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The hardware, software and techniques used for

soundMP3 players: • play music files

stored digitally in MP3 file format

• are small and portable

• can store thousands of music tracks

• are now part of many mobile phones.

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Sound cards

• Circuit boards containing chips and other components.

• Allow high quality music/sound to be produced.

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Microphones

• are input devices• used to enter

voice, sounds, live music, etc.

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Speakers and headphones

• are output devices• used to output the

sound/music after processing by the computer.

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MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface

• allows musical instruments to transfer music to a computer

• where it can be edited and stored

• MIDI can play back the stored music using the device used to create it

• keyboards use MIDI.

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Sound conversion (analogue to digital and

digital to analogue)• Sound is an analogue

signal (i.e. constantly varying).

• Nearly all computers process digital data.

• The analogue sound needs to be converted (i.e. digitized).

• An analogue-to-digital converter is used.

• To play back the music, the digital data is converted to analogue using a digital-to-analogue converter.

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Analogue to digital and digital to analogue

conversion

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Sequencers

• Hardware or software used to manage music.

• Drum machines are an example – they play a series of note in a set order automatically.

• Music workstations can also provide sequencers.

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Notators (music composition

software)• Software that allows

you to compose your own music.

• Enter notes into the computer via the keyboard, a MIDI system or scanning a piece of music on paper using a scanner.

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Sound wave editors

• Allows sound waves to be altered.

• You can alter, cut, paste and have effects such as echo, amplification and noise reduction applied.