Audio

Audio is sound, or rather a general term used when talking about sound and sound reinforcement, recording and reproduction. Sound is sometimes created intentionally by people to produce  music. Some times sound is produced for communication like talking. Sound can even be intentionally created with mechanical or electronic devices to enhance a desired experience, like the frightening or statling noises at a carnival's haunted house, or setting a mood with soft music durring a romantic dinner, or creating a sense of desolate space with wind sound blowing through brush in a western genere motion picture.

Because of modern technology we can record these sounds to be played back at a latter time. Music recordings are of course of great interest to many people but recorded audio can also be paired with recorded image (photographs) to create cinema (cinema). Contemporary recording equipment is small relatively inexpensive and produces very high fidelity recordings. The latest in digital audio recorders have created new possiblities of capturing sounds more easily than ever before.

The act of recording desired sound has become problematic. In contemporary mechanized cultures sound has become so prevailent as a by-product of other endoevors that areas of dense or even moderately populated areas suffer from sound pollution. In offices, homes, city and small town streets, sounds from computers, fans, heating and ventilating systems, automobiles, aircraft, neighboring entertainment, refrigerators, power tools, kitchen appliances and other devices all contribute to a constant raging din that is nearly completely pervasive in contemporary civilization. This makes acquiring clean, pure, audio recordings nearly impossible.  The only exceptions to this are recording in specially designed sound proof recording facilities or at very remote rural or wild settings.

People who use recorded sound to create an artful or entertaining experience for an audience are often called Sound Designers. Sound Designers have to strugle to create convincing sonic experience for audiences. In everyday life the average person's attention has been refocused on image and away from the constant barrage of sound in thier day to day lives. The buzz and hum of the office, and rumble of constant traffic goes seemingly unnoticed. Even police sirens fail to arrouse awareness, let alone interest, in pedestrians in densly populated areas. However, when people find themselves in a theater or auditorium, or a home listening envirionment they are still able to be, even intent on being, aware of the design of sound. So care must be taken on the part of the sound designer to create a thoughtful and detailed experience for the intended listener.