Sound Essay

Sound Essay

Basics of sound

Sound is transmitter mechanically through compression and expansion of air. This basically means sound is a vibration traveling through the air. Speaker’s work by recreating this by moving back and forth, manipulating the air around the speaker and creating the vibrations needed to create sound. Microphones record sound by means of a diaphragm whose motion are converted into electric currents, with variations in current corresponding to higher and lower compressions. The ear works in the same way, with the eardrum producing changes in currents that go into your brain.  The sounds we hear, even a steady pitch, are rapidly changing areas of pressure. A steady pressure would not produce any sound.

Analogue vs Digital

nalogue sound is sound that comes directly from the speaker and is unchanged. Digital is like binary code (44,000 sample rate). The sound wave for an analogue is smooth and will stay the same as the original where as digital sound waves are changed. Analogue sounds are only on tapes and records. Digital sound's can be compressed and edited on the computer also you can add effects. Analogue sound takes up little space compared to digital.

Some people prefer analogue because they like their sounds or music to be the original way it was made. Like some people prefer the songs to be recorded live from a concert where you can hear the audience. But others prefer the processed digital sound. They don't want to hear the scratching noises that can get recorded when they are playing. 

Lots of people have different opinions on this but Digital is now becoming more popular and is used for almost everything now.    

Interactive media products

A common sound design principle used in interactive media formats are audio cues. Audio cues are sounds that people can recognize almost instantly without having to think what very hard about what the noise was. They are usually used to alert the user when something happens on screen, so the user is aware of it. An example of this is when you receive a message on Facebook, a short sound plays to alert you of a message. Another example of  sound in interactive media would be the use of Acousmetre. Acousmetre is the sound of a narrator for a video game or film. The narrator speaks throughout the game or movie to tell the story, however they are never visible. This is called a non-diegetic sound, as it would not usually be there.

Functions of sound

There are many different principles for the functions of sound. One of the main purposes of sound functions, is expressing emotion and personalities in entertainment such as movies and games. A great example of this is when there is a sad and emotional scene in a movie. Sad  and thoughtful music will be played to bring out the raw emotions of the viewers. In terms of interactive media there are two types of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sounds are sounds that you would expect to be there, such as the sound of cheering at a race or the sound of planes at an airport. This type of sound is used to make any form of interactive media more realistic. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that yo would not expect to usually be there such as music playing in the back of a scene. This type of sound is usually used to add depth and bring out the emotion of the scene. Both types of sound are used very often, but for completely different purposes.

Paper Prototype

Paper Prototype

My idea is a 3D cube that allows you to listen to different music at random. This music is randomly selected from a huge database within the program . The genre is the only thing you have a choice on but everything else is completely random. This means you really don't know what song your going to listen to meaning you can find new music you might come across new songs you might not know and old classics you have heard before. Each side has a different colour a lot like a rubix cube and each side represents a genre of music. You can change the genres that are assigned to each side if you don't like what's on the side already or if your feeling really brave you can just put it on random so you really could listen to anything. I have made a quick paper prototype to try and give you the general idea of what it might be like. For my paper prototype I have taken a series of pictures of my idea which show's you ruffly what my design and idea is about. 

It starts of with a simple start menu.

Once you click the start menu it brings up the main page where you can choose what you want to do next.

You then click the cube to play a song within the genre of music you have chosen.

You can see what genre by which colour side you click on and the menu on the left which tells you.

You then click the play button to play it.

Or pause button to pause it.

If you do not like the genre of music assigned to each colour/side you may change it.
This means when you later press the side it will play the new genre you have chosen.

As you can see the genre has changed from random to classic for the yellow side of the cube.

Now when you go and press the cube on the yellow side it will change the song displayed at the top of the screen.

As you can see it is now playing Beethoven.

The volume is to loud so you use the volume meter to turn it town.

With the music turnt down he selects the blue side to play some hip-hop

Its now playing Kendrick Lamar

Wire Frame

For my wire frame I have created an exact copy of my paper prototype just in a digital form.

It starts of with a simple start menu.

Once you click the start menu it brings up the main page where you can choose what you want to do next.

You then click the cube to play a song within the genre of music you have chosen.

