The document is a glossary assignment for a games design course requiring research and definitions of sound design and production terms. It contains a template with over 30 terms defined along with their relevance to the student's own production practice. Definitions are from online sources and include terms like foley artistry, sound libraries, file formats like .wav and .mp3, audio hardware and software like MIDI, samplers and plugins.

1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
1
Produce a glossary of terms specific to the methods and principles of sound design and production. Using a provided template, you must
research and gather definitions specific to provided glossary terms. Any definitions must be referenced with the URL link of the website you
have obtained the definition.
You must also, where possible, provide specific details of how researched definitions relate to your own production practice.
Name: RESEARCHED DEFINITION (provide short internet
researched definition and URL link)
DESCRIBE THE RELEVANCE OF THE
RESEARCHED TERM TO YOUR OWN
PRODUCTION PRACTICE?
SOUND DESIGN
METHODOLOGY
Foley Artistry “Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that
are added to film, video, and other mediums in post-
production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced
sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and
footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)
Used in sound design to give an effect of
realism to what the sound’s being used in,
whether it be a games cutscene or
soundtrack.
Sound Libraries “a collection of sounds stored on file (for example on CDs,
DVDs, or as digital audio files)”
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sound-
library
This makes it possible to have multiples of
sounds in one area, usually .wav files and
effects to access more conveniently
SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed “Uncompressing (or decompressing) is the act of expanding
a compression file back into its original form.”
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/uncompressing-or-
decompressing
Giving us the ability to have RAW recordings
as a smaller file and open them up as if they
were regular
.wav “Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or more commonly
known as WAV due to its filename extension) (rarely, Audio
for Windows) is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format
standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
WAV is commonly used to render out edited
files from reaper sound editing software
.aiff “Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format
standard used for storing sound data for personal
computers and other electronic audio devices. The format
was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic
Arts' Interchange File Format (IFF, widely used on Amiga
systems) and is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh
computer systems.”

2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
2
.au “The Au file format is a simple audio file format introduced
by Sun Microsystems. The format was common on NeXT
systems and on early Web pages. Originally it was
headerless, being simply 8-bit µ-law-encoded data at an
8000 Hz sample rate”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_file_format
.smp “SMP files are GIS Files primarily associated with Reason
NN19 Sampler Instrument Patch (Propellerhead Software).
Additional types of files may also be using the SMP file
extension. If you are aware of any other file formats using
the SMP file extension”
http://www.solvusoft.com/en/file-extensions/file-
extension-smp/
Lossy Compression “"lossy" compression is data encoding that uses inexact
approximations for representing the content that had been
encoded”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossy_compression
.mp3 “An encoding format for digital audio which uses a form of
lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for
consumer audio streaming or storage”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
Used to commonly store music files and
regular data for working with music
AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) “an internal computer expansion card that facilitates the
input and output of audio signals to and from a computer
under control of computer programs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_card
Used to play sounds from the computer,
useful for all forms of sound engineering
and it’s possible to have multiples of them,
making reaper easier editable being able to
hear the end product as you work with it
Digital Sound Processor (DSP) “The goal of DSP is usually to measure, filter and/or
compress continuous real-world analog signals. The first
step is usually to convert the signal from an analog to a
digital form, by sampling and then digitizing it using an
analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which turns the analog
signal into a stream of numbers.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processing
Random Access Memory (RAM) “Random-access memory is a form of computer data
storage. A random-access memory device allows data items
Normally usable with multiples of processes
coming from the computer and it’s

3. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
3
to be read and written in roughly the same amount of time
regardless of the order in which data items are accessed.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory
programmes, such as running multiple
sound recording, uploading and editing in
an instance.
Mono Audio “Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often
shortened to mono) is single-channel. Typically there is only
one microphone, one loudspeaker, or (in the case of
headphones and multiple loudspeakers) channels are fed
from a common signal path.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaural
Used with most songs and have lack of ‘pan’
or sound direction.
Stereo Audio “Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo, is a
method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of
directionality and audible perspective.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound
Used when editing ‘Pan’ in reaper sound
production/editing to give an effect of
realism and sound passing differently as it
passes
Surround Sound “Surround sound is a technique for enriching the sound
reproduction quality of an audio source with additional
audio channels from speakers that surround the listener,
providing sound from a 360° radius in the horizontal plane
(2D) as opposed to "screen channels" originating only from
the listener's forward arc.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surround_sound
Surround sound comes In all directions,
giving more realism than stereo sound as it
is in all directions as we detect where it’s
coming from.
Direct Audio (Pulse Code
Modulation – PCM)
“Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally
represent sampled analog signals.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation
AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEMS Analogue “Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of
analog signals which among many possibilities include audio
frequency, analog audio and analog video information for
later playback.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_recording
Digital Mini Disc “The MiniDisc (MD) is an obsolete magneto-optical disc-
based data storage device for 74 minutes and, later, 80
minutes, of digitized audio or 1 gigabyte of Hi-MD data.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc
Compact Disc (CD) “Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage
format. The format was originally developed to store and
play back sound recordings only, but was later adapted for
storage of data.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc
Usable to obtain, burn, save and download
sound and audio files onto, making them
transferrable.

4. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
4
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) “Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a signal recording and
playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in
1987.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape
Usable to transfer sound files or play them
back
MIDI “MIDI is a technical standard that describes a protocol,
digital interface and connectors and allows a wide variety of
electronic musical instruments, computers and other related
devices to connect and communicate with one another.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI
Using midi in reaper allows virtual
instruments to be made/customized
Software Sequencers “A music sequencer (or simply sequencer) is a device or
application software that can record, edit, or play back
music, by handling note and performance information in
several forms, typically MIDI or CV/Gate, and possibly audio
and automation data for DAWs and plug-ins.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_sequencer
Using these makes it possible to make
sequenced music with a virtual instrument,
commonly synthesisers
Software Plug-ins “In computing, a plug-in (or plugin, extension, or add-on /
addon) is a software component that adds a specific feature
to an existing software application.”
This makes it possible to add more VST and
VSTi’s to reaper, as well as JS plugins
MIDI Keyboard Instruments “A MIDI keyboard is typically a piano-style user interface
keyboard device used for sending MIDI signals or commands
over a USB or MIDI cable to other devices connected and
operating on the same MIDI protocol interface.”
Simulates sounds given from a keyboard
and plays them within computers
applications such as garageband or reaper.
AUDIO SAMPLING File Size Constraints - Bit-depth “In digital audio using pulse-code modulation (PCM), bit
depth is the number of bits of information in each sample,
and it directly corresponds to the resolution of each
sample.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth
File Size Constraints - Sample
Rate
In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a
continuous signal to a discrete signal. A common example is
the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of samples.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(signal_processing)