http://akmedia.digidesign.com/support/docs/DigiTranslator_Guide_25673.pdf

http://www.filmsound.org/

http://filmsounddaily.blogspot.com/

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/post-production-forum/

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

http://duc.digidesign.com/forumdisplay.php?f=8

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sound_design/

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

http://www.soundrangers.com/

http://www.sound-ideas.com/

http://www.apmmusic.com/main.php

http://www.killertracks.com/launchpage/KillerTracks/

http://audiosparx.com/

http://www.mandy.com/

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)

http://www.audiogang.org/

http://www.aes.org/

http://www.grammy.com/

http://www.digido.com/

http://www.filmmusic.net/

http://www.ampmusic.com/

When creating a BNC down in pro tools you have to use the dither algorithm in pro tools when not using BNC to disk. If you want to use a third party dither then you have to sue a BNC to disk. Only applies a dither when you export a region from pro tools.

How to get video into pro tools
You can BNC to QT movie.

DBFS – Any time we are referring to gain values in our DAW. The full scale means we are using 0 as our reference.

Overall Levels in a film environment are going to be calibrated to theater sounds.

-20DBFS : Is the average DIA level in film. Doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just a number in the computer. You have refrence levels in the digital form but if we don’t have another calibration reference those numbers don’t mean anything. We add that to an SPL meter calibration in the real world so that a particular sound level equals a certain level in the real world. -10DBFS is the DIA level for TV

Layback – term that used when combing audio with video
– BNC to QT movie and the other way is to combine them in quicktime pro.

Peak limiter
- Keep turning up a sound louder and louder but not clipping. Have to balence between the attack.. In pro tool it is called MAXIUM.

Mixing on headphones are a ad idea. When mixing with a speaker the sounds interact and mix. You need to reproduce that when you mix. With headphones that doesn’t happen. You’re not hearing what you exactly hear. When editing dialog it is better to use headphones. When making very nuanced decisions a great time to use headphone. Also if you’re in a terrible room. Your overall mix should still be done in a room. Learn how headphones sound.

Dub Room – A room that emulates a theater room so that you can mix.

Monitors come in two types
- Powered monitors have a built in powered amp. Also known as Active monitors. With powered monitors I can cross the signal over before it’s amplified. Applies the crossover at the line level signal.
- Passive monitors requires power amp.

Crossover – Takes certain range of frequencies and sends them one place and takes another set of frequencies and send them somewhere else. In a two way system you have one cross over point. Mixed reaction to them since the crossover point can cause phase shifting. In a three way system there are two crossover points which is best since you have more control over the crossover systems.

Frequency Response Chart – How it responds to certain frequencies. The frequency response chart for speakers are pretty much the same.

Acostical Treatments
- Abosorbers basically stop vibrations in the air. As much as possible. The goal is that the once the frequency that hits the absorbers don’t bounce. In a real listening environment, the listener is not in an Anechoic chamber (A room that has no echo or reflective sound) We do want some reflection just not too much where it affects our mix.
- Diffusion/Diffusors allows reflections and vibrations, but it sends the signal off in random directions. There are no problems with a certain frequency range that bounces off a wall since the sound is not interacting with direct sound.

Lower frequency are harder to absorb than higher frequency since it’s moving more air. There are different types of absorber. Mid and high frequency abropber and base traps that normally go into corners.

Overall Volume Levels – The maxim level os your final output mix. It is very important for a number of reasons. One reason is because there are exceptions for certain listening environments. A reference tone of a certain volume level will be controlled by a theater.

Over coming the 32 voice limit in pro tools
- combine certain sounds and mix down
- DV tool kit

Technical
Be aware of the record channel or signal flow. Always try to use a field mixer. Try to not go straight into the camera. Field mixer helps make the sound of the mic a lot better. ALWAYS bring headohones. Critical Listening – Listening to the individual frequencies and the quality of the dialog. See what the camera can do and can’t do. As a sound person be knowledgeable enough to set up the sound on the camera. Always use the line level on the camera if you’re mic is going thorough any intermittent device. The higher the level in your sound cable it won’t pick up as much noise if you’re crossing cables. If they have to go across you can run them at 90 degree angles. After everything is done take a step back and see what can wrong. Have xtra cables for the audio. Cables go bad and can be damaged on a set or on location.

Practical Applications to the use of the equipment.

Broadband noise reduction
- reduces the noise throughout the whole signal

Monitoring chain
- Referring to what you use to listen to the sound and where you are listening to it. What you’re hearing out of the speakers are the most accurate to what the signal is.

