Broadcast Sound Technology

ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgments1 Basic Sound What are Sound Waves? The Velocity of Sound Waves Wavelength2 The Behavior of Sound Waves Reflection and Diffraction The Inverse Square Law Decibels Measuring Sound Pressure3 Aspects of Hearing The Ear and the Hearing Process The Ear's Response to Different Frequencies Loudness and the Phone4 Harming and Charming the Ear Hearing Impairment Pitch Harmonics Timbre The Fallibility of the Ear5 Room Acoustics Sound Insulation Room Resonances6 Reverberation Reverberation Time Sabine's Formula Optimum Reverberation Times Sound Absorbers7 Microphones Transducers Moving-Coil Microphones Ribbon Microphones Electrostatic Microphones Electret and RF Electrostatic Microphones Directional Characteristics8 Phantom Power 'Standard Phantom', '48 V Phantom' 'Ά-Β Powering', 'Modulation Lead Powering'9 Loudspeakers The Radiating Surface The Transducer The Enclosure Multiple Unit Loudspeakers Specialized Loudspeakers Listening Tests10 Basic Stereo How We Locate Sounds Creating Artificial Time-of-Arrival Differences Phase of Stereo Signals Production of Stereo Signals Coincident Pair Arrangements Coincident Pairs and Panpots-Applications Spaced Microphones Compatibility: the M and S Signals M/S Microphones Headphones and Stereo Transmission of Stereo (Radio)11 Monitoring the Audio Signal The Dynamic Range of an Audio Signal Zero Level The VU (Volume Unit) Meter The PPM (Peak Program Meter) Other Types of Program Measuring Device Stereo PPMs Interpreting Stereo PPM Readings12 Processing the Audio Signal Equalization Compressor/Limiters Noise Gates13 Sockets and Symbols Jacks and Sockets Symbols14 Sound Desks (Mixing Consoles) The Basic Functions of a Sound Desk A Typical Channel Groups Output Stages 'Echo' PA and Foldback Pre-Fade Listen (PFL) and after-Fade Listen (AFL) Clean Feed Multiway Working Deriving Mono from Stereo Communications Computer Assisted Mixing (CAM) Assignable Facilities15 Digital Audio Sampling Quantizing Bits (Binary Digits) Bit-Rate (Bits Per Second) Error Detection16 Further Digits Time Division Multiplex (TDM) Bit-Rate Reduction Basic Sound-in-Syncs (SiS) NICAM 72817 Analogue Tape Recording and Reproduction The Recording Process The Replay Process Record and Replay Equalization Azimuth Full-Size Professional Machines Cassette Machines Cartridge Machines Track Formats18 Digital Recording and Reproduction Principles of Digital Tape Recording and Replay The DASH System R-DAT The Future of Tape Recording? Compact Discs Oversampling19 Noise Reduction Dolby A Dolby B Dolby C Dolby SR ('Spectral Recording') dbx Telecom c420 Public Address Public Address or Sound Reinforcement? Requirements of PA The Problem of Howlround The Choice and Siting of Loudspeakers Choice of Microphones Electrical Processing of The Audio Signal The PA Mixer21 More Uses of Digits Reverberation or Echo? Artificial Reverberation Digital Delay Pitch Change Digital Sound Desks (Digital Mixing) Sampling Digital Editing Time Code MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)Further ReadingIndex