Ricky Grove 00:37
For sound to even exist, there has to be three elements. One, a sound source, such as the sound of my steak burning in the frying pan. Two, the medium, such as air or water, and three, a receiver, such as a mic or your ears, sine waves or the up and down wave. Like images that you see in a sound program like Audacity are visual representations of sound. Above the central line is the high pressure wave. Below is the low pressure wave. A single combination of low and high waves is called a cycle. Now, frequency is determined by combining the number of cycles per second, and it's expressed in hertz, or Hz. One cycle per second is one hertz, the frequency of most human hearing is about 10 octaves. A piano has eight octaves. It starts at 20 hertz and extends all the way up to 20,000 hertz. Frequency is very important to sound design because you can impact the visual narrative by using different frequencies in your sound mix. For example, high frequencies are associated with smaller sound sources, like mice or birds. We also associate youth energy and increased speed with high frequencies. Low frequencies can actually be felt in the body. Remember going to a big action movie and feeling that bass sound start in your feet and just move up. Low frequency sounds influence our perception of vertical movement. You can imply or reinforce downward movement by increasing low frequency sounds. Human speech exists in the 110, hertz to 330, hertz frequency range, if you remove high and low frequencies from a sound, say, from our sizzling steak, you can completely change the nature of the original sound. Now, if we remove the high and low frequencies from my voice, you get that tinny effect you hear in a phone call, or perhaps from a radio in a bomber.

Speaker 2 02:59
Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Phoenix nine. Repeat, this is Phoenix nine. Number one engine is out. We are lowering altitude to 5000 feet. Do you read Delta five? Do you read me

Ricky Grove 03:12
or something like that? And finally, amplitude, or volume, as it's more commonly known, is used to describe the amount of energy represented on a wave form. When a recording is made of a sound source, the resultant wave form is referred to as a signal, and when this signal is converted back to acoustical energy and played on your speakers, increased amplitude results in increased pressure on your ear drums, the tech term for amplitude is decibels. In general, you start with zero decibels for the softest sounds, and as you increase the decibels of a sound source, you increase its dynamic range. Now, dialog is usually the single most important sound element to judge volume levels. That's why a good majority of animation sound designers center the dialog and mix everything else around it. The audience determines the volume of other sound elements in relation to the volume of the dialog. This means that if you've recorded your dialog at too low or too high a decibel level, the audience will have a hard time understanding what is being said, in addition to not being able to appreciate any sound effects you may have included with the dialog, we humans hear best in the mid range frequency dialog can be overwhelmed by sound music that interferes with its frequency range. Oh, let's try that again. Dialog can be overwhelmed by sound music that interferes with its frequency range. Think of how you can hear Gandalf on the Moria bridge in The Lord of the Rings, even though there's music in. Effects playing loudly.

Ricky Grove 05:10
You see, they cut the frequency of the music and the effects right at the frequency range of Gandalf voice, so as to make a little space for his speech in the dynamic range. You can do this too. If you find your dialog is muddy while music and effects are playing, just try lowering the volume four decibels in the other sounds right at around 110 hertz to 330 hertz, and you'll be amazed at how clearer the dialog is now. So in summing up, consider frequency and amplitude in your sound design, your dialog music and effects will mix much better with the visual images. If you do, thanks for listening. You PS, the music you're listening to is by swivel Nick Jones. It's called Exit zero. You can find this and other easily licensed tracks@magnitude.com See you next time you you.