Audio Formats

Which branch of physics study the characteristics of sound?

Acoustics

Sound loudness and volume are measure in

decibel (dB)

When you create the characteristic of sound wave in digital from known as

Digital Audio

To convert analog signal into digital signal we need

Sampling

The gap between samples is known

sampiling periode

Sample per second is known as

Sample rate or hertz

Sampling rate or frequency measured in kilohertz

We have need to represent thousands of frequencies in digital from so we use need bits that is
bit depth. For example 8 bits use to represent 256 different frequencies.Greter bit depth
means better sound

Quantization

Quantization is the process of converting a continuous analog audio signal to a digital signal with
discrete numerical values. Example: In a compact disc, an analog recording is converted to a digital
signal sampled at 44,100Hz and quantized with 16-bits of data per sample

Clipping

Clipping is a form of waveform distortion that occurs when an amplifier is overdriven and attempts

to deliver an output voltage or current beyond its ...

Digital audio is 

Continuous in time

Discrete in time

A waste of time
The sampling process chops the audio up into discrete measurements, which are
quantized in time by the sampling rate (E.G. 44.1kHz) and in amplitude by the
number of bits (E.G. 16 bits) The sampling rate affects the bandwidth and the bit
depth affects the dynamic range (noise level)

The first component in the D/A signal train is an

Anti alliteration filter

Anti apartheid filter

Anti alienation filter 

Anti aliasing filter

Aliasing is a phenomenon whereby false (alias) frequencies are created when there are not enough
samples to fully represent the waveform. A visual form of aliasing is the illusion of wagon wheels
going backward in Westerns. The sampling rate of film is around 30 frames per second.

The purpose of the Anti-aliasing filter is to

Low pass filter the audio at a frequency related to the sampling rate

High pass filter the audio at the sampling rate

The cut off point of the filter has to be less than:-

One third of the sampling rate

The sampling rate

Half the sampling rate

Two thirds of the sampling rate

Define SACD

Super Audio CD OR DVD (SACD) is a read-only optical disc format for audio storage, introduced in
1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics

MIDI MCQS

 The maximum amount of receive or transmit channels for a MIDI device is

 o A. 

18

o B. 

32

o C. 

16

o D. 

127

o E. 

8
 

 2. 
What software program is a MIDI Set Up Utility for Mac OS X?

o A. 

Opcode Music System (OMS)

o B. 

Open music status

o C. 

Free midi

o D. 

Audio midi set up (ams)

o E. 

Open music system

 

 3. 
Which of the following is an example of Continuous Controller Data?

o A. 

A note on message
 o B. 

A note off message

o C. 

A program change

o D. 

A pitch bend

o E. 

None of the above

 

 4. 
The MIDI port that transmits MIDI data is

o A. 

Out port

o B. 

Patch port

o C. 

In port

o D. 

Audio port

o E. 

Omni port
 

 5. 
The value for MIDI velocity data ranges from 

o A. 

1 to 127

o B. 

0 to 127
 o C. 

0 to 256

o D. 

0 to 128

o E. 

1 to 256
 

 6. 
A MIDI interface is used

o A. 

For the transmission and receiption of audio between MIDI devices

o B. 

For the transmission and reception of MIDI signals in/out of a computer

o C. 

Translate MIDI code so that we can read it

o D. 

To route audio signals into the computer

 

 7. 
LOGIC: Which of these windows is not a Logic Editor?

o A. 

Beat editor

o B. 

Piano roll editor

o C. 

Score editor

o D. 

Hyper editor
  

 8. 
Which of the following is NOT true of a MIDI message?

o A. 

One message follows another

o B. 

Used to control MIDI devices

o C. 

Messages are sent and received at the same time

o D. 

All of the above

o E. 

None of the above

 

 9. 
When connecting a computer sequencer to a MIDI device so that it can be
used to  input and playback MIDI data, you would connect 

o A. 

Interface MIDI Out to MIDI Out of device, MIDI In of device to MIDI In of

Interface.

o B. 

