Author Archives: andkei20

Week Two Homework!

Keith Anderson

QUESTIONS From WEEK 2

DUE: Tuesday of Week 3 at 4:OO PM

in Terry’s Mailbox (Com Mailboxes, 3rd Floor) or give it to him in class.

1.  What is sound?

Sound is vibration that travels through the air and is perceived by our ears.

2.  What causes sound?

Sound is caused something physically vibrating, causing air molecules to vibrate as well.

3.  What is “Phase”?

Phase is the position of a waveform to an identical waveform.

5.  Why is phase important?

If you have a waveform and a duplicate waveform, and they are perfectly 180 degrees out of phase with each other, no sound will be produced because the

6.  What is the relationship between the frequency of a sound wave and its wavelength?

The lower the frequency, the longer the wavelength. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength.

7. What is Frequency?
Frequency (in wavelengths) refers to the amount of cycles in  a wave over a given period of time. We measure this in Hertz, abbreviated Hz. 440Hz means 440 cycles per second, or ‘A’ above middle ‘C’.

8.  How high and how low (in Hz) can a person with excellent hearing hear?

20hz to 20kHz

9. What is Amplitude?

Amplitude refers to the size of the peaks and valleys in a wave form. In sound, we hear it as volume.

10. What is Timbre?

Timbre is another word for ‘tone’. It is affected by the shape of the waveform.

11. What are Harmonics (also called “Partials”)?

Harmonics are what make up every naturally occurring tone we hear. For example, an open guitar string, when plucked, will appear to be vibrating its full length. In fact, it is vibrating at each point where a partial exists. This can be demonstrated by holding a finger gently on the string at the 12th fret (the middle of the string) and plucking with your other hand. while you aren’t fretting the octave, the octave above your open sting is what you hear, because you aren’t allowing the sting to vibrate at full length.

They didn’t exactly get ‘lucky’

I recently read this article talking about Daft Punk’s hit single, “Get Lucky”, off of their 2013 “Random Access Memories”. The article breaks down how the song works in terms of music theory, and talks about why we love that circular chord progression that eludes the natural tonic of the key. Check it out.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/03/daft_punk_s_get_lucky_explained_using_music_theory.html

Great Mix

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is LCD Soundsystem’s “Time to Get Away” off of their 2007 album, “Sounds Of Silver”. Personally, this is a favorite mix of mine for a few reasons. It sounds sparse. There is a really tight drum sound, and a really close bass(sounds like a DI), and they both are just so clear. When we get to the chorus, an electric piano sound is added, nice and simple. All throughout the song, we get these little bits and pieces from percussion instruments, but it never starts to sound too crowded; it’s very easy to pick out each instrument. Another interesting thing to notice is that during the bridge(e.g. 2:34), the backup vocals are super wet with reverb, but then the reverb cuts out. Very interesting effect. Long story short, I love this mix because it is sooo clean, and everything can be heard. I usually listen to this when I am comparing speakers, and sometimes before a mixing session.

Recordinghacks.com

AKG-C-12-Tube-Mic-2

The AKG C12

In doing my research for my presentation project, I happened upon an incredible resource. www.recordinghacks.com is a wonderful blog site absolutely filled with information regarding microphones. If you have a question about any of the microphones we have been working with or talking about, search it on the site, and a pile of information will fall from the internet sky. Frequency response charts, feature details, general description, and more are available for all your information needs.