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Sound

Specialty Definition: Sound

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Specialty Definition: Academy Award for Sound

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

1930 The Big House, Douglas Shearer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1931 Paramount Publix Studio Sound Department

1932 Paramount Publix Studio Sound Department

1933 A Farewell to Arms, Franklin B. Hansen, Paramount Studio

1934 One Night of Love, John Livadary, Columbia Studio

1935 Naughty Marietta, Douglas Shearer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1936 San Francisco, Douglas Shearer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1937 The Hurricane, Thomas T. Moulton, United Artists Studio

1938 The Cowboy and the Lady, Thomas T. Moulton, United Artists Studio

1939 When Tomorrow Comes, Bernard B. Brown, Universal Studio

1940 Strike Up the Band, Douglas Shearer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1941 That Hamilton Woman, Jack Whitney, General Service

1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy, Nathan Levinson, Warner Brothers Studio

1943 This Land Is Mine, Stephen Dunn, RKO Radio Studio

1944 Wilson, E. H. Hansen, 20th Century-Fox Studio

1945 The Bells of St. Mary's, Stephen Dunn, RKO Radio Studio

1946 The Jolson Story, John Livadary, Columbia Studio

1947 The Bishop's Wife, Gordon Sawyer, Samuel Goldwyn Studio

1948 The Snake Pit, Thomas T. Moulton, 20th Century-Fox Studio

1949 Twelve O'Clock High, Thomas T. Moulton, 20th Century-Fox Studio

1950 All About Eve, Thomas T. Moulton, 20th Century-Fox Studio

1951 The Great Caruso, Douglas Shearer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1952 Breaking the Sound Barrier, London Film Sound Department

1953 From Here to Eternity, John P. Livadary, Columbia Studio

1954 The Glenn Miller Story, Leslie I. Carey, Universal-International Studio

1955 Oklahoma, Fred Hynes, Todd-AO Sound Department

1956 The King and I, Carl Faulkner, 20th Century-Fox Studio

1957 Sayonara, George Groves, Warner Brothers Studio

1958 South Pacific, Fred Hynes, Todd-AO Sound Department

1959 Ben-Hur, Franklin E. Milton, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1960 The Alamo, Fred Hynes, Todd-AO Sound Department and Gordon E. Sawyer, Samuel Goldwyn Studio

1961 West Side Story, Gordon E. Sawyer, Samuel Goldwyn Studio and Fred Hynes, Todd-AO Sound Department

1962 Lawrence Of Arabia, John Cox, Shepperton Studio

1963 How The West Was Won, Franklin E. Milton, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1964 My Fair Lady, George R. Groves, Warner Brothers Studio

1965 The Sound Of Music, James P. Corcoran, 20th Century-Fox Studio

1966 Grand Prix, Franklin E. Milton, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio

1967 In the Heat of the Night, Samuel Goldwyn Studio

1968 Oliver, Shepperton Studio

1969 Hello, Dolly, Jack Solomon, Murray Spivack

1970 Patton, Douglas Williams, Don Bassman

1971 Fiddler on the Roof, Gordon K. McCallum, David Hildyard

1972 Cabaret, Robert Knudson, David Hildyard

1973 The Exorcist, Robert Knudson, Chris Newman

1974 Earthquake, Ronald Pierce, Melvin Metcalfe Sr.

1975 Jaws, Robert L. Hoyt, Roger Heman, Earl Madery, John Carter

1976 All the President's Men, Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Jim Webb

1977 Star Wars, Don MacDougall, Ray West, Bob Minkler, Derek Ball

1978 The Deer Hunter, Richard Portman, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin, Darin Knight

1979 Apocalypse Now, Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, Nat Boxer

1980 The Empire Strikes Back, Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Peter Sutton

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark, Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Roy Charman

1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo, Gene Cantamessa

1983 The Right Stuff, Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Randy Thom, David MacMillan

1984 Amadeus, Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Todd Boekelheide, Chris Newmna

1985 Out of Africa, Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, Peter Handford

1986 Platoon, John K. Wilkinson, Richard Rogers, Charles "Bud" Grenzbach, Simon Kaye

1987 The Last Emperor, Bill Rowe, Ivan Sharrock

1988 Bird, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore, Willie D. Burton

1989 Glory, Donald O. Mitchell, Gregg C. Rudloff, Elliot Tyson, Russell Williams II

1990 Dances With Wolves, Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, Greg Watkins, Russell Williams II

1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Lee Orloff

1992 The Last of the Mohicans, Chris Jenkins, Doug Hemphill, Mark Smith, Simon Kaye

1993 Jurassic Park, Gary Summers, Gary Rydstrom, Shawn Murphy, Ron Judkins

1994 Speed (movie), Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow, Bob Beemer, David R. B. MacMillan

1995 Apollo 13, Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, David MacMillan

1996 The English Patient, Walter Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, Chris Newman

1997 Titanic, Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano

1998 Saving Private Ryan, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Ronald Judkins

1999 The Matrix, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, David Lee

2000 Gladiator, Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, Ken Weston

2001 Black Hawk Down, Michael Minkler, Myron Nettinga, Chris Munro

2002 Chicago - Michael Minkler, Dominic Tavella, David Lee

Gangs of New York - Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, Ivan Sharrock

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek

Road to Perdition - Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, John Pritchett

Spider-Man - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Ed Novick

See also: Academy Award

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Academy Award for Sound."

