Week 4- Lab

After compressing multiple audio samples it seems that the compression lowers the amplitude of the audio wave. The peaks of the wave are affected differently, so that the ‘loudness’ of the audio is level where the human ear will not recognize much change in the amplitude once the compression has been applied.

This also applies to the ‘quiet’ sounds, making the sample louder where we will not hear much variant. This would be used in technology such as CD’s where we have large audio files and a very limited amount of storage.

Compression is also really useful to prevent clipping. Clipping is when an amplifier is pushed too far and attempts to output a voltage out with its capacity and you get an almost buzzing sound.  Compressing the audio file helps reduce the clipping because it reduces the amplitude where clipping may be a problem.

The effects of compression in Soundbooth. The first and last words in the audio file are compressed and the middle wave has not been altered.

Q. Is speech a musical sound?

A. Yes as we all have different bass and treble in our voice, we can alter our voice to sing to where we perceive musical but speech in itself has musical qualities that we use in everyday life but do not notice.

The effects of Reverberation in Soundbooth. The left image is the original, the right has reverberation applied.

Reverberation in enclosed spaces is created by reflections from surrounding walls arriving within short periods of time, for example shouting into a cave, the sound comes back relatively clearly and does not differ in amplitude.

Digital reverb is added by passing the audio signal through a “feedback delay circuit” which creates an echoing effect.

The first test made the signal sound like it had been recorded with a subpar microphone and the second (adding the roller-disco preset) made it sound like it had been recorded underwater.