Thesis (MPhil (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the role of natural or realistic audio recordings in popular music in the context of the different nature of popular music where the goal is not necessarily the recreation of the original acoustic space. Traditional microphone techniques are investigated from the perspective of the identifiable characteristics of popular music to establish the role of microphone techniques to obtain a desired outcome. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die rol van natuurlike of realistiese klankopnames in populêre musiek in die lig daarvan dat die aard van populêre opnames verskil van reproduksie wat poog om die opnameruimte akoesties te herskep. Tradisionele mikrofoontegnieke word bestudeer vanuit die hoek van die identifiseerbare eienskappe van populêre musiek om te bepaal watter rol mikrofoontegniek kan speel om ’n verlangde uitkoms te bewerkstellig.

Thesis (MMUS)--Stellenbosch University, 2015 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the role and implementation of the checklist in audio production studios. The goal of this study is to limit frequent human error by compiling and testing a checklist to be used in these studios. Procedures and checklists implemented in the life-critical elds of medicine and aviation have been studied and used as a framework, in order to shape this checklist to be relevant to a wide variety of audio production studios. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die rol en toepassings van die kontrolelys in klankateljees. Die doel van hierdie studie is om te ondersoek of die gebruik van kontrolelyste aangewend kan word om menslike foute te beperk, deur middel van die samestelling en toetsing van `n kontrolelys vir gebruik in hierdie ateljees. Werkswyses en kontrolelyste wat tans in die lewenskritiese sektore van lugvaart en die mediese wetenskappe benut word, is bestudeer en as raamwerk benut om te verseker dat hierdie kontrolelys toepaslik sal wees vir `n wye verskeidenheid klankproduksie-ateljees.

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The following thesis is an examination of audio engineering for television broadcast production. The extensive sound design, implementation, and production of television programming are to be examined from the perspective of four individual productions of diverse genres. A variety of skills necessary to produce each of the programs are discussed in detail.

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With the recent emergence of new release formats capable of delivering discrete multichannel surround-sound, there is a need to research unique recording methods to take advantage of the enhanced spatiality compared to conventional 2-channel stereophonic systems. This dissertation proposes a new microphone technique that incorporates head-related spatial cues through use of binaural artificial-head microphone signals sent to the surround channels. Combining this with 3 spaced directional microphones for the front channels shows promising results towards reproducing a 3-dimensional sound field. This dissertation describes a complete investigation of the proposed recording technique including an analysis of the basic concept, performance and suggested applications.

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The thesis focuses on fast acquisition techniques for spread spectrum packet radio communications systems. Matched filters are often used to achieve fast acquisitions. A new synchronizer using multiple acquisition detection is designed to achieve a highly reliable synchronization with a very simple receiver structure. Since PN codes, in practice, cannot be made too long due to the difficulty of manufacturing long matched filters and the limitation on the bandwidth of the frequency spectrum for the system, the reliable synchronization can be only obtained by repeating the transmission of the acquisition code at the beginning of each packet. The verification or coincidence detection is done by means of a marker detection following an acquisition. A hard-limiting synchronizer is also examined combined with the multiple acquisition detection. The hard-limiting synchronizer is simpler to implement and suitable for receiving signals with a large SNR dynamic range, but it cannot work well when multi-user interference and multi-path interference are present. For this reason, a new linear Automatic Threshold Control (ATC) synchronizer is developed for detecting signals with a large amplitude dynamic range while preserving good performance in multi-path and multi-user interference. The idea of the ATC scheme is to adjust the receiver acquisition threshold level according to the SNR of the received signal such that the largest (or the most likely) correlation peak in a short time period is selected for the synchronization alignment. Therefore false acquisitions caused by strong correlation side-lobes during the acquisition can be eliminated. For the more realistic situation where the multi-user interference or near-far effect causes severe performance degradation, we proposed a novel non-linear multi-user detector or multistage detector which is suitable for both the synchronous and asynchronous CDMA systems. This sub-optimal detector is able to achieve the performance of the optimal detector with very small computation complexity. The near-far effect will no longer exist because the interference from the unexpected users is considered to be not always harmful for the detection of a specific users' message. To apply this detection technique to asynchronous CDMA systems, acquisition for each users' PN codes becomes more critical, because during the acquisition, the information from the other users' PN code is usually not available, which means that acquisition still suffers the near-far effect. The proposed acquisition scheme based on interference cancellation technique and the ATC scheme can alleviate the near-far effect significantly, and provide the necessary condition for the appropriate operations of multi-user detectors. / Graduate

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