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Acoustics

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Acoustics is a branch of physics and is study of sound, mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician. The application of acoustics in technology is called acoustical engineering. There is often much overlap and interaction between the interests of acousticians and acoustical engineers.

"... acoustics is characterized by its reliance on combinations of physical principles drawn from other sources; and that the primary task of modern physical acoustics is to effect a fusion of the principles normally adhering to other sciences into a coherent basis for understanding, measuring, controlling, and using the whole gamut of vibrational phenomena in any material medium." Origins in Acoustics. F.V. Hunt. Yale University Press, 1978

The main sub-disciplines of acoustics are

Aeroacoustics is the study of how sound and gas flow interact and has particular application to aeronautics, examples being the study of sound made by jets and the physics of shock waves (sonic booms).

Architectural Acoustics is the study of how sound and buildings interact including the behavior of sound in concert halls and auditoriums but also in office buildings, factories and homes.

Bioacoustics is the study of the use of sound by animals such as whales, dolphins and bats.

Biomedical Acoustics is the study of the use of sound in medicine, for example the use of ultrasound for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Engineering Acoustics is the study of how sound is generated and measured by loudspeakers, microphones, sonar projectors, hydrophones and ultrasonic transducers and sensors.

Musical Acoustics is the study of the physics of musical instruments and the analysis of musical sounds.

Psychoacoustics or Psychological and Physiological Acoustics is the study of how people react to sound, hearing and perception.

Physical Acoustics is the study of the detailed interaction of sound with materials and fluids and includes, for example, sonoluminescence (the emission of light by bubbles in a liquid excited by sound ) and thermoacoustics (the interaction of sound and heat).

Speech Communication is the study of how speech is produced, the analysis of speech signals and the properties of speech transmission, storage, recognition and enhancement.

Vibration Acoustics Structural Acoustics and Vibration is the study of how sound and mechanical structures interact and includes the transmission of sound through walls and the radiation of sound from vehicle panels.

Ultrasonics is the study of high frequency sound, beyond the range of human hearing.

Underwater Acoustics is the study of the propagation of sound in the oceans.

A sound wave is characterized by its speed, its wavelength and its amplitude. The speed of sound depends on the medium through which the sound travels and also depends on temperature. The speed of sound is about 340 m/s in air and 1500 m/s in water. The wavelength is the distance from one wave peak to the next. The wavelength, of a sound wave is related to the speed of sound and its frequency by

.

Sound pressure level

The amplitude of a sound wave is most commonly characterized by its pressure. In a normal working environment, a very wide range of sound pressure can occur and so it is the convention that sound pressure is measured on a logarithmic scale using the decibel. If is the rms sound pressure amplitude then the sound pressure level (SPL) is defined as 10 times the logarithm of the square of the ratio of the pressure to some reference pressure.

The reference pressure is by convention 20 µPa (10^{−6 Pa}) in air and 1 µPa in water.

When speaking of sound levels, one must be sure to differentiate between sound pressure levels and sound power levels. Sound pressure levels are recorded by microphones and other devices. This is a measurement of the amount of pressure in the air being sensed at a given location. It follows that its value can be determined through direct experimentation. In comparison, sound power levels are a measurement of the actual energy being put into use by a given device to create noise. Because of environmental factors, and other influences, the amount of energy a device devotes to creating sound may not be equal to the actual level of the sound as it's perceived. Sound power measurements cannot be directly measured, and must be infered through other data.

Measurement methods

There are two popular ways for scientists to perform acoustical measurements. They include a "direct method", and a "comparison method". The direct method computes sound power levels by computing an equation of environmental factors (such as room temperature, humidity, reverberation time, etc.) and sound pressure levels. A more precise implementation of this method can be found in the ISO3745 acoustics standard. The comparison method however, is conducted by measuring sound pressure levels from a reference sound source which emits a known, constant, sound power level, and then comparing that level with the sound pressure level of the object being recorded. Each way is equally valid and accurate.

