18th Entry

This week’s lecture was audio and how it relates with multimedia.

We started out by looking at the multimedia palette which consists of different types of multimedia such as text, images, audio and animation. We can use these different types of multimedia both on their own or together. For example, audio can be used on it’s own but can also be supplemented by animation to provide a greater experience.

Some things can be expressed more effectively in audio as opposed to text or images. Audio can be used for message reinforcing, mood reinforcing, background sound, voiceovers and alerts.

Sound files can be acquired for free over the internet or may be bought with a licence. Alternatively you may create the audio yourself although the production costs may be quite high in comparison, but it will allow you to acquire exactly what you want.

Just like with images and animation, you may need to edit the audio to achieve the desired result. This can be done using a variety of programs such as the freeware open source program Audacity.

In this weeks tutorial we edited some sound files using the free open source program called Audacity.

First we cut out any unwanted sound, such as the silence at the beginning and end of the sound file that unnecessarily increases the file size.

Next we edited the sound wave to remove any unwanted scratches. These can be heard by just listening to the file but can also be seen as big spikes that appear when you zoom in to the sound wave. These can be softened by removing the spike by zooming in close to the sound wave and reducing its height.

We also split the audio in two by creating a separate track containing different audio and playing it alongside the existing audio. This new track can be played anywhere within the sound file to create the desired effect.

Finally we experimented with different effects such as echo or amplify. Some of the effects are quite complex but you can figure out how to use some of them in time!

It’s really nice to move on from text and go onto something different, I think we were all bored of text by now! Hopefully we won’t go so meticulously into the basics of audio like we did with text, although thankfully it doesn’t seem to be going that way (yet). I liked the idea of the multimedia pallet containing different things we can use to create the desired effect though multimedia. It’s nice to think that your multimedia pallet is being built upon each week allowing us to do more things with multimedia development. I used to use the sound editor Cool Edit while I was younger but haven’t used it since so it’s nice to have a refresher course with audacity.

For my independent reading this week I’ve got a Wikipedia article on sound editing and an article about audio in multimedia

1. Wikipedia article on sound editing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_editor

Last accessed: 03/03/08

2. Article on audio in multimedia

http://www.jimthatcher.com/webcourse6.htm

Last accessed: 03/03/0