Audio File Management Quiz

Sound Effects

• Sound effects are all the sounds in a movie, excluding music and speech.
• Examples include footsteps, clothes, cars, animals, wind, rain, and weapons.
• In filmmaking and digital games, sound is at least half of the experience.
• The goal is to suspend disbelief and transport the listener to another world.
• Believability is subjective and culture-dependent.
• Realistic and believable are not the same.
• Sound design enhances the believability of audio-visual experiences.
• Sound has a strong emotional impact.
• Specific types of music are connected to typical movie scenes (e.g., romantic music for romantic scenes).

Categorization of Sound Effects

• By Function:
  • Background (atmosphere/ambience): general ambiance of a location.
  • Discrete (single sound): distinct, specific sounds.
• By Synchronization:
  • Hard: synchronized with the image (e.g., gunshot, footsteps).
  • Soft: doesn't require precise synchronization with the image (e.g., wind, rain).
• By Method:
  • Foley: Creating sounds through performance in a studio (e.g., footsteps, car tires screeching).
  • Field Recording: Recording sounds in the actual location (e.g., ocean waves, crowd noises).
  • Sound Design: Creating new sounds through editing, processing, mixing, and synthesis.

Background Sound Effects

• Used to establish location and environment.
• Not tied to specific actions.
• Represents the typical soundscape of a location.
• Usually captured through field recording.
• Examples: street noise, beach sounds, forest ambience, train station sounds.

Discrete Sound Effects

• Highly synchronized with a specific action.
• Typically a single recorded sound (foley or field recording).
• Also created through assembly (sound design).
• Examples: door closing, punches, gunshots, sword hits, hyperdrive activation.

Foley

• Named after Jack Foley, a pioneer of sound effects techniques.
• Involves performing actions with objects in a recording studio near a microphone to create specific sounds.
• It produces cheaper recordings compared to field recording, and some events can't be recorded in the field (e.g., car tires screeching).
• Examples: footsteps, car tires screeching sound, and objects breaking.

Sound Design

• Creating sounds that don't exist in the real world (e.g., alien creatures, futuristic weapons).
• Editing, processing and mixing of recorded sounds.
• Synthesis of new sounds.
• Examples: soundscapes of Deadspace 3.

Field Recording

• Material:
  • Recorder
  • Accessories
  • Headphones
  • Microphone.
• Basic Kit: handheld recorders and headphones, shotgun or cardioid microphones.

Microphone

• Types:
  • Shotgun: high directivity (except low frequencies), reduces ambient noise.
  • Cardioid: less directivity, may feel more natural.
• Stereo/multichannel: to record ambience.
• Techniques:
  • Spaced (A-B, ORTF, etc.)
  • Coincident techniques (X-Y, Mid-Side).

Stereo Techniques

• A-B: time-of-arrival stereophony.
• X-Y: intensity stereophony.
• Mid/Side: different types of microphones for creating specific stereo recordings and ambiences.
• ORTF: a way of achieving stereophony

Recorders

• Nowadays always digital, using solid-state storage.
• Key features:
  • Microphone pre-amps quality.
  • Analog-to-digital converters quality.
  • Number of independent inputs (e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8 channels).
  • Display
  • Battery capacity
  • File transfer/storage/file systems allowed
  • Timecode (e.g., syncing with video).

Recording

• Set up recorder with intended format settings

• Check available storage and battery charge

• Check high-pass filter, phantom power, limiter, and trim settings

• Default settings are generally uncompressed (WAV), 24-bit, 44.1kHz, or 48kHz.

• High sample rates for instances where pitch-shifting is expected. (e.g video game sound and ring tones)

• Record 3 seconds before and after intended sound to retain decaying sounds.

• Remain silent and stationary during recording.

• Use hands for communication, avoid stomach sounds

• Eliminate background noise as much as possible. (e.g., AC buzz/hum, air conditioning, heating, traffic, clocks lights)

• Monitor with headphones to maintain proper levels, do not alter levels during recordings, 32-bit recorders avoid level alteration issues.

• Point microphone towards sound/object/area, and if using stereo microphones, center on the area. Avoid moving stereo microphone during recording. Record enough material. Consider possible mistakes or versions

• Record room tone for later use. Room tone provides ambience to simulate sounds in the same room but recorded in different environments.

• Recording Location:

  • Select locations and times of day based on anticipated sounds.
  • Investigate traffic situations. Notify police if necessary.

• Recording Log:

  • Log recording information: the object, location, action, microphone, microphone position, time/date, person's name.

Editing

• Guidelines

  • Organization:
    • meaningful filenames
    • frequently save
    • copy original files, edit copies
  • Source Material:
    • crop each sound (one sound-one file)
    • remove silence
    • make sure file starts and ends at zero crossing
    • be careful not to remove the sound's attack or decay

• Other Guidelines

  • Organization: use meaningful filenames, save recordings often, backup original recordings, work from copies, and keep all used files in the session folder
  • Source Material: crop each sound, remove silence, start and end at zero crossing, be aware of sound's attack/decay
  • Multiple Recordings: cut sounds at zero crossings, use cross-fades if needed, adjust pacing and speed by altering distance in timeline, remove unwanted sound
  • Balance stereo field

LISTEN Mnemonic

• L: Listen Critically
• I: Identify Clicks, Pops, and errors
• S: Signal Process (EQ and Compression)
• T: Trim/Crop the File
• E: Examine Fade-Ins/Fade-Outs at Zero Line
• N: Normalize/Name File

Organizing Filenames & Metadata

• Filenames:

  • Three systems: Category-based, Effect-based, Numeric-based

• Categories: example list for categorization

• Effect-Based: place category in folder, the file would be in that folder.

• Numeric-Based: a number system to track recording files.

• Metadata: additional sound information for advanced searching, OS comments (macOS), external files, proprietary applications

Attribution

• Images are taken from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Resources for Studying

• The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects by Ric Viers; Michael Wiese Productions; 3rd edition, 2008.

Foley Materials

• Home improvement stores
• 1-euro stores
• Debris from destroyed materials
• Junkyards
• The street
• Food (organic sounds)
• Axe, Rags, Baseball Bat, Rope, Broom, Rubber Bands, Buckets, Sandbags, Cotton Gloves, Sledgehammer, Dust Masks, Sound Blankets, Gaffer's Tape, Spring Clamps, Knife, Towels, Leather Gloves, Weights, Mop.
• Rubber Gloves, Can of Air, Rubber Mallet, Carpenter's Hammer

Foley Recording Tips

• Experiment without looking.
• Vary prop holding positions and pressure.
• Perform as if creating musical pieces.

Test your knowledge on audio file management, including filename systems and sound effects used in films and games. This quiz covers metadata, sound identification, and editing techniques relevant to audio professionals.