Reverberation and anechoic rooms

Experiments such as the two methods mentioned above are sometimes performed in reverberation rooms, or in some cases, anechoic rooms. The design of a reverberation room is to create long lasting echoeses of sound waves. This helps create a highly averaged and omnidirectional sound level throughout the entire chamber. A typical example of rooms with characteristics similar to reverberation rooms are concrete tunnels, caves, etc. Anechoic rooms, such as hemi-anechoic rooms, or fully anechoic rooms are created to simulate what is called a free field. A free field is the representation of a theoretical infinite plan, in which no sound wave reflections, or echoes, take place. In rooms such as these, the only sounds which exist are being emitted directly from the source, and are not reflected from another part of the chamber. Anechoic rooms have the characteristic of being muted, muffled, and silent.

More specialized areas of acoustics include, but are not limited to, tonal analysis, sound quality assessments, and noise control.

Subfields and related fields of acoustics:

• Structural acoustics
• Noise control
• Room acoustics
• Concert hall acoustics
• Musical instruments
• Underwater acoustics
• Audio signal processing
  • Audio storage
  • Sound synthesis
  • Speech processing
• Psychoacoustics

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acoustics."

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Audio

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Audio can mean:

• sound audible to humans
• electronic or other signals of frequencies audible to humans (about 30-12KHz)
• broadcasting or reception of sound
• high-fidelity sound reproduction
• sound recording and reproduction in general

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Audio."

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Audio file format

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An audio file format is a file format for storing audio data on a computer system. There are many file formats for storing audio files.

It's important to distinguish file format and codec, even though most audio file formats support only one audio codec.

As of 2002, one of the most popular audio file formats was MP3, which uses the MPEG audio layer 3 codec to provide acceptable lossy compression for music files.

There are many newer audio formats and codecs, claiming to achieve improved compression and quality vs. MP3. Ogg Vorbis is an unpatented, free codec. Microsoft has its Windows Media Audio format.

Lossless compression of sound is not nearly as widely used outside of professional applications, as lossy compression can provide a much greater data compression ratio, with nearly the same apparent quality.

There are many uncompressed data formats, most popular of them being WAV, which is a flexible file format designed to store multiple types of audio data. It is a good file format for storing and archiving the original recording. A similar approach can be found in the AIFF format.

See also: audio compression

External links

• libsndfile, an LGPLd library that can read and write many audio file formats

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Audio file format."

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Consonant

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A consonant is a sound in spoken language (or a letter of the alphabet denoting such a sound) that has no sounding voice (vocal sound) of its own, but must rely on a nearby vowel with which (con = Latin for "with") it can sound (sonant). Some consonants can function like vowels (in that they occasionally occupy the nucleus of the syllable), like Czech [r] in krk 'neck' or English [m] in (disyllabic) prism. The sounds [j] as in English yoke and [w] as in English woman are sometimes called semivowels, because although they function as consonants in some languages (e.g. English or Latin), phonetically they are vowel-like, or to be more exact, are very short realizations of [i] and [u] respectively.

Consonant letters in the Latin alphabet are BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZ. The letter Y stands for a consonant in yoke but for a vowel in myth. Originally, Y was a vowel letter in Greek, representing [u] (later on, front rounded [y], and in Modern Greek, [i]), and it normally has the sound value [y] in German, in Finnish and other Scandinavian languages. The letter Y nicely shows how letters change their function. In Afrikaans, Y denotes the diphthong [EI], probably as a result of mixing lower case i and y. In Dutch, Y appears only in loanwords and is usually pronounced [i]. Italian, too, has Y only in very few loanwords.

Obviously, consonants and vowels are difficult to transcribe adequately with the alphabet we use in everyday life. Therefore, linguists have devised phonetic alphabets such as the IPA alphabet or the computer readable SAMPA script.

Consonants are distinguished mainly by voice, manner and place of articulations.

Approximants are sounds between consonants and vowels.

English consonants arranged according to these properties (horizontal - manner; vertical - place), with voiceless and voiced consonants given in the form [t]-[d], and rounded forms marked by an asterix:

	Stops	Fricatives	Affricates	Nasals	Approximants
Bilabial	[p]-[b]			[m]
Labiodental		[f]-[v]
Dental		[T]-[D]
Alveolar	[t]-[d]	[s]-[z]		[n]	[l], [r]
Palatoalveolar		[S]-[Z]	[tS]-[dZ]
Palatal					[j]
Velar	[k]-[g]			[N]	[w] (rounded)
Glottal					[h] (voiceless)

See stop, fricative, affricate, nasal, approximant, bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatoalveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, glottal, retroflex.

