Sound vs Audio In video production we often use the terms “sound” and “audio” interchangeably. It is most appropriate to refer to the physical sound waves that we hear as “sound” The electronic signal used to record those waves as “audio.”

Types of Sound There are many different types of sound sources. Natural sound is the sound that surrounds you wherever you are. It isn’t just one sound but a combination of every sound in the area. Natural or “nat” sound recorded on tape can add richness and texture to your video and is an important dimension in television and film.

Types of Sound Continued Sometimes you do not want the natural sound in an environment. In this case the natural sound becomes noise. We classify any inappropriate sound that distracts from or interferes with the listener’s participation in the listening experience as noise. But even when there is no noticeable noise in a room, it does have its own sound, known as its “presence.”

Types of Sound Continued Music is also a very powerful element in audio used for television. It can heighten tension, change the pace of the action, create a specific mood, support dialogue, establish a physical location and give character to animals or inanimate objects. Sometimes it would be wrong to add music; for instance, when you add music to a news piece, you’re making an editorial comment, if only subconsciously.

Microphones There are many different mic types, each designed for a specific function. Not all microphones ‘hear’ equally from all directions. The way that a microphone picks up sound from various directions is known as its pickup pattern. Pickup patterns are usually depicted as polar diagrams, a circular graph of sensitivity of a microphone from various directions

Directionality Directionality is the term we use to describe how a microphone responds to sounds arriving from different directions or angles.

Omnidirectional An Omnidirectional mic pickup pattern picks up sounds equally well anywhere in a 360-degree radius. One drawback is that it picks up all sounds equally.

Unidirectional Literally, from one direction. An example of this would be the gun mic. These mics are good for recording individual voices in noisy locations, such as interviews, as well as picking up sound from a long distance.

Unidirectional Examples

Bidirectional It picks up sound from two opposite directions. Also known as the figure-8 pickup, as the pickup pattern resembles a figure-8 when viewed from above. It used to be popular in the old days when two people would stand around a microphone and sing a duet, but now it is usually preferred to mic each person up separately.

EXAMPLES Omnidirectional Unidirectional Bidirectional