1. The document provides definitions for sound design and audio production terms as part of an assignment to create a glossary. 2. The student was asked to research definitions of provided terms and relate each definition to their own production practice. 3. Terms researched included foley artistry, sound libraries, audio file formats like .wav and .aiff, audio limitations regarding hardware, audio recording systems, MIDI, audio sampling concepts like bit depth and sample rate, and other audio software and hardware terms.

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: Jamie Shepherd 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 "A sound effects technique for synchronous effects or live effects"
http://filmsound.org/foley/
We have used this to record some
sound effects for our game audio
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
We have created a sound library to
create the game audio
SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed “Uncompressed audio files are the most accurate digital representation of a
soundwave, but can also be the most resource-intensive method of
recording and storing digital audio, both in terms of storage and
management”
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/uncompressed-audio-file-formats
.wav “WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform Audio File Format, is a Microsoft and
IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs”
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
The pieces of audio that we recorded
were saved in .wav
.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 Computer 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.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.aif
This was not used
.au “the standard audio file format used by Sun, Unix and Java. The audio in au
files can be PCM or compressed with the ulaw, alaw or G729 codecs”
http://www.nch.com.au/acm/formats.html
This was not used
.smp “a motion picture accompanied by synchronized recorded sound”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sound%20motion%20picture
This was not used
Lossy Compression “Lossy file compression results in lost data and quality from the original This was not used

2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
2
version.”
http://www.techterms.com/definition/lossy
.mp3 “MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) is a lossy data compression format for audio.
Using it makes smaller computer files containing digitized music and other
sounds.”
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
This was not used
AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) “The SPU is the unit responsible for all aural capabilities of the psx. It
handles 24 voices, has a 512kb sound buffer, has ADSR envelope filters for
each voice and lots of other features.”
http://psx.rules.org/spu.txt
There is sound card in the computer
so that we could replay the audio
back
Digital Sound Processor (DSP) “Short for digital signal processing, which refers to manipulating analog
information, such as sound or photographs that has been converted into a
digital form. DSP also implies the use of a data compression technique.”
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DSP.html
The DSP is in the computer used
Random Access Memory
(RAM)
“Random access memory (RAM) is the best known form of computer
memory. RAM is considered "random access" because you can access any
memory cell directly if you know the row and column that intersect at that
cell.”
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ram.htm
RA would have been used to run
reaper which was the program we
used to edit the audio
Mono Audio “Mono or monophonic describes a system where all the audio signals are
mixed together and routed through a single audio channel.”
http://www.mcsquared.com/mono-stereo.htm
We recorded in mono because the
audio was being fed into one audio
recording source
Stereo Audio “Stereo or Stereophonic sound is created by two independent audio
channels or speakers and provides a sense of directionality because sounds
can be heard from different directions.”
http://stereos.about.com/od/introductiontostereos/a/soundformats.htm
This was not used
Surround Sound “Surround sound audio is, simply put, sound that completely surrounds you.
It means a speaker in virtually every corner of the room, projecting high-
quality digital sound at you from all angles just as though you were in a
theater.”
http://peripherals.about.com/od/speakersandheadphones/a/whatis_ss.htm
This was not used
Direct Audio (Pulse Code
Modulation – PCM)
“Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent
sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers,
This was not used

3. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
3
Compact Discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a
PCM stream, the amplitude of the analog signal is sampled regularly at
uniform intervals, and each sample is quantized to the nearest value within
a range of digital steps.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation
AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEMS Analogue “Analog (or analogue) recording (Greek, ana is "according to" and logos
"relationship") 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
This was not used
Digital Mini Disc “A compact digital audio disc from Sony that comes in read-only and
rewritable versions.”
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/47064/minidisc
This was not used
Compact Disc (CD) “A compact disc [sometimes spelled disk] (CD) is a small, portable, round
medium made of molded polymer (close in size to the floppy disk) for
electronically recording, storing, and playing back audio, video, text, and
other information in digital form.”
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/compact-disc
This was not used
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) “DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is a standard medium and technology for the
digital recording of audio on tape at a professional level of quality”
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/DAT-Digital-Audio-Tape
This was not used
MIDI Pronounced middy, an acronym for musical instrument digital interface, a
standard adopted by the electronic music industry for controlling devices,
such as synthesizers and sound cards, which emit music.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/MIDI.html
We used these to record audio
directly onto the computer, we used
ones pre-loaded onto reaper
Software Sequencers A sequencing software package 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
a hardware sequencer.
http://www.wannaplaymusic.com/get-started/keyboard-terminology
This was not used
Software Plug-ins There are three broad classes of audio plug-in: those which transform
existing audio samples, those which generate new audio samples through
sound synthesis and those which analyse existing audio samples. Although
all plug-in types can technically perform audio analysis, only specific formats
provide a mechanism for analysis data to be returned to the host.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_plug-in
We used plug-ins to edit our sounds
and also to record them on reaper
MIDI Keyboard Instruments A Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) keyboard is a musical We used the MIDI keyboard to

4. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
4
instrument like a piano keyboard. The MIDI portion indicates that the
instrument has a communication protocol built in that allows it to
communicate with a computer or other MIDI-equipped instrument.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-midi-keyboard.htm
record sounds directly onto reaper
AUDIO SAMPLING File Size Constraints - Bit-
depth
In digital audio , bit depth describes the potential accuracy of a particular
piece of hardware or software that processes audio data. In general, the
more bits that are available, the more accurate the resulting output from
the data being processed.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/bit-depth
We rendered the audio at 16 bits
File Size Constraints - Sample
Rate
The rate at which the samples are captured or played back, measured in
Hertz (Hz), or samples per second. An audio CD has a sample rate of 44,100
Hz, often written as 44 KHz for short. This is also the default sample rate
that Audacity uses, because audio CDs are so prevalent.
http://www.voxforge.org/home/docs/faq/faq/what-are-sampling-rate-and-
bits-per-sample
The bit rate depended on the
different types of the file