Auditory Perception
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Sound and Recording: An Introduction Sound and Recording: An Introduction Fifth edition Francis Rumsey BMus (Tonmeister), PhD Tim McCormick BA, LTCL AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington MA 01803 First published 1992 Reprinted 1994 Second edition 1994 Reprinted 1995, 1996 Third edition 1997 Reprinted 1998 (twice), 1999, 2000, 2001 Fourth edition 2002 Reprinted 2003, 2004 Fifth edition 2006 Copyright © 2006 Francis Rumsey and Tim McCormick. All rights reserved The right of Francis Rumsey and Tim McCormick to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1T 4LP. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science and Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax: (+44) (0) 1865 853333; e-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com), by selecting ‘Customer Support’ and then ‘Obtaining Permissions’ British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN–13: 978-0-240-51996-8 ISBN–10: 0-240-51996-5 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at: www.focalpress.com Printed and bound in Great Britain 05 06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Fact File Directory xi Preface to the Second Edition xv Preface to the Third Edition xvii Preface to the Fourth Edition xix Preface to the Fifth Edition xxi Chapter 1 What is sound? 1 A vibrating source 1 Characteristics of a sound wave 1 How sound travels in air 3 Simple and complex sounds 4 Frequency spectra of repetitive sounds 5 Frequency spectra of non-repetitive sounds 7 Phase 8 Sound in electrical form 11 Displaying the characteristics of a sound wave 13 The decibel 14 Sound power and sound pressure 16 Free and reverberant fields 18 Standing waves 21 Recommended further reading 24 Chapter 2 Auditory perception 25 The hearing mechanism 25 Frequency perception 26 Loudness perception 28 Practical implications of equal-loudness contours 30 Spatial perception 32 Recommended further reading 40 v vi Contents Chapter 3 Microphones 41 The moving-coil or dynamic microphone 41 The ribbon microphone 42 The capacitor or condenser microphone 45 Directional responses and polar diagrams 46 Specialised microphone types 54 Switchable polar patterns 56 Stereo microphones 57 Microphone performance 59 Microphone powering options 62 Radio microphones 65 Recommended further reading 73 Chapter 4 Loudspeakers 74 The moving-coil loudspeaker 74 Other loudspeaker types 76 Mounting and loading drive units 79 Complete loudspeaker systems 82 Active loudspeakers 85 Subwoofers 86 Loudspeaker performance 87 Setting up loudspeakers 93 Recommended further reading 95 Chapter 5 Mixers 96 A simple six-channel mixer 96 A multitrack mixer 102 Channel grouping 106 An overview of typical mixer facilities 107 Digital mixers 120 EQ explained 121 Stereo line input modules 127 Dedicated monitor mixer 127 Introduction to mixing approaches 128 Basic operational techniques 129 Technical specifications 131 Metering systems 135 Automation 140 Recommended further reading 153 Contents vii Chapter 6 Analogue recording 154 A short history of analogue recording 154 Magnetic tape 156 The magnetic recording process 159 The tape recorder 164 Track formats 169 Magnetic recording levels 170 What are test tapes for? 171 Tape machine alignment 172 Mechanical transport functions 176 The Compact Cassette 178 Recommended further reading 181 Chapter 7 Noise reduction 182 Why is noise reduction required? 182 Methods of reducing noise 182 Line-up of noise reduction systems 188 Operational considerations 190 Single-ended noise reduction 190 Recommended further reading 192 Chapter 8 Digital audio principles 193 Digital and analogue recording contrasted 193 Binary for beginners 195 The digital audio signal chain 199 Analogue to digital conversion 200 D/A conversion 221 Direct Stream Digital (DSD) 222 Changing the resolution of an audio signal (requantisation) 224 Introduction to digital signal processing 227 Audio data reduction 235 Recommended further reading 242 Chapter 9 Digital recording and editing systems 243 Digital tape recording 243 Disk-based systems 254 Sound file formats 264 Consumer digital formats 271 Solid state recording formats 