Transportable mix
- A mix that sounds good in as many places as possible.

X-Curve
- Allows you to hear the sound as it would be in the theater.

Reflections

Direct Sound Waves
- Sounds coming out of your speakers and hitting your ears

Reflective Sound
- Sounds that bounce off an object that comes into our ears a few seconds after our direct sound.

1) Build a studio with non parrell walls

Multi-band compressor – Gives you independent control over a number of bands or frequency levels. You can use it for DSing. Allows you to only reduce certain frequencies. Can be used to regulate the tonal balance of a DIA track

Bandpass filter – Lets pass a certain band of frequencies. Can be created using a high and low pass at the same time.

Using Microphones

Types of Microphones
– Dynamic Microphone
more robust than a condenser. Can also take a very high sound level pressure
less nuanced. It’s ability to pick up sound is lower than a condenser
does not require phantom power

– Condenser Microphone
fragile.
much better at capturing nuanced. Able to capture detail better than a Dynamic
requires phantom power

Polar Patterns of Microphones

Switches on Mic’s

Roll off switches are basically a highpass filter. Normally at 60 hz

There are also monophonic and stero microphones

Phase Cancellation
– When two waves are encompassing the same area the waves cancel each other out. The phase part of it comes from the period of time. At any period of time the wave is at a certain point. Where this wave is compared to the zero crossing point when we conjoin it with another wave it will affect the power of the other wave

Comb filter
– random frequencies being affected. They can be cancelled

cmd N – Opens a new session

cmd = – Switch between mix and edit window

shift cmd N – Makes a new track

Unity Gain – No change in gain from the inherent level of the signal

Voice – number of channels being played at a time. Called audio voices.

Automation mode – Change controls over time

Shift cmd I – Imports audio

Sound Terms

Trim Pot – Controls the volume level from one section of a mixer to another.
Gain Staging – Being aware of the over volume of one part of a signal flow from another. Two reason to be aware of. Achieve a good signal-to-noise ratio. A good amount of signal that is covering up the noise that is happening while being created. Enough signal into one stage without hearing too much noise. Second, we Don’t want to over load the electronics and cause distortion or clipping.
Signal Flow – Controlling from where audio comes and where it goes.
AUX send – Takes a certain percent of a signal and route it to a certain destination. AUX Return – Allows us to hear what we’re sending to the AUX sources. To here what is being sent from an AUX send use an AUX return. Use Reverb and Delay for Aux Sends. Use an INSERT if you want to add Compression and EQ. USing an Insert uses 100 percent of signal
BUS – Pathway in which audio travels. If you want to route audio from one place to another you use a bus.

Analog to Digital Converter – Takes an electrical signal and turns it into a bunch of numbers that the computer can store and play back. A/D

Digital to Analog Converter – Take the digital signal and turns it into an Analog signal. D/A

M-Box is an A/D and a D/A or an ADDA

DAW – Digital Audio Workstation. Pro Tools is an example of a DAW. Pro Tools is an Industry Standard.

Three Different type of EQ

Fixed EQ – Only gives you control over one of the three things we could control in an EQ. Boost/cut (Gain), Frequency Center, Bandwidth also known as Q. Fixed EQ effects only boost / cut

Semi- Parametric – Gives control over Boost / Cut and Frequency center.

Parametric – Gives control over boost/cut, Frequency center and Bandwidth or Q

Parametric EQ is the most common EQ in a DAW

mic – input – insert – aux send – EQ – pan – output (master) section

Sound at its core is vibrations in the air. It’s great in a way that audio is able to affect our emotions in a greater way. Low frequencies move more air than higher ones. Sound has a speed. 765 mile per hour. 1.1 feet per millisecond. About 1,100 feet per second. Its important because where we place mics and how our signal flow moves from one place to another. Those delays in sound allow us to perceive where sound is occurring.

Sound waves -
Pressure in the air cause the sound wave to move back and forth. Three fundamentals of sound waves.

WAVELENGTH – Length of one cycle. One complete positive and negative. Also known as Hertz. Hertz = cycles / second. Amount of space that covered between the two 0 crossing points.

AMPLITUDE – How much air is being moved per cycle. Difference between height.

FREQUENCY – How often in time a vibration occurs. Frequency also equates to pitch. How high or low we perceive a sound.

DeciBel (dB) – Measurement of amplitude. Bel system is a relative unit of measurement. When measuring sound we use a reference. For measuring air room sound 0 dB is the lowest level of sound we can hear as human beings. There is always a reference when using deciBels. When looking at numbers sometime they’re positive and sometimes they’re negative. Positive number are used when measuring air. In our work stations there are negative numbers since 0 is the highest number we can hear. Decibel system uses a logarithmic scale. It’s important because the difference between 0 decibels and 10 decibels. 6 deciBel difference is twice as loud. When you combine amplitudes you only get a three deciBel increase not a double.

