Sound and Music

Sound and Music

1. MP3 Players

   • Plays music files stored digitally in MP3 file format.
   • Small and portable

2. Sound Cards

   • Circuit boards containing chips and other components.
   • High quality music/sound is produced
   • Recorded and outputted.

3. Microphones

   • Input devices

4. Speakers/headphones

   • Output devices

5. MIDI

   • Musical Instrument Digital Interface
     • ALLOWS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS TO TRANSFER MUSIC TO A COMPUTER WHERE IT CAN BE EDITED AND STORED
   • Connection of two devices

6. Sound Conversion (Analogue - Digital - Analogue)

   • Sound is analogue, computers process digital data

7. Sequencers

   • Hardware or software used to manage music

8. Notators (music composition software)

   • Enter notes via keyboard, MIDI, scanning piece of music

9. Sound-wave editors

   • Allows sound waves to be altered - cut, paste, echo

10. File Formats

    • WAV - Wave
      • Highest quality, large file size
    • MP3 - MPEG Layer 3
      • High compression without loss of quality
    • WMA - Windows Media Audio
      • High quality, high compression

11. Downloading Music

    • Easy access - range of mediums
    • Can download just tracks, not album
    • Easily loaded onto portable devices
    • Problems/Copyrights
      • File sharing
      • Copyright
      • Sound music is protected:
        • Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1998