Interface MIDI Thru to MIDI Out of device, MIDI In of device to MIDI Out of
Interface.

o C. 

Interface MIDI Out to MIDI In of device, MIDI In of device to MIDI In of

Interface.

o D. 

Interface MIDI Out to MIDI In of device, Midi Out of device to MIDI In of

Interface.

o E. 
 None of the Above
 

 10. 
LOGIC: Which of these is not a type of track in Logic?

o A. 

Audio track

o B. 

Software intstrument track

o C. 

Aux channel strip

o D. 

Midi track

o E. 

Quantization track
 

 11. 
LOGIC: Which one of these windows displays note information graphically?

o A. 

The Event list window

o B. 

The Piano Roll edit window

o C. 

The environment window

o D. 

None of the above

o E. 

All of the above

 

 12. 
 LOGIC: In the arrange window, which tools would be used to divide a MIDI
region in two, and then delete the first segment?

o A. 

Pencil then glue

o B. 

Pencil then eraser

o C. 

Scissors then glue

o D. 

Scissors then eraser

o E. 

Splitter then eraser

 

 13. 
Which of the following commands will switch one sound to a different
sound?

o A. 

Sound change

o B. 

Program change

o C. 

Velocity change

o D. 

None of the above

o E. 

All of the above

 

 14. 
How many bits are in a MIDI word?
 o A. 

10

o B. 

o C. 

16

o D. 

127
 

 15. 
MIDI is an acronym for

o A. 

Multiple instrument direct interface

o B. 

Mutated irate drunken idiots

o C. 

Musical instrument digital interface

o D. 

Musical instructions digital input

 

 16. 
The midi connector uses

o A. 

Four of the five pins, three for data and one for power

o B. 

Two of the five pins, one for data and one for power

o C. 

Three of the five pins, two for power and one for data
 o D. 

All five pins, 3 for power and 2 for data

 

 17. 
LOGIC: Which tab in the Media Area shows only audio files associated with
the current project?

o A. 

Bin

o B. 

Loops

o C. 

Library

o D. 

Browser
 

 18. 
LOGIC: a software instrument track

o A. 

Is used to play vital instruments

o B. 

Has inserts like a regular audio track

o C. 

Records and plays back midi data

o D. 

All of the above

o E. 

None of the aboe

 

 19. 
 LOGIC: to change the sample rate or metronome you must use the project
settings window

o A. 

True

o B. 

False
 

 20. 
LOGIC: Which tool is best suited for: moving regions, looping regions,
changing length of regions?

o A. 

Marquee

o B. 

Pencil

o C. 

Pointer

o D. 

Loop
 

Quick time media player use the extension .mov

MPEG:

Stand for Moving Picture Experts Group that develop MP3 audio Format

Default audio format of apple ACC (Advance Audio Coding) ACC is part of MP4 video
extension

WMA (Window Audio Media) audio format develop by Microsoft to improve MP3

In MP4 video format m4a extension is audio Format

Apple use M4r format for IPhone ringtone

FLV stand for Flash video files contain both audio video stream adopted by
Google,Youtube,Yahoo BCC.com and other new provider on internet
OGG format develop for audio compression by using Vorbis Algorithm so that sometime
it files called Ogg vorbis

Audio comes in a wide range of formats and types, just like video and images. For a media
server operator, knowing your way around the audio jungle is a real plus, potentially saving
you time, effort and some sleepless nights. This blog looks at the three major audio
categories, and gives media server programmers a hot tip on audio format!

Read on…

o Audio codecs and containers?

o Uncompressed audio formats
o Compressed audio formats with lossless compression
o Compressed audio formats with lossy compression
o Which audio format for media servers?

Audio codecs and containers?

Another aspect, as with video codecs and containers, is to distinguish between the coding
format of the audio, the container of the audio data, and the audio codec. The codec handles
the encoding and decoding of the raw (original) audio data and the encoded data is (most
often) stored in a container file. Multimedia container formats such as Matroska (MKV) or
Audio Video Interleave (AVI) by Microsoft support multiple types of audio and video.

