Audio is the technique that enables the recording, transmission and reproduction of sounds.
Audio is a term that comes from the English language, although its most distant etymological antecedent is found in Latin. The concept of audio is used to name the technique that allows recording, transmitting and reproducing sounds .
For example: "My son is a specialist in audio engineering" , "I was reading several manuals on the Internet to learn about audio and thus be able to improve the recordings we make" , "Do you know someone who knows about audio?" I would like to record some songs with my band .
Audio as a signal
Audio, on the other hand, is the signal corresponding to sounds . It can be said that audio is an analog signal that, on an electrical level, is equivalent to a sound signal. Its frequency is between 20 and 20,000 Hz, which is the range that a human being can hear.
A microphone allows you to convert sound waves (which are air pressure waves) into an analog electrical signal (audio). To carry out the reverse process, a loudspeaker (or loudspeaker ) is used, which causes the analog electrical signal to be transformed back into a sound wave. In this way, when a singer performs his songs with a microphone and the sound comes out through speakers, the audience hears the audio.
It is interesting to mention that audio is also a compositional element that refers to sound and the act of hearing: audiovisual , audiobook , audiofrequency , etc.
Audio is the signal that corresponds to sound.
The perception
Just like the image, the audio is characterized by the fact that each individual can perceive it in a different way, with particular nuances or associations. This does not mean that while one person hears an F natural another hears a D sharp , but that the same note, the same melody can evoke different sensations in each person.
Similarly, not all of us have the same talent for recognizing sounds, memorizing songs, and playing them accurately. If we add this to what was expressed in the previous paragraph, it is easy to understand that the same audio source (be it a song, a melody or a work composed of many pieces) cannot be described in the same way by a large group of people. .
digital audio
In the case of digital audio , the analog electrical signal that is responsible for the representation of the sound wave is digitally encoded . The WAV format, to cite one case, presents digital audio with all the information resulting from the encoding. The MP3 format, on the other hand, compresses the data.
The audio formats and the different technologies used for their transmission cause various complications for users, since they often have to purchase adapters and converters to overcome incompatibility problems between their equipment. It doesn't matter how much money we have spent on a home theater system: if it does not support a certain format that one of the devices we want to connect to it requires, then we will have to make a decision that will surely lead to a new monetary investment.
From silent cinema to YouTube
The incorporation of audio in the film industry took more than three decades, during which what we know today as silent cinema , silent period or the age of the silver screen existed. In short, until 1929, most films only had images , although in some projection rooms there was a pianist who played different melodies as accompaniment, or even orchestras dedicated to recreating certain sound effects .
Today, audiovisual content practically represents the standard, largely due to the success of the social network YouTube, in which there is no limit to the genre of content : from news reviews that could perfectly well be published in writing to complete series and movies, on this platform audio and image coexist as if they were interdependent.