling and radio microphones although the mics have different constructions.

Dynamic.

This Microphone is very strong and doesn’t break easily. They are commonly used at performances and concerts for this reason. Inside the microphone, there is a tiny plastic layer called the diaphragm. This is attached to a coil which is attached to a magnet. When sound is inputted into the microphone, it hits the diaphragm and the energy is passed through to the coil. The coil hen begins to move up and down the magnet which creates the audio sound.

Condenser.

This microphone also known as the capacitor, is expensive as it is very fragile and breaks really easily. They are commonly used in the studio. They are very sensitive to sound that loud or hard noise can destroy the mechanics inside. The condenser doesn’t work the way the dynamic mic works. Instead of a diaphragm, the condenser has two plates. The sound comes in to the front plate and send the sound down round the mic. If there is a lot of sound inputted into the mic, this could hit the back plate. If this happens the back plate would be destroyed and the mic would stop working. The condenser needs power to work. It uses a phantom which is a button on the mixer that inputs 48 volts into mic which powers the battery producing the audio.

Characteristics.

Polar patterns are the direction of where the mic is picking up sound from. There are three main different types on the mic. The first type is called cardioid. This gives you the opportunity to record directly in front of the mic whilst cutting out all the sounds in the background. The focus of the microphone is at the front of the microphone. The Figure 8 option allows sound to be record from the back and the front although blocks out sound coming in from the sides. The last one is the Omni all around. This allows you to record from all around the microphone picking up all sound. This is also when you speak. The boundary mic is usually used for big speeches as it can be placed in the middle of a discussion and picks up sound from every direction. It is flat and discrete.

The Proximity Effect.

This is the effect that leaves your output sounding muddy and causes feedback. This is very common in rap when the artist covers the top of the microphone and speaks closely into the mic. What this does it that it adds a base sound and it gets muffled and the frequency goes everywhere causing feedback. It is preferred to use a mount which you click the microphone into and place onto a stand so you can have the mic steady whether you are seated or standing.

Cables.

There are two different type of cables which are either mono or stereo. Mono means it has one ring and stereo has two. There are different cables and each of these cables can come in either mono or stereo form. The XLR cable goes into any mic. There are two ends which are male and female. The male connects into the female side of the cable. Speak on cables are used to connect passive speakers. This is because passive speakers don’t have an amp in the speaker whereas active speakers do so passive speakers need an external amp.

devices.
softwares that you can use to edit your raw audio are audacity or logic. they both work exactly the same.Logic allows you to edit your raw material and change the sound, make music, add effects, change the tone, pitch, speed etc to make your finished product add you can also add external sound to your work. you can use a Tascam recorder to record your sound and then connect it to the device using a cable. On the recorder there will be an arrow to help you control the sound. you should use this to do a sound check to make sure you aren't speaking too loudly. when doing this, you can adjust this and also make sure you aren't record with the proximity effect.