how audio is recorded
There are many pieces of equipment that allow us to record and play back sound in both analogue and digital formats including compact Disc CD, MiniDisc and Hard Disk HD are only a few that can be named.
Analogue would use formats such as magnetic tape recorders. Digital would use devices such as CD, Computers and IPods.
There are several standard music distribution formats. The MP3 and the CD are the most common. Below there is a closer look in detail of these devices.
MiniDiscs come in two forms:
· Pre-recorded
· Recordable and blank
A pre-recorded MiniDisc is exactly like a CD, except smaller. A CD is able to hold about five times more data (650 megabytes in data mode and 740 megabytes in audio mode) than a MiniDisc. However, both CDs and MiniDiscs can store the same amount of music. The difference is that a MiniDisc uses a digital compression technique called ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) when storing music.
Recently, writable CD drives (CD burners) are standard equipment in modern PCs, and a large amount of audio enthusiasts are adding separate CD burners to their stereo systems.
CDs store music and other files in digital form – which means, the information on the disc is represented by a series of 1s and 0s. In conventional CDs, these 1s and 0s are represented by millions of tiny bumps and flat areas on the disc's reflective surface. To read
this information, the CD player passes a laser beam over the track. When the laser passes over a flat area in the track, the beam is reflected directly to an optical sensor on the laser assembly. The CD player interprets this as a 1. When the beam passes over a bump, the light is bounced away from the optical sensor. The CD player recognizes this as a 0.
At the simplest level, a hard disk is not that different from a cassette tape. Both cassette tapes and hard discs use the same magnetic recording techniques. Hard disks and cassette tapes also share the major benefits of magnetic storage, the magnetic medium is easily erased and rewritten, and it will be able to remember the magnetic flux patterns stored onto the medium for years.
Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI is the only standard by which electronic musical instruments, computers and software share musical information. MIDI is a rarity in the technological world. MIDI is nothing more than data (a set of instructions).
MIDI data contains a list of events or messages that tell an electronic device (musical instrument, cell phone,) how to generate a certain sound. When you record music onto a computer using MIDI, the software saves the instructions as a .MID file. If you play the .MID file back on an electronic keyboard, its internal synthesizer software follows the instructions to play back the song.
SOFTWARE SEQUENCERS, PLUGINS AND EDITING
A sequencing software package is designed to be loaded into a computer. Software sequencers usually have more features and have the advantage of showing you a lot more information at once because they use the computer's screen and aren't locked into the knobs or buttons or display of the hardware.
There are three basic software devices that work in the software realm of the digiAll 3 of these categories are sometimes referred to as "plugins". They are called that because these are little computer applications that run inside a "host" application, i.e., a sequencer, typically. These plugin devices are considered to be very important, as they have led the software revolution towards our virtual
studios which is changing all recording studios, both home and professional. Today there are few hardware devices left that cannot be outdone by plugins and software. They are: Soft Synths, Soft Samplers and Software Processors. Each sequencer has its preferred
protocol, and may refuse to work with the rest. Cubase Sonar, Logic, Pro Tools LE and Digital Performer all want plugins to follow defined rules, which we will call plugin formats such as VSTi (virtual studio technology instrument), DXi:Cakewalk, AU, short for Audio Units.
At the simplest level, a hard disk is not that different from a cassette tape. Both cassette tapes and hard discs use the same magnetic recording techniques. Hard disks and cassette tapes also share the major benefits of magnetic storage, the magnetic medium is easily erased and rewritten, and it will be able to remember the magnetic flux patterns stored onto the medium for years.
Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI is the only standard by which electronic musical instruments, computers and software share musical information. MIDI is a rarity in the technological world. MIDI is nothing more than data (a set of instructions). MIDI data contains a list of events or messages that tell an electronic device (musical instrument, cell phone,) how to generate a certain sound. When you record music onto a computer using MIDI, the software saves the instructions as a .MID file. If you play the .MID file back on an electronic keyboard, its internal synthesizer software follows the instructions to play back the song. SOFTWARE SEQUENCERS, PLUGINS AND EDITING A sequencing software package is designed to be loaded into a computer. Software sequencers usually have more features and have the advantage of showing you a lot more information at once because they use the computer's screen and aren't locked into the knobs or buttons or display of the hardware. There are three basic software devices that work in the software realm of the digiAll 3 of these categories are sometimes referred to as "plugins". They are called that because these are little computer applications that run inside a "host" application, i.e., a sequencer, typically. These plugin devices are considered to be very important, as they have led the software revolution towards our virtual studios which is changing all recording studios, both home and professional. Today there are few hardware devices left that cannot be outdone by plugins and software. They are: Soft Synths, Soft Samplers and Software Processors. Each sequencer has its preferred protocol, and may refuse to work with the rest. Cubase Sonar, Logic, Pro Tools LE and Digital Performer all want plugins to follow defined rules, which we will call plugin formats such as VSTi (virtual studio technology instrument), DXi:Cakewalk, AU, short for Audio Units. |