20Hz to 20 kHz is what we can hear. At 3 kHz is normal speech. The center of our hearing perception. 10 kHz is definition speech. 16 kHz is airy sounds.

*Use a reference mix to base something off of*

Analog – It’s infinite in nature. Anything that is analog is infinite is nature. A digital representation of Analog, i.e.  light or sound, is by definition a finite limit of values on that representation.

8 bits = 256 distinct values

16 bits = 65,536 distinct values

24 bits = 16 million + distinct value

bit depth or bit resolution  = the number of distinct values used to represent amplitude. Our ability to measure amplitude has a direct effect on how we measure dynamic range.

two types of Analog audio. Acoustic which is vibration in the air. Electrical analog  audio. Electrical representations of acoustic vibrations.

Frequencies – Represented in hertz or cycles per second. How many times per second a vibration occurs. One cycle is from the 0 crossing point to a vibration on one side back to the 0 crossing point, to the other side of the crossing point and back to the 0 crossing point. Sample rate – is the number of times we measure the amplitude of our sound. Sample rate = measurements of sound (samples) per second. We use kHz to represent Sample rate as well.

Nyquist Theorem – to represent a frequency the sample rate has to be at least twice the highest frequency we can measure.

CD Audio(CD Standard) = 16 bit / 44.1 kHz
DAT (Digital Audio Tape) film sound = 16 bit / 48 kHz
DVD Audio = 24 bit / 96 kHz or 192 kHz

Master Fader – Also called a master section. The purpose is to control the volume for a number of channels or outputs.

Auxiliary (aux) send [/return] – To send a certain amount of audio from a channel to a certain destination.

Insert – A send and a return – 100 percent of a signal is sent from the insert and to the insert. Used when you don’t want to affect the dry signal.

Pan Port/Fader – Controls where in the stereo field the sound resides. You can pan from left right and even center speaker.

Audio Compression – When we control or restrict the dynamics of a sound

Examples of decibel levels –

- Music

Score – is composed to the movie or what is being shown. Also can be used as subtext in a scene. The “score” is edited and composed to the movie.

Soundtrack – s licensing of a piece of music to be used in an existing picture. Edited for the picture.

Source Music – is when you hear music playing in a scene. Music that is happening in the film itself.

*Music Library*

- Sound FX

Sync sound – Sound that is captured by microphone on a set.

Foley – After the film is created, you go in with props and while watching a scene you re-create what is happening. Created in a Foley pit.

Creative Sound Design – When you use your work station to take existing recording of anything and manipulate them in such a way to make them appropriate for a scene. *SFX Libraries*

*Field Recording* – Goal is to go out and capture sound. Not tied to a timeline or tied to a scene.

- Dialogue

Voice Over (ADR) – Hearing something played back that wasn’t actually recorded during your sync sound. Narration is a sub category

Sync Sound – Using a mic to record dialogue by using boom mics or Lavs.

Role of Sound in Pictures
- Sets a mood/emotion
- Helps tell a story
- Ambience / locational
- Subtext – implying something is happening that you might not be actually seeing
- Foreshadowing
- Creative / artistic purposes
- Smooth Transitions (supporting video edits)
- Fix problems – bad dialogue, bad acting

Samples of Bad Sound
- Poor quality/illegible dialog
- Bad audio edits (pops,clicks, poor flow or feel, missing parts of words)
- Unconvincing ambient processing
- Bad Sync of sound

Dynamic Range – Loudness and softness of sound. Changing a level in a scene can help impact sound design. Difference between the loudest sound and the quietest sound. Delta is the difference between those two measurements.

Contrast – If you want something to pop out you must have something else to compare to. Always think of ways to create contrast. Being aware of the role that sound design and music plays in a scene and focusing on one thing at a time.

How we achieve Contrast
- EQ, balancing of frequency. *Check your mixes in Mono*
- Positional Queues. Panning sound. Where something exists in a surround field.
- Reverb Level – The more reverb you hear in a sound the farther away it is.
- Volume / Loudness
- Time. Paying attention to the density of our audio at certain points of time. Think about the density of your picture. Think about what your mix is telling you at this point of time as it is at another point of time.

Frequency Range – Tonality, textures of sound.

Represent far fewer sounds than we actually see. Clarity in the mix. Focusing the listener attention