Keith Anderson’s

Late Homework

7/13/14

Part Two:

1. What is the difference between Peaking and Shelving EQ (filter) responses?

Peaking means when you boost or cut, a peak or a valley is created.

Shelving means when you boost or cut, a shelf is created at the chosen frequency.

2.  What does “Parametric” mean, and what three things must a parametric EQ be able to do in order to warrant the name?

You must be able to choose the frequency

You must be able to boost or cut the frequency

You must be able to adjust the shape of the Q

3. What do you call the loudest frequency in a band pass filter?

The center frequency

4. Describe in detail how you create an Auxiliary Track in Pro Tools, and how you could send signal INTO it via “Bus 7”.

Create new track, choose “aux” track. Once it is created, change the input to “bus 7”.

On a track you would like to send to the aux track, elect any of the sends, and change it to “bus 7”, and bring up the send volume.

5. How could the Aux Track you just described be used to add reverb to various tracks of the mix (how would you set that up)?

Create an aux track as described above, and then on the tracks you would like to send through to add reverb, select the appropriate bus( we’ll say bus 7 again), and send it to the aux track. On the aux track, under inserts, select a reverb plugin, and have fun.

6. Describe in the detail process of “Bouncing to Disk” in Pro Tools, then how to burn that bounced file as an Audio CD in “Toast”.

Under file, select bounce to disk. when the bounce window comes up, select 44.1K, AAIF, stereo interleaved, .WAV, and anything else correct that I missed. Click ‘Bounce’. Not sure about toast, but I think I could do it If it was in front of me.

7. What is the function of a Direct Box (DI) and how do you hook it up?

A direct box allows you to take an instrument signal and turn it into a mic signal. It allows you to get the exact signal coming off the instrument without going through an amp and a mic. Using a DI box, you can go direct in and through an amp at the same time, and then blend the signal to get a sound you love.

8. What was the greatest challenge you faced when creating your “Drop-In Mix” for week 8?

Matching styles. On the bowie track, we used a very distant mic in the recital hall to try and hit that orchestral sound that ‘Life on Mars’ has.

I wouldn’t say this was very difficult, but just the most important challenge to meet.

9. What do you feel you understand the least and want to brush up on?

Compression

Keith Anderson

MULTITRACK QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 6

Part One:

1. What does binary mean?

Binary is a counting system consisting of 1’s and 0’s.

2. What is the advantage of using binary coding instead of the decimal system?

In a binary system, a processor reads 1 and 0 as “on” or “off”. it reads the digit spaces as switches. In a decimal system, each digit space would have to represent a switch with 10 possible positions. This  would ‘a’; take up more computing space, though it would take less space to visually represent, and ‘b’; quantum computers with switches that have the ability to reliably hold more than 2 positions aren’t really for sale yet.

3.  What does Signal-to-Noise Ratio mean?

It is the ratio of desired signal (a singers voice coming through from a microphone all the way to the monitors) to the undesired noise that is created in the amplification process along way.

4. What is Dynamic Range?

Dynamic range is the ratio of the loudest possible sound to the most quiet possible sound( this was the day I missed I’m pretty sure, definitely throw an “ask” on this one)

5. What are the 4 basic controls on a compressor (not all are always present)?

Ratio, Threshold, Attack, Release.

What are some other controls that MIGHT be on a compressor?

Knee shape, input and output gain.

6. What is unity gain?

Unity gain is when the input and output gain between however many devices has been established to be the same.

7.  What does Gain Reduction mean?

Gain reduction is the amount of dB a compressor is not allowing through.

8.  Why do meters on Compressors start at “0” and move backwards?

Because the meter is showing you the gain reduction.

9. A gain of “minus 4” is equal to what “ratio” on a compressor?

4:1

10.  What is a good Compression Ratio to use for vocals or bass guitar?

4:1

11.  What is a good amount of Gain Reduction to set on a vocal or bass guitar?

Depends on the sound you want? I really need a compression brush up.

12.  What is Multiband Compression?

Multi band compression allows you to compress different bands of the frequency spectrum differently. Say the high’s are just pounding through a little too much, you can use multi band compression to really hammer them down if you want, and do more subtle compression on the mid’s and low’s.

Keith Anderson

MULTITRACK AUDIO PRODUCTION

Homework for Week 5

DUE: TUESDAY OF WEEK 6, at 4:00

1.What is an “Overdub”?

An overdub is when live audio is recorded along with prerecorded audio, allowing you to add tracks without having to get it all in one live take.

2. What is a “Punch In”?

A punch in is when you record over prerecorded audio, allowing you to redo a part of a track that has a mistake without having to do the entire take over again.

3.What level(s) is it best to monitor at when mixing?

