Sound Design - Dynamic Range and Metering

 The dynamic range of any recording is the ratio of the loudest peak to the lowest peak, expressed in decibels or dB. 

The dynamic range comes into play with audio recordings as dynamic ranges that are too wide (bigger difference between bigger and smaller peaks) can be very dynamic but they don't have the "loudness" that is required for a normal listening experience. And recordings that have a narrow dynamic range can be overly compressed and make the recording very loud and eventually remove the energy from the original dynamics. 


 Audiometers are used to measure levels in some capacity or another. Each type of meter has different "ballistics", meaning just how fast the meter responds to the sound it's measuring. 

Meters help us see the gain of the recording and the loudness of the tracks when we mix and also the dynamic ranges of the mixes when we master them. 

When the meter runs over level, it's like a warning that says level it out, as most often than not the audio result is going to be uncomfortably loud and probably distorted. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sound Design - Microphone Types and EQ

Image
 The difference between dynamic and condenser microphones is that dynamic mics use a diaphragm, voice coil, and magnet to pick up sound waves and convert them into electrical signals. Whereas condenser mics use an electrically-charged diaphragm, which vibrates, and an electrical signal is generated proportional to the sound/vibration.  Microphone directionality is the direction from which a microphone gets its sound. Some microphones can only pick up sound from one direction, while others can pick up sound from all directions. The lavalier microphone is ideal for recording audios like dialogues because of its proximity to the speaker's mouth and the signal-to-noise ratio is optimized. It is also convenient due to its size and the fact that it can be attached to the speaker's clothing.   A shotgun microphone is helpful in capturing sounds that come from a distance as they have a long reach and a narrow pickup pattern.  Dynamic microphones are capable of handling ...
Read more

Critique Reflection

  I feel like my group planned out the shots really well as we had enough time to sit down and discuss every single shot we wanted in detail during the storyboarding process itself.  According to my classmates, they seemed to have liked the complexity of the shots, especially the birds-eye shot. They also really like Alex’s killer costume (we liked that too) and also the contrast in the lighting from the beginning to end.  I feel like we could improve on the quality of the shots, learn how to get a much clearer shot in the dark, so that we don’t have a grainy shot whenever the lighting is low.  According to my classmates, maybe the acting could have been a bit more natural and the characters continuity should have stayed.  I think our strengths are that we work together well as a team and are able to thoroughly plan out what we want to do and what we can expect. But I think is out weakness is that different people had different opinions about how a shot should p...
Read more

The Camera - Focal Length and Frame Rate

Image
 The focal length of a lens is the optical distance from the point where the light meets inside the lens to the camera's sensor.  The lower the focal length number the wider angle (zoomed out) view one can attain. The higher the mm number of the lens, them more narrow (zoomed in) the picture/subject is going to be.  One needs to use a lower mm focal length if they are trying to get everything into the picture, like a landscape, where you need to capture everything instead of just the river or just a rock. A higher mm focal lens is used when there is only one subject in the picture that needs to be focused on, like a portrait, or an athlete playing a sport.  Low and High focal lengths (DSLR pictures): Frames per second or FPS is a rate at which back to back images called frames appear in a display and form moving imagery.  Capturing images at a higher frame ensures a higher level of detail and clarity for the amount of motion captured. A higher frame rate also pr...
Read more