Remarks

Traditionally the above diagram is shown with place of articulation in the horizontal direction and manner of articulation in the vertical direction. (Perhaps somebody might redo this with a HTML-table)

For English speakers, [D] is as in this, [j] as in you, [N] as in song, and [T] as in thing. There are actually two sorts of [l], the normal one as in liquid and a velarized form as in all. [t] and [d] are usually alveolar in Germanic languages but dental e.g. in Slavic and Romance languages, and postalveolar in the affricates [tS] and [dZ].

Many languages also distinguish between aspirated and unaspirated stops, depending on whether there is a release of air after the noise. A stop can also release easily into a fricative, giving us what is called an affricate. Finally, voice refers to whether or not the vocal chords are moving, so we have both voiced and voiceless consonants.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Consonant."

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Öresund

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Öresund (Swedish spelling) or Øresund (Danish spelling), or sometimes The Sound in English, is the strait that separates Zealand from Scania, and thereby Denmark from Sweden. Öresund connects the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic Ocean via the bay of Kattegat, and is one of the busiest waterways in the world.

Political control of Öresund has been an important issue in Danish (and Swedish) history. Danish military control was maintained with the coastal fortress of Kronborg at Elsinore (Danish: Helsingør) on the western side, and Kärnan at Helsingborg on the eastern side, of Öresund's neck, where the strait is only 4.5 kilometers wide.

In 1429 King Eric of Pomerania introduced the Øresund-Toll. Every ship passing Elsinore had to pay duty to the Danish Crown (regardless if the cargo was en route to or from Denmark or not). The Øresund-Toll was for centuries the Crown's most important income, making the kings relatively independent of Denmark's Privy Council and aristocracy. After 1658, when Terra Scania was ceded to Sweden, the toll could not be enforced as before, but it wasn't abolished until 1857.

A bridge across the sound, the Oresund Bridge, was inaugurated in July 2001 by the King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and Queen Margaret II of Denmark.

Notable islands

• Amager
• Saltholm
• Peberholm - an artificial island
• Ven

External links

• Öresundskonsortiet - Official web site of the bridge builders

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Öresund."

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Phoneme

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word. A phoneme may well represent categorically several phonetically similar or phonologically related sounds (the relationship may not be so phonetically obvious, which is one of the problems with this conceptual scheme).

Depending on the language and the alphabet used, a phoneme may be written consistently with one letter; however, there are many exceptions to this rule (especially in English).

When representing phonemes in linguistic writing, it is common to use 'slash' markers as quotes around the symbol that stands for the sound. For example, the phoneme for the initial consonant sound in the word "phoneme" would be written as /f/. In other words, the English grapheme is , but this digraph represents one sound /f/. Allophones, real speech variants of a phoneme, are often denoted in linguistics by the use of diacritical or other marks added to the phoneme symbols and then placed in square brackets [ ] to differentiate them from the phoneme in slant brackets / /. The conventions of orthography are then kept separate from both phonemes and allophones by the use of the markers < > to enclose the spelling.

The symbols of the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) and extended sets adapted to a particular language are often used by linguists to write phonemes, with the principle being one symbol=one categorical sound. However, there is an augmented set for writing the IPA exclusively in plain text, and it is these conventions which are used in this article.

Examples of phonemes in the English language would include sounds from the set of English consonants, like /p/ and /b/. These two are most often written consistently with one letter for each sound. However, phonemes might not be so apparent in written English, such as when they are typically represented with combined letters, called digraphs, like (= SAMPA /S/) or (= SAMPA /tS/).

Phonology, or more specifically, phonemics, is the study of the system of phonemes of a language, although some conceptualize phonology as encompassing far more than sound segments. Thus phonology can be used as a more general term subsuming phonemics.

What may be an allophone (a sound variant belonging to the same phoneme category) in one language may be a phoneme itself in another language. In English, for example, [p] has aspirated and non-aspirated allophones, e.g. aspirated in /pIn/, but non-aspirated in /spIn/. However, in some languages (e.g., Ancient Greek), aspirated /p^h/ was a phoneme distinct from both unaspirated /p/ and /b/. As another example, there is no distinction between /r/ and /l/ in Japanese, there is only one /r/ phoneme in Japanese, although the Japanese /r/ has allophones that make it sound more like an /l/ or /d/ to English speakers. The sounds /z/ and /s/ are distinct phonemes in English, but allophones in Spanish. /dZ/ (as in ) and /Z/ (as in , ) are phonemes in English, but allophones in Italian.

A sound that is a single phoneme in one language may be a phoneme cluster in another. For instance, /buts/ means leg-covering footwear in English and consists of four phonemes /b u t s/; but in Hebrew it means a kind of cloth and consists of only three phonemes /b u ts/.