You can see what genre by which colour side you click on and the menu on the left which tells you.

You then click the play button to play it.

Or pause button to pause it.

If you do not like the genre of music assigned to each colour/side you may change it.
This means when you later press the side it will play the new genre you have chosen.

As you can see the genre has changed from random to classic for the yellow side of the cube.

Now when you go and press the cube on the yellow side it will change the song displayed at the top of the screen.

As you can see it is now playing Beethoven.

The volume is to loud so you use the volume meter to turn it town.

With the music turnt down he selects the blue side to play some hip-hop

As you can see its now playing hip hop music (Kendrick Lamar)

Interface

Interface

What is interface? Interface is a point where two systems, subjects, organization's, ect..., meet and interact.   There are many different types of interface, ranging from computer's to cameras, printers, mobiles and many other electronic devices. The main interface people will be using is the one on your computer. Now a days everyone's desktop is different because there are so many different types and you will very rarely see two desktops which are completely identical. Here are a few examples of different interfaces you might see on your computer. 

  Mac

Here is an example of a Mac desktop. Its very different to what you might see on a windows desktop. For example you wouldn't normally find a tool bar at the bottom on a windows desktop this looks nice but its not always the best thing. For example on a mac desktop they try to move away from having the desktop icons and try to relie just on the tool bar so it looks very clean and slick. Mac focus on appearance over usability.






Window's XP

Now here is an example of a Windows XP desktop. Notice how different it is windows dont have a tool bar. Instead they have a start menu and desktop items.  Windows unlike Mac focus on usability and quick accessibility.  For example its simple and easy to use. You have everything you need on your desktop and if you dont you just click the start menu and its there. Where on a mac if its not on your tool bar you dont have a start menu to go to quickly. Instead you have to use the search bar which is time consuming.

Windows 8

Here is an example of what you might see on a windows 8 desktop and how its changed since windows XP. They have now changed the appearance so its more appealing to the eye of the user. A lot like what mac aim for. But they still have there start menu for the usability. But they have now added more features that you might find useful in everyday life. Like weather, camera, music and games. It also has internet short cuts on you desktop. For example they have a button for your emails. Which takes you directly to hotmail instead of having to open google and search hotmail. This will save a lot of time using this system. If you have a shortcut to everything you need it means no searching around your pc for long period of time. Even if you dont have a short cut there is still a start menu which they left in from the older versions so you wont find your self searching your computer for lost files like you might if you were using a mac.

Something thats just as important as the computer is how your going to use the computer.
For example there are many ways of using a computer now a days. The main way to use a computer is mouse and keyboard. Here is an example of two mouse's which are very different but both very effective in both looks and usability.

The first one I have shown is a Mac magic mouse. This is visually very appealing to the eye. The plain and simple look long side its wireless and slick look is used once again for the mac. But unlike a pc the magic mouse has just one giant track pad. As opposed to the generic left and right click with a scroll wheel between them. On the magic mouse it works a lot like a normal mouse but you can track and click any where on the mouse. The house mouse is a huge track pad because the entire surface is a button. The hole mouse is editable. A great example of how its editable is the left and right click. The right side of the mouse is right click and the left side is a left click but if your left handed you can switch which side the left and right click is on. Magic mouse also takes scrolling to a hole new level. You can scroll vertically to go up or down a page. It also captures the rate of your scroll and continues with the rate of your action.  You can also scroll left or right on the webpage or document. This is something that cant be done on a generic mouse there mouse wheel only goes vertically and not horizontally. But it dosent just  stop there you can also scroll a full 360 degreas to move around a webpage or document easily. I like this feature most on large images if you cant see the hole image. The magic mouse also have a two finger function. The mouse is so clever it senses the amont of fingers your using. You can use this to scroll through photos and music album's, you can even use it to scroll through web pages. The mouse also has all the normal mouse editing features. Like changing your mouse sensitivity, tracking speed or double click speed. Or if you just want to use it as a basic point and click mouse you can turn off all magic mouse functions and use it with just the generic buttons.

The next mouse im going to talk about is the Razor Naga this is made by Razor and its a mouse used for gaming on a pc.