276 Audio processing for computer workstations 276 Disk-based editing system principles 278 Recommended further reading 286 viii Contents Chapter 10 Digital audio applications 287 Editing software 287 Plug-in architectures 290 Advanced audio processing software and development tools 292 Mastering and restoration 294 Preparing for and understanding release media 300 Interconnecting digital audio devices 306 Recommended further reading 324 Websites 324 Chapter 11 Power amplifiers 325 Domestic power amplifiers 325 Professional amplifier facilities 327 Specifications 328 Coupling 333 Chapter 12 Lines and interconnection 334 Transformers 334 Unbalanced lines 337 Cable effects with unbalanced lines 337 Balanced lines 341 Working with balanced lines 342 Star-quad cable 343 Electronic balancing 344 100 volt lines 345 600 ohms 347 DI boxes 350 Splitter boxes 352 Jackfields (patchbays) 354 Distribution amplifiers 358 Chapter 13 Outboard equipment 359 The graphic equaliser 359 The compressor/limiter 362 Echo and reverb devices 363 Multi-effects processors 367 Frequency shifter 368 Digital delay 368 Miscellaneous devices 369 Connection of outboard devices 370 Recommended further reading 372 Contents ix Chapter 14 MIDI and synthetic audio control 373 Background 373 What is MIDI? 375 MIDI and digital audio contrasted 375 Basic principles 377 Interfacing a computer to a MIDI system 380 How MIDI control works 384 MIDI control of sound generators 397 General MIDI 406 Scalable polyphonic MIDI (SPMIDI) 408 RMID and XMF files 409 SAOL and SASL in MPEG 4 Structured Audio 409 MIDI and synchronisation 411 MIDI over USB 415 MIDI over IEEE 1394 416 After MIDI? 417 Recommended further reading 418 Websites 418 Chapter 15 Timecode and synchronisation 419 SMPTE/EBU timecode 419 Recording timecode 422 Synchronisers 424 Recommended further reading 428 Chapter 16 Two-channel stereo 429 Principles of loudspeaker stereo 430 Principles of binaural or headphone stereo 438 Loudspeaker stereo over headphones and vice versa 442 Two-channel signal formats 445 Two-channel microphone techniques 447 Binaural recording and ‘dummy head’ techniques 465 Spot microphones and two-channel panning laws 467 Recommended further reading 468 Chapter 17 Surround sound 469 Three-channel (3-0) stereo 469 Four-channel surround (3-1 stereo) 470 5.1 channel surround (3-2 stereo) 472 Other multichannel configurations 478 x Contents Surround sound systems 480 Matrixed surround sound systems 480 Digital surround sound formats 486 Ambisonics 492 Surround sound monitoring 497 Surround sound recording techniques 501 Multichannel panning techniques 516 Recommended further reading 520 Glossary of terms 521 Appendix 1 Understanding basic equipment specifications 529 Frequency response – technical 529 Frequency response – practical examples 531 Harmonic distortion – technical 533 Harmonic distortion – practical examples 535 Dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio 536 Wow and flutter 537 Intermodulation (IM) distortion 538 Crosstalk 539 Appendix 2 Record players 541 Pickup mechanics 541 RIAA equalisation 545 Cartridge types 546 Connecting leads 547 Arm considerations 548 Laser pickups 549 Recommended further reading 549 General further reading 551 Index 553 Fact File Directory 1.1 Ohm’s law 13 1.2 The decibel 15 1.3 The inverse-square law 17 1.4 Measuring SPLs 19 1.5 Absorption, reflection and RT 20 1.6 Echoes and reflections 23 2.1 Critical bandwidth 28 2.2 Equal-loudness contours 29 2.3 Masking 31 2.4 The precedence effect 34 2.5 Reflections affect spaciousness 37 3.1 Electromagnetic transducers 42 3.2 Dynamic microphone – principles 43 3.3 Ribbon microphone – principles 43 3.4 Capacitor microphone – principles 44 3.5 Bass tip-up 45 3.6 Sum and difference processing 59 3.7 Microphone sensitivity 60 3.8 Microphone noise specifications 61 3.9 Phantom powering 63 3.10 Frequency modulation 67 4.1 Electrostatic loudspeaker – principles 76 4.2 Transmission line system 80 4.3 Horn loudspeaker – principles 81 4.4 A basic crossover network 84 4.5 Loudspeaker sensitivity 89 5.1 Fader facts 99 5.2 Pan control 100 xi xii Fact File Directory 5.3 Pre-fade listen (PFL) 101 5.4 Audio groups 108 5.5 Control groups 109 5.6 Variable Q