So, let’s take a look at the various audio formats. They can be broken down into three main
categories:

 Uncompressed audio formats

 Compressed audio formats with lossy compression
 Compressed audio formats with lossless compression

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Uncompressed audio formats

This is what it sounds like (pun intended), where the audio is completely un-altered from its
original state. It goes without saying that uncompressed files are quite large and will take up a
lot of disk space. The most common uncompressed audio formats are WAV, AIFF, AU, PCM
or BWF.

 BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) is mostly used in the broadcast industry and supports
more meta-data to be stored in the file.
 WAV (Waveform Audio File Format is an audio file format developed by Microsoft
and IBM. It typically contains uncompressed audio and uses the PCM (Pulse-Code
Modulation) format. But beware: a WAV file does not automatically equal
uncompressed audio.
 AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) was developed by Apple and the audio data in
most AIFF files is uncompressed PCM. AIFF-C or AIFC is the compressed version of
AIFF.
 AU is the audio format developed by Sun Microsystems and was found on their
NeXT systems and the early days of the web.
 PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation) defines the process used to convert analog audio into
digital audio signals without compression. The now more-or-less deceased CD
(Compact Disc) brought PCM to consumer audio applications when introduced in
1982.

Compressed audio formats with lossless compression

Lossless compression is a way to reduce (compress) the audio files without losing any
information in the file. The original uncompressed data can be re-created from the
compressed version. Since uncompressed files are very large, lossless compression is a way
to reduce the file sizes.

Lossless compression formats include TTA, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, MPEG-4 SLS,
MPEG-4 ALS, MPEG-4 DST, Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMA Lossless), and
Shorten (SHN) – while the most common formats are:

 FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an open format support for some meta-tags and
album cover art. Audio compressed with FLAC can typically be reduced to between
50 and 70 percent of its original size.
 Monkey's Audio (filename extension .ape) was developed by Matthew T. Ashland
and is slightly better to compress files than FLAC and WavPack, but it requires more
processing power.
 WavPack (filename extension .wv) is a free and open-source audio compression
format under the BSD license. In addition to the lossless compression, it has a
“hybrid” where it creates two files: a high-quality, lossy file (.wv) that can be used
stand-alone, and a "correction" file which, when combined with the lossy file,
provides full lossless restoration.
 ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec - filename extension .m4a) was developed by
Apple. It is also known as Apple Lossless or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE), and was
initially a proprietary codec. Apple made the codec available open source and royalty-
free in 2011.

COMPRESSED AUDIO FORMATS WITH LOSSY

COMPRESSION
Lossy compression gives even smaller files than the lossless files, and this is achieved by
removing some of the audio information and simplifying the data in the files. While the files
become very small – also the audio quality is heavily impacted, depending on the level of
compression.

MP3 is the most known file-format, along with ACC (Apples iTunes format) and
Vorbis.Other formats are Opus, Musepack, ATRAC and Windows Media Audio Lossy
(WMA lossy). 

 MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for
digital audio developed by MPEG (Moving Picture experts Group) and was released
in 1993. It became the de facto standard for poorly compressed audio files in the days
when people could download pirated CDs online from dubious websites. While you
do not need to use maximum compression – a lot of people did.
 ACC (Advanced Audio Coding) was designed to be the successor of the MP3 format,
and AAC in general achieves better sound quality than MP3 at the same bit rate. ACC
was developed by Bell Labs, Fraunhofer Institute, Dolby Labs, Sony and Nokia. It is
the default audio format for known products and services such as YouTube, iPhone,
Nintendo consoles, iTunes and PlayStation.

WHICH AUDIO FORMAT FOR MEDIA SERVERS?

As far as I have found, all media servers support WAV files. While these files tend to get
larger compared to the compressed files, audio files are generally very small compared to the
video files played back by media servers. There should not really be any need to use
compressed audio files with any media server. And we all like to keep things simple 😘 so –
let´s WAV