This mouse is again very different to the generic mouse. A lot like the magic mouse its editable maybe not to the same extent as the magic mouse. But its done in a very different way because its used for a different purpose. This mouse is a designed for gaming it has buttons all over it to enhance your gaming experience and make you play better.
It does this by allowing you the option to edit 16 buttons not including the left and right click and scroll wheel. It has 12 buttons on the left of the mouse which you can assign to do what you want. It also has 2 more side buttons on the right of the mouse and another 2 just left of the left click. All of these buttons are editable. This is useful for playing MMO's because you can create macros and assign them to each button. This is something you cant do on the magic mouse because it dosent have any buttons. On this mouse you can even assign more then one button to another button. For example you can click control > Z then assign it to 1 of your 16 buttons meaning when ever you click that button it will go back. This will save you from having to click both buttons at the same time. So its basically a short cut. Another thing you can do on this mouse that you cant do on many other mouses including the magic mouse is change the DPI. Which means dots per inch which is a measure of printing resolution. 


Another hugh rivalry between product interface is the rivalry between Xbox 360 and PS3.
Here is a image of the PS3 dashboard to show what it looks like.

Its layout is very simple and easy to navigate. Along the X axis is shows all the categories
and along the Y axis it shows all the items with-in those categories. This makes is very easy and quick to find everything you need. It is very simple as well which makes it good for all ages and people wont get lost trying to find what they want.

Here is a image of the xbox dashboard.

As you can see there very different. But again they have gone with a very simple approach. In my opinion this dashboard looks a lot better and has a much more stylish feel to it.

But for usability I think the PS3 is better. The PS3 is a lot more simple and you dont risk getting lost looking for something. I know after a while of using the Xbox360 dashboard you wont get lost but if your a first time user it can seem complicated. The xbox dashboard hasn't always looked like this and it has evolved a lot over time.

It started of with this dashboard and as you can see looks wise it isn't at all attractive to the eye. But with this dashboard I think the usability is just as good as the PS3 if not better. It works in pretty much the same format. Where categories work along the X axis and Y axis shows the items within the categories. But microsoft realised that looks are a bigger selling point then usability so they started to change there design.

They then brought out a huge update with the release of there new dashboard look which looks like this.

With this update they added Avatars to give everyone there own personal feel to there dashboard and to make sure everyones dashboard is different and feels like there own.

After that they brought out another design. I feel this design is most like the PS3 dashboard because it is most like the PS3 dashboard. It works with the same X and Y axis. All they have done is change the appearance but it still works in the exact same way as the PS3 dashboard.

But this wasn't good enough. People were getting board of the same easy to use Y and X axis concept, just with a different look and feel to it. So microsoft completely changed there design and went for looks over usability. This is when they came up with there new design which we see today.

This design is so brilliant because its so different. It dosent just work with the Y and X axis, on this design you can navigate freely around to find what you want.  Visually I feel it has a its very sleek and simple, It reminds me a lot of a mac product or design.


The main reason all of these interface's are so successful is because they all try to stick to the "Dont have to think" motto. Which basically means when ever your using the interface it should be just like second nature and you shouldn't have to think to use it. The idea is as soon as you start using it, you know what to do and It just feels natural.

Evaluation 

For my sound toy I had the idea to create a cube that would randomly choose different sounds for you to listen to. This idea came from a website called Stumbleupon which is design to show of cool websites and increase your web knowledge. It does this by randomly searching for sites when you click the Stumbleupon button. My sound toy would work in the same way only with music instead of websites.

I have learnt the basic's of coding on unity and I have also learnt a lot about planning and design techniques like wire framing and paper prototypes.I also increased my presentation skills. But the main thing I learnt about was sound and the making of different sounds. 

I think this unit is important because its skills could be used again in later life. For example the coding could be used for making games or websites, the planning and design techniques could be used for almost any projects. A long with the presentation skills.

The main thing that I think went wrong or wasn't successful is the final outcome which I used Unity to make. I think this the reason this didn't go well was because of Unity/ my knowledge of the program. I think having to learn a hole new program in such a short time was very ambitious.

I could fix these problems by spending less time on the design and idea, and spend more time on the coding and creating the final outcome.