​BASICS

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

• Ambient Sounds: background sounds that normally occur in a specific environment (can include room tone)

​

• Dialogue: Includes speech delivered by characters in a scene and voice-over narration accompanying a scene

​

• Direct Sound: Sound that is captured and recorded directly on location. Direct sound also designates an absence of reflected components in the final recording. 

​

• Diegetic/Non-diegetic sound: sound that characters in the scene can hear. Movie soundtracks/scores are typically non-diegetic.

​

• Dubbed: audio--typically dialogue--added to the shot in post production.  

​

• Dynamic Range: the difference in decibel between the noise level and overload/distortion point of a sound system.

​

• Gain: amount of sound being input to the recorder.

​

• Noise Floor: gain level of all ambient sound in an environment.

​

• Room Tone: ambient sound present in a particular room or set. Not typically heard by the average listener, but will pick up on a microphone. Be sure to capture a view minutes of just this tone to use for editing purposes.

​

• Score: music recorded specifically for a scene 

​

• Soundtrack: pre-existing song added to a scene by the film producer. Also can refer to any sound element present in a scene, including dialogue, ambient sound, and music.

​

• Synchronic sound: audio recorded simultaneously with the video.

​

• Voice-over: spoken dialogue added over a scene. Can act as narrative or to communicate inner thoughts.

​

• Volume: amount of sound being exported from the recorder to monitors or headphones

​

 

​SOUND EQUIPMENT

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Boom Mic: overhead telescoping pole that carries a microphone, allows for synchronous sound recording without restricting movement of actors.
   

• Multitrack Recorder: records sound from multiple sources (tracks) simeltaneously.

​

• Recorder: device that captures sound. Cameras often come equipped with sound recorders that capture audio simultaneously with video. 

​

• Shotgun Mic: type of unidirectional microphone that captures sound from the direction in which it is pointed. Best used to capture a specific sound source such as an interview subject. 

​

• Omnidirectional Mic: records sound at equal gain from all sides of the microphone. Best used to capture an environment rather than a specific sound source.

​​

​​​