Sound is perhaps the most important elements of multimedia. It can provide the listening pleasure of music, the startling accent of special effects or the ambience of a mood-setting background.
When you clap your hands, the air that was between your hands is pushed aside. This increases the air pressure in the space near your hands. Sound is the terminology used in the analog form, and the digitized form of sound is called as audio.
Sound adds life to any multimedia application and plays important role in effective marketing presentations. It arouse interest and can communicate more directly than other media. But it Is not as memorable as visual media.
To include sound in a multimedia application, the sound waves must be converted from analog to digital form. This conversion is called sampling – every fraction of a second a sample the of sound is recorded in digital bits.
Acoustics is the branch of physics that studies sound. Sound is measured in decibels (db); a decibel measurement is actually the ratio between a chosen reference point on a logarithmic scale and the level that is actually experienced.
Sound comprises the spoken word, voices, music and even noise. It is a complex relationship involving:
a vibrating object (sound source)
a transmission medium (usually air)
a receiver (ear) and;
a preceptor (brain).
Sound waves are known as waveforms. A pleasant sound has a regular wave pattern. The pattern is repeated over and over. But the waves of noise are irregular. They do not have a repeated pattern.
Quality factors for digital audio file:
Sampling Rate: the number of times the sample is taken. Most common sampling rates are: 11.025, 22.05, and 44.1 kHz
Sample Size (resolution): the number of bits used to record the value of a sample in a digitized signal. Most common sampling sizes are: 8 and 16 bit . other than that, it also depends on:
The quality of original audio source.
The quality of capture device & supporting hardware.
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