There isn’t a “best level”. Find a level you are comfortable with. Too loud, you’ll fatigue your ears quicker. Too quiet, and you may miss more subtle things in the mix. You should also consider the volume people will be listening to the music you’re mixing, and try listening to it there. Maybe find a similar piece of music with a sound you like, listen to that at a volume you like, and then mix at that level.

4.What three things determine “depth” in a mix?

Decibel level, reverb content, and high frequency content.

5.What is the advantage of monitoring a mix through headphones?

When mixing on headphones, you eliminate all reflections of the room you’re mixing in. Each ear only hears from its own earpiece, so there is no way for sounds to go anywhere but from the earpiece to the corresponding ear.

6.What is the big disadvantage of mixing through headphones?

Ear fatigue can happen much quicker, and ear damage is much easier to cause. Or the panning field is perceived to be much smaller? (I’m not sure which is right, or if either are)

7.What does “bit depth” mean, and why is it important?

Bit depth is the number of digit spaces used to count in a binary system. In a 3 bit binary system, you can count 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111, or a total of 8 values. The higher the bit depth, the more accurate of a sample when sampling a waveform.

8.What does “A to D” mean?

Analog to digital.

9.What is a “DAC”?

Digital to analog converter.

10.Describe in detail how you might mic an acoustic guitar(in stereo)

In a nice sounding room, I would take two KM84’s and set them up as a near coincident pair. With the diaphragms about 6 inches apart, at a 110º spread. The center of the spread would be pointed at the neck-body joint of the guitar, perpendicular to the neck, and be about 1.5 feet away. This pair would be panned apart.   Then, for the sake of trying it, I’d put up an R-121 at chest-level with the player about 5 feet back, pointed at the player. I’d play with the placement of this mic to see where i can avoid troublesome phase relationships.

The KM84’s would serve as the main source of volume for the guitar’s sound, and the Royer would serve as a center fill room sound, if the KM84’s just sounded a bit too close. I really like making use of real room reverberation to fill out sounds where I can. Using this setup, I could pan the KM84’s hard left and right, and bring up the Royer, panning it to push the reverb of the guitar to be where I want it to be. This would shift the image of the whole guitar slightly to whatever direction I panned the Royer. In a room that didn’t sound too great, I might just not use the room sound of the Royer at all.

Now, if I where just trying to get a mono guitar sound, It’s going to be the C414 every time. It just fails to disappoint. Parallel to the guitar body, just over a foot away. Cardoid. If I’m in a nice warm woody room, omni or bidirectional, we’ll see what sounds good.

11.How might you mic an open-back electric guitar cabinet to get a “big” sound?

Aventone CK40 panned wide open, play with the distance until you  get what you like, but remember any signal coming from the back of the cab is out of phase with the front. If the Aventone is too much, maybe just a single large diaphragm condenser like the TS-2. A ribbon would also do a fine job.

Once these signals were coming through the board, I’d play with the panning relationship of the front mic to the rear mic, and just see what I liked.

Keith Anderson

MULTITRACK AUDIO PRODUCTION

Questions for Week 4

Due by 4:00 on Tuesday, Week 5

1. What is coincident micing and what is good about it?

Coincident mixing is when you take two microphones and place the diaphragms as close as you can get them while looking in different directions. It is useful to create more complicated stereo sounds.

2. What is near-coincident micing and what is good about it?

Near coincident is Similar to coincident, but the microphones are father apart. The aspect of a real time delay is introduced with a near coincident setup. ( sounds get to the microphones at different times.)

3. What is a spaced pair and what is good about using it?

A spaced pair setup uses two microphones spaced apart. Whether or not to call a pair coincident, near-coincide, or a spaced pair depend on your distance from the sound source. A pair spaced 2 feet apart could be a spaced pair at 3 feet from the sound source, but from a mile away, may as well be considered near coincident.

4. What is X-Y micing and what is good about it?

An X-Y setup is two cardiod microphones looking 90º apart. It sounds great, and captures a wonderful stereo image of your source.

5. What is ORTF micing and what is good about it?

ORTF mixing is very close to X-Y, however, the ORTF standard is as follows: two cardoid microphones, spread 110º, with the diaphragms spaced 17cm apart.

6. What is the advantage of having a 110 degree angle between cardioid mics when recording to stereo?

At 110º, you lose the 3dB bump in the center of the stereo image.

7. What is the Blumlein system?

the Blumlein is a coincident pair setup with two figure-8 patter microphones.

 8. What is proximity effect?

 The proximity effect is when a a microphone gets closer to the sound source, it has a tendency to accentuate the lower frequencies(sound baser or woofy).

9. What is the key command for “Save” in Pro Tools?

 Command + “S”

10. What are the key commands in Pro Tools for zooming in and out (looking at waveforms)?

Command + “[/]”