The phoneme is a structuralist abstraction that was later adapted to and formally psychologized in generative linguistics (after Chomsky and Halle). Rather than a basic mental unit of language, however, it may well be a perceptual artifact of alphabetic literacy (see the terms Phonemic awareness and Phonological awareness). If not that, it may be an epiphenomenal aspect to listening removed from face-to-face encounters, that is, text-like listening. Cf. Phone and Feature.

Phonological extremes

Of all the speech sounds that a human vocal tract can create, different languages vary considerably in the number of these sounds that they consider to be distinctive. Some dialects of Abkhaz have only 2 vowels, and many Native American languages have 3, while Punjabi has over 25. Rotokas (spoken in Papua New Guinea) has only 6 consonants, while !Xu~ (spoken in southern Africa, in the vicinity of the Kalahari desert) has over 100. The total number of phonemes in languages varies from as few as 11 in Rotokas and 12 in Hawaiian to as many as 141 in !Xu~. These may range from familiar sounds like [t], [s] or [m] to very unusual ones produced in extraordinary ways (see: Click consonant, phonation, airstream mechanism). The English language is pretty close to average, using 13 vowels and over 30 consonants. This differs from the lay definition based on the Latin alphabet, where there are 21 consonants and 5 vowels (although sometimes y and w are included as vowels).

The most common vowel system consists of five vowels: /i/,/e/,/a/,/o/,/u/.
The most common consonants are /p/,/t/,/k/. Not all languages have these; the Hawai'ian language lacks /t/, and the Mohawk language lacks /p/, but all known languages have at least two of the three. If one of the three is missing, the language will have /'/ (glottal stop).
Possibly the rarest sound is the one represented by "r hacek" (found in the name Dvorak) in the Czech language; it appears to be unique to the language.

Only the Dyirbal language of Australia uses six (primary or contrastive) places of articulation; all other languages use fewer. The possible places of articulation include bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal, retroflex, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal.

A language where one letter represents only one phoneme and one phoneme is representing only a letter, is called phonetic idiom, like Esperanto or Serbian.

See also minimal pair.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Phoneme."

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Sound

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

''This article is about compression waves. In geography, a sound is a large ocean inlet, or a narrow ocean channel between two bodies of land.

A urethral sound is a medical instrument used for dilating the urethra.''

Sound is defined as mechanical compression or longitudinal waves that propagate through a medium (solid, liquid or gas). Most sounds are combinations of signals, but a theoretical pure sound can be described as having a given speed of oscillation or frequency measured in hertz (Hz) and amplitude or energy with measures such as decibel level. The range of sound audible to the human ear falls roughly between 20 Hz and 20 kHz at typical amplitudes with wide variations in response curves. Above and below this range are ultrasound and infrasound, respectively.

Humans and several animals perceive sounds with the sense of hearing with their ears, but low frequency sounds can also be felt by other parts of the body. Sounds are used in several ways, most notably for communication through speech or, for example, music. Sound perception can also be used for acquiring information about the surrounding environment in properties such as spatial characterics and presence of other animals or objects. For example, bats use one sort of echo-location for flying. Ships and submarines use sonar. Humans acquire and use spatial information perceived in sounds.

The perceived "amount" of sound (energy of pressure wave) is defined as loudness and measured in sones. The human ear is most sensitive to sound in the middle of the audible frequency range. The amplitude of a sound wave is measured in pascals, and the intensity of a sound is measured in decibels relative to a stated scale. The minimum audible sound intensity across all audible frequencies is defined as the Absolute Threshold of Hearing (ATH).

Scientific studies of sound are generally classified under the field of acoustics. Perception of sounds, i.e. hearing, are studied in psychoacoustics, which also implies the close relation between perception and psychology. Modelling the sounds that can be heard (and leaving out the inaudible sounds) is discussed in the psychoacoustic model. Further, the class of techniques and methods involving sound processing are usually called audio signal processing methods.

The hearing range varies between different animals: Bats have an unsually large one, while frogs have a narrow one. Typical frequencies (in hertz) are listed below:

• Bat: 100 - 100,000 Hz
• Dog: 10 - 35,000 Hz
• Elephant: 1 - 20,000 Hz
• Frog: 100 - 2,500 Hz
• Human: 20 - 20,000 Hz

See Also

• Music
• Sound reproduction
• Sound proofing
• Demonstrating sound waves on an oscilloscope
• Voyager Golden Record

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sound."

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Sound (geography)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In geography a sound is a large ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, wider than a fjord, or it may identify a narrow ocean channel between two bodies of land (see also strait).

Traditionally, in British and northern European usage, the Sound is the Oresund, the strait that separates Denmark (the Danish island of Sjaelland) and Sweden, the narrow channel (2.5 miles or 4 kilometers wide) that connects the Kattegat with the Baltic Sea.

There is little consistency in the use of 'sound' in English-speaking cartography.

