The document is a glossary of terms related to sound design and production created by a student named Jordan Smith. It contains definitions for over 20 terms gathered from online research and describes how some of the terms relate to Jordan's own production practice. The glossary covers areas such as foley artistry, sound file formats, audio limitations, audio recording systems, audio sampling, and more. For each term, Jordan provides a short definition from an online source as well as occasional comments on their relevance to or experience with the term.

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: Jordan Smith 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 sound effects created for a film (Foley Artistry) Foley Artistry is important for sound
effects in films.
Sound Libraries A place used to store all the sounds Sound libraries are used for filing
sounds and putting them organised in
a folder.
SOUND FILE FORMATS Uncompressed An uncompressed audio file is a type of audio file format used
for the sound.
Uncompressed audio files are
important when working with sound
for the user.
.wav A .wav is a waveform audio file format. A wav is an audio file format used in
many ways, it can be a format that
can only be used to render sounds
and import them somewhere else.
.aiff Audio Interchange File Format is an audio file format standard
used for storing sound data for personal computers and other
electronic audio devices.
I don’t really know much about this,
but storing sound data is important if
you don’t want to lose all your audio.
.au AU stands for Audio Unit. Audio units are key when working
with audio, and are one the first
things to look into when using audio.
.smp SMP stands for (streaming media player). I don’t really have much experience
with this so I can’t really give a good
review of it.
Lossy Compression "lossy" compression is a data encoding method that
compresses data by discarding some of it.
I can’t really explain how to use lossy
compression.
.mp3 a means of compressing a sound sequence into a very small
file, to enable digital storage and transmission.
Mp3 is a common term that almost
everyone in a modern society has

2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
2
heard of. Mp3 players were used by
almost everyone at some time or
another, and is a digital storage and
transmission.
AUDIO LIMITATIONS Sound Processor Unit (SPU) The sound processor unit (SPU) is used to render and process
the sound file.
Rendering a sound file is key, as
without a rendered sound you
basically have nothing.
Digital Sound Processor (DSP) The digital sound processor (DSP) is used to process the sound
files.
The ds is one of the most important
things in the role of audio, it is used
to process the sound files.
Random Access Memory (RAM) RAM is the amount of random access memory available on the
storage system, the more ram the better as it helps to
complete tasks more smoothly.
RAM is the amount of memory the
computer has.
Mono Audio Mono Audio is a setting on iPhone that merge the sound on
both left and right channels to a mono signal and it enhances
audio quality so that you can listen to both channels in either
ear. http://www.ask.com/answers/16932211/what-is-mono-
audio-on-iphone-3gs
The mono setting makes the audio
better and has become more recently
with iPhones.
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/Stereo_audio
Stereo audio is a sound reproduction
that I am not really familiar with.
Surround Sound Surround sound is a mechanic that allows someone to listen to
music, or watch a movie where the sound from the speakers
come from all around you, covering the 360 degree area to
make the quality of the sound more dramatic and realistic so
to speak.
Surround sound is used in many
homes to enhance audio coming from
things such as films/shows and other
entertainment such as games.
Direct Audio (Pulse Code
Modulation – PCM)
Directional Sound refers to the notion of using various devices
to create fields of sound which spread less than most (small)
traditional loudspeakers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directional_sound
I have used directional audio methods
to record sounds in an assignment I
completed.
AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEMS Analogue Analogue describes a device or system that represents
changing values as continuously variable physical quantities.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/analog.html
I am not really familiar with analogue,
so I couldn’t really describe it and its
features to a good degree.
Digital Mini Disc A digital mini disk is a small media file to store information. I have had no experience with a
digital mini disk.
Compact Disc (CD) A digitally encoded disc capable of containing more than one
hour of music at a sampling frequency of 44.1 khz. The data is
A compact disk is a good way of
storing audio as it can holds lots of

3. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
3
read by a laser beam.
https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=gaxXU47iG-
bR8geQ9IG4DQ#q=cd+compact+disc+definition
information.
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
I have never used (DAT OR R-DAT). I
cannot give a good example of its
benefits or weaknesses.
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.
A MIDI is an item I have used during
editing audio, it helps edit and create
audio with sounds such as
instruments and other midi audio
editing options.
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.
A software sequencer is a device or
applications used to
record/edit/playback and do other
things to audio/music.
Software Plug-ins A plug-in is a (sometimes essential) piece of software code
that enables an application or program to do something it
couldn’t by itself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-plugins
Software plugins are important for
editing software.
MIDI Keyboard Instruments A Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) keyboard is a
musical 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
These are easy to use, and if you use
the right one for the audio sequence
you want, it can work well, like I like
to use things such as a piano.
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.
Examples of bit depth include Compact Disc Digital Audio,
which uses 16 bits per sample, and DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc
which can support up to 24 bits per sample.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth
Bity depths is information for each
example used, it shows how much
information is in the piece.
File Size Constraints - Sample Rate Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per
second, measured in Hz or kHz (one kHz being 1 000 Hz). For
example, 44 100 samples per second can be expressed as
either 44 100 Hz, or 44.1 kHz.
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Sample_Rates
I have used this, but it is kind of hard
to explain, the paragraph to the left
should give all the information you
need.

4. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
4