In the United States, Long Island Sound separates Long Island from the coast of Connecticut, but on the Atlantic Ocean side of Long Island, the body of water between it and its barrier beaches is the Great South Bay. Pamlico Sound is a similar lagoon that lies between North Carolina and its barrier beaches, the Outer Banks, in a similar situation. On the West Coast, Puget Sound, by contrast, is a deep arm of the sea.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sound (geography)."

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Sound card

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A sound card is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under program control.

A typical sound card includes a sound chip usually featuring a digital to analog converter that converts recorded or generated digital waveforms of sound into an analog format. This signal is led to a (earphone-type) connector where a cable to an amplifier or similar sound destination can be plugged in.

Also, a sound card has a "line in" connector where the sound signal from a cassette tape recorder or similar sound source can be connected to. The sound card can digitize this signal and store it (controlled by the corresponding computer software) on the computer's hard disk.

The third external connector a typical sound card has, is used to connect a microphone directly. Its sound can be recorded to hard disk or otherwise processed (for example, by speech recognition software or for Voice over IP).

One of the first manufacturers of sound cards for the IBM PC was AdLib. This set the de facto-standard until Creative Labs produced the Sound Blaster card.

Early soundcards could not record and play simultaneously. Most soundcards are now full-duplex.

In the late 1990s, many computer manufacturers began to replace plug-in soundcards with a codec integrated into the motherboard. Many of these used Intel's AC97 specification.

Driver architecture

To use a sound card, a certain operating system typically requires a specific device driver.

• Microsoft Windows uses proprietary drivers supplied by sound card manufacturers and supplied to Microsoft for inclusion in the distributions. Sometimes drivers are also supplied by the individual vendors for download and installation.
• The Linux kernel used in the Linux distributions have two different driver architectures, the Open Sound System and ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). Both include drivers for most cards by default. Sound card manufacturers seldom produce stand-alone drivers for Linux.

See also

• Computer hardware
• A3D
• OSS and ALSA
• Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)

Originally based on a FOLDOC entry

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sound card."

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Soundness

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An argument is sound if, and only if, (1) the argument is valid and (2) all of its premises are true.

So suppose we have a sound argument:

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

In this case we have an argument where, first, if the premises are all true, then the conclusion must be true (i.e., the argument is valid); and, second, it so happens that the premises are all true. It follows that the conclusion must be true. That is the nice thing about soundness: if you know an argument is sound, then you know that its conclusion is true. By definition, all sound arguments have true conclusions. So soundness is a very good quality for an argument to have.

In mathematical logic, a formal deduction calculus is said to be sound with respect to a given logic (i.e. wrt its semantics) if every statement that can be derived within this calculus is a tautology of the logic. Stated differently, this says that everything that can be formally (syntactically) calculated is semantically true. The reverse condition is called completeness.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Soundness."

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Strait

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A strait is a narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water, and thus lies between two land masses. The terms strait, channel, and passage can be synonymous and interchangeable, although channel has other meanings. Many straits are economically important. Straits can lie on important shipping routes, and wars have been fought for control of these straits. Numerous artificial channels, called canals, have been constructed to connect two bodies of water over land.

Well-known straits in the world include the English Channel, between England and France, which connects the North Sea with the Atlantic Ocean off France; the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the only natural passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which connects the Mediterranean and the Black Sea; and the Straits of Malacca, which lie between Malaysia and Sumatra and connect the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea.

Straits are the duals of isthmuses. That is, while straits lie between two land masses and connects two larger bodies of water, isthmuses lie between two bodies of water and connects two larger land masses.

See also: list of straits, physical geography

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Strait."

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Video game music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Video game music is the music pieces from computer and video games (the Magnavox Odyssey being the only game console without sound capability). Until the appearance in 1990–1992 of the Super NES, video game music often sounded characteristically "bleepy", although some home computer sound chips, like the C64's SID, partly ameliorated this. With its SONY SPC700 chip, the Super NES revolutionized video game music, spawning the modern age of this field of applied acoustics, exemplified by games such as Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania IV, and ActRaiser. Some NES games, which originally had bleepy soundtracks, have later been enhanced-remade for the Super NES, Sony Playstation, or some other modern game console to reflect the modern age of applied acoustics. With advanced technology in modern consoles, video game music has been much more sophisticated than on the Super NES alone.

The Final Fantasy series is considered by many gamers and unofficial video game and music Web sites to have the best music of any modern video game series, especially the pieces that are part of the work of Nobuo Uematsu, and it has been widely recognized for its soundtracks. Japanese game companies routinely make CD soundtracks, called OSTs, for their games like they do with animes, and also make sheet music books for their games Like anime soundtracks, these soundtracks and sheet music books are usually marketed exclusively in Japan. Therefore, interested non-Japanese gamers have to import the soundtracks and/or sheet music books through on- or offline firms specifically dedicated to video game soundtrack imports. There are plenty of such firms, mostly online. Those non-Japanese gamers import mainly Final Fantasy soundtracks. Some of those firms also offer anime soundtrack imports. Listening to video game music outside gaming, especially Final Fantasy music, along with anime music, is getting more and more popular among non-Japanese gamers. There may come a time when video game soundtracks will begin to be marketed outside Japan, most likely Final Fantasy music. Video game music is even performed by European orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra. Final Fantasy music is enjoyed not only by gamers, but also by music lovers. The video game soundtrack market is growing and may extend to overseas markets.

Video game soundtracks are frequently "ripped" electronically through emulation in formats such as NSF, GBS, SID, HES, VGM, SPC, PSF, and PSF2, and can be played through e.g. Winamp in sample rates above 44.1 kilohertz. Modern video game music is traditionally done in classical orchestra or techno music genres. A number of video game critics are known to prefer digitized recordings of orchestrated music in games as opposed to synthesized music. An example of orchestrated classical music in video games can be heard in Super Smash Bros. Melee, with its score performed by the aptly named Orchestra Melee.

On November 17, 2003, Square Enix launched the Final Fantasy Radio on America Online. The radio station has initially featured complete tracks from Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XI: Rise of Zilart and samplings from Final Fantasy VII thru X. Inclusion of video game music on America Online Radio network or on radio stations may contribute to the increase of realization of video games as a form of media or artwork.

There were also several concerts, playing exclusively video game music. Five "Orchestral Game Concerts" happened in Tokio from 1991 to 1996, and also a Final Fantasy Concert, in 2002.

Known video game musicians

(most of them Japanese)

• Hirokazu Ando - Super Smash Bros series
• Taro Bando - Super Mario Kart, F-Zero X, F-Zero GC
• Masashi Hamauzu - SaGa Frontier 2, Tobal No. 1, Final Fantasy X
• Hajime Hirasawa
• Tadashi Ikegami - Super Smash Bros Melee
• Naoto Ishida
• Jun Ishikawa - Kirby series, Alcahest
• Kenji Ito - SaGa series, Seiken Densetsu 1, Koi ha Balance: Battle of Lovers, Tobal No. 1, Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu
• Yumiko Kanki
• Yasuhiro Kawasaki - Illusion of Gaia
• Grant Kirkhope (American)
• Koji Kondo - Super Mario Bros series, Legend of Zelda series, Star Fox series, Yume KouJou Doki Doki Panic, New Demon Island, The Mysterious Castle of Murasame
• Yuzo Koshiro - ActRaiser, ActRaiser 2, Ys series
• Tsukasa Masuko - Shin Megami Tensei series, Blazeon, Kabuki Rocks (with Ichiban Ujigami), Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei,
• Noriko Matsueda - Bahamut Lagoon, Chrono Trigger, Tobal No. 1, The Bouncer, Final Fantasy X-2
• Junichi Masuda
• Toru Minegishi - Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
• Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Trigger, Front Mission: Gun Hazard (with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano), Radical Dreamers, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Shadow Hearts, Xenosaga
• Junya Nakano - Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Tobal No. 1, Final Fantasy X
• Akito Nakatsuka - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
• Masanori Oodachi - Castlevania series
• Nakano Ritsuki (later known as Rikki) - Singer for Final Fantasy X main theme Suteki Da Ne
• Hitoshi Sakimoto - Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII
• Motoi Sakuraba - Tales of Phantasia, Tenshi no Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori, Zan 2 Spirits, Zan 3 Spirit, Star Ocean series, Golden Sun series
• Ryuji Sasai - Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, Bushido Blade 2, Jikkuno Hasha SaGa 3 (Final Fantasy Legend III), Rudora no Hihou,
• Tsuyoshi Sekito - All-Star Pro Wrestling series, Brave Fencer Musashi, Final Fantasy II (Wonderswan Color and Final Fantasy Origins versions), Chrono Trigger (Playstation version)
• Yoko Shimomura - Front Mission series, Live-A-Live, Super Mario RPG (with Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo), Chocobo Stallion, Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts
• Koichi Sugiyama - Dragon Quest series, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, Hanjyuku Hero series, Itadaki Street 2: Neon Sign ha Bara Iro ni, Monopoly (Japanese version), Syvalion,
• Keiichi Suzuki - Earthbound
• Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka - Balloon Fight, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Super Mario Land; president of Pokémon Co.
• Yukehide Takekawa - Soul Blazer
• Tommy Talarico (American) - Earthworm Jim 2
• Kazumi Totaka - Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins, Yoshi's Story, Doubutsu no Mori, Luigi's Mansion, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
• Yuka Tsujiyoko - Fire Emblem series, Paper Mario
• Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy series, Apple Town Monogatari, Cruise Chaser Blassity, King's Knight, DynamiTracer, Front Mission: Gun Hazard (with Yasunori Mitsuda and Junya Nakano), Ehrgeiz, Makaitoushi SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend I), SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu (Final Fantasy Legend II), Romancing SaGa 1 and 2, Chrono Trigger (with Yasunori Mitsuda and Noriko Matsueda), Super Mario RPG (with Yoko Shimomura and Koji Kondo)
• David Wise (British) - Donkey Kong Country series, Jet Force Gemini, Star Fox Adventures
• Kenji Yamamoto - Super Metroid
• Michiru Yamane - Twinbee (NES), Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (with Soshiro Hokkai), Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (with Soshiro Hokkai and Takashi Yoshida), Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, Gungage (with Sota Fujimori), Genso Suikoden III (with Tadashi Yoshida and Masahiko Kimura)

Video Games Well Recognized in the U.S. for Their Music

• ActRaiser series
• Castlevania series
• Chrono series
• Final Fantasy series
• Fire Emblem series
• Kingdom Hearts
• Legend of Zelda series
• Seiken Densetsu series
• Tales of Phantasia
• Xenogears

External links

• The High Voltage SID Collection
• Video Game Music MIDI Archive
• Square Enix Music fan site
• Unofficial Nobuo Uematsu fan site
• SNESAmp
• Neill Corlett's PSF Central
• SMSPower.org 8-bit Music Section
• Overclocked Remix (huge archive of game music re-arrangement)
• VGMix (same as above, and more.)

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Video game music."

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Sound

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Synonyms within Context: Sound

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Modern Usage: Sound

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Commercial Usage: Sound

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Image Slideshow: Sound

Photos: Sound More pictures...

Illustrations: Sound More pictures...

Computer Images: Sound More pictures...

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Photo Album: Sound

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Pictured is a darkened room with a lighted screen and remote keyboard. A technician is seated and with the left hand is pointing to the screen showing blue, red and purple images. This is an ultrasonic device. This imaging device sends short bursts of sound into the body. Echoes are reflected from tissues and transformed on the screen into colored outlines of tissues and organs. This may also be used as a therapy method. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer).		Camp on the Bulwark between Upper Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound Triangulation party of R. P. Strough. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.
	Diagram of possible sound wave paths in water Wave-path O-C-E came close to describing refractive path of sound in SOFAR layer Sound path model developed in 1930's for radio acoustic ranging work Didn't yet understand the channeling effect of the velocity minimum Furthest RAR use was out to 206 miles offshore in 1925. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.		"Indian Canoe Races, Anacortes". In: "Puget Sound and Western Washington Cities-Towns Scenery", by Robert A. Reid, Robert A. Reid Publisher, Seattle, 1912. P. 108. Credit: America's Coastlines.
	"The Russia Cement Company's Plant at Anacortes". This plant made glue and other products from fish processing waste, not cement. In: "Puget Sound and Western Washington Cities-Towns Scenery", by Robert A. Reid, Robert A. Reid Publisher, Seattle, 1912. P. 108. Credit: America's Coastlines.		"The 'TERRA NOVA' in McMurdo Sound." In: "Scott's Last Expedition ....", 1913. Dodd, Mead, and Company. New York. Volume I. Page 62. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.
	Traversing Antarctic Sound next to Larsen Ice Shelf - on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.		Salmon purse seiner in Prince William Sound. Credit: Fisheries.
	Menhaden fishing - purse seining boats in a Carolina sound. Credit: Fisheries.		Ice studies west of Sledge Island just west of Norton Sound. Credit: Flying With NOAA.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Sound
 

"Puget Sound apres-rain" by Jeremy Maritz Commentary: "Puget Sound after a day of rain."	"The future sound of jazz" by > > E M R E T E L C I > Commentary: "Jazz + alone."
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Sounds Captioned with "Sound".

Play	Caption	Play	Caption
	Lap steel guitar glissando chords creating a stereotypical Hawaiian sound.		A folk melody played by a solo mandolin very Irish in sound and style.
	A rock-influenced piece very characteristic of a contemporary rock sound circa 1980's.		M played on a slide-steel guitar with accompaniment; stereotypical Hawaiian sound.
	Ocean tide sound with music accompaniment.		A synthesized helicopter sound.
	Foreboding cinematic sound effect signified by clock chiming and storm brewing.		Footsteps walking down a cement hallway and the sound of the closing of a metal cell door which finally clangs shut.
	A driving rhythm and water-washing sound typical of action television shows.		Dramatic falling sound effect.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Sound

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Historic Usage: Sound