Recent Changes

{AP010 Assignment 4.doc}
Due Sunday August 14th
Final Project {AP010{AP010 Final Project.doc}
Due Monday, September 12th at the beginning of class.
Week 7 August 15 - August 21
Written Assignment 5
{AP010 Assignment 5.doc}
Documents that might help you with Assignment 5:
{B2R_Studio_Layout.pdf}
{3D_View.pdf}
Due Sunday August 21st
Week 8 August 22 - August 28

Week 4 Discussion
Keith's Week 4

Rarefaction: The portion of a sound wave in which molecules are spread apart, forming a region with lower-than-normal atmospheric pressure. This would be the opposite of compression. - This could be utilized by moving barriers in the studio to cut or add pressure.

Polyphonic: Describing a synthesizer that can play more than one note at a time(usually chords). - Awesome because it adds more of an individual aspect to the artist's music or sound.

Scratch Vocals: A vocal performance that is done simultaneously with the rhythm instruments so that the musician's can keep their place in the song and get a feel for the song. Because of leakage the scratch-vocal recording is erased. - A good technique for vocalist that do not have the best timing.
yeeeeep!

Week 3Discussion
Keith

Coincident pair: A stereo microphone, or two separate microphones, placed so that microphone diaphrams occupy approximately the same point in space. They are angled apart and mounted one directly above the other. I thought this was interesting because this seems like a category for other placements like M/S and or blum line.

Filter: A circuit that sharply attenuates frequencies above or below a certain frequency. Used to reduce noise and leakage above or below the frequency range of an instrument or voice. This could be used while mixing/mastering tracks in a session.

Fly-in(Lay-in): To copy a part of a recorded track onto another recorder, then re-record that copy back onto the original track in a different part of the song. In sync with the other recorded tracks. This was interesting because now two parts of the session can have identical vocal performances by using this technique.

Week 2 Class Discussion
I would like to reply about sequencing,
its much more than playing instruments.
it also involves timing, which is to me
the biggest part of it. if there is no way to
communicate the timing of the peice, then its all just a bunch of noise instead of a sequence of sound.

Id also like to speak about noise reduction
its not a gate. a gate will completely silence extra sound under a sertain level (as specified) but noise reduction takes the noise that was pickedup already then DECREASES it.

Week 2 Class Discussion
Monitor Mixer
1) A console or other device that blends audio signals into composite signals and has a small number of outputs.
2) The section of the console which is used to do a rough mix so the engineer can hear what is being recorded without effecting the levels being fed to the multitrack recorder.
3) The audio technician who mixes the signals sent to the stage monitor speakers.

I think this is important because the definition of moniter mixer can get confuesed as an input or out put and the biggest thing about it that people need to realize including self is that the moniter mix(er) DOES NOT CHANGE THE RECORDED SIGNAL!!!!

Auxiliary Equipment
Effects devices separate from but working with the recording console.
this is basically outboard gear. if your dont know how to rought it, but u need it in your mix, you better learn about the aux ins and outs....

Auxiliary Output or Send
An additional output from a sound desk that can be used for foldback or monitoring without tying up the main outputs. Each input channel will have a path to the Aux buss. Also used for feeding a signal to an effects processor. See Auxiliary Return.

This is what you look for when you want to get the signal out of the track, and into the external processor. When you bring it back, yo look for the return, which is going to be the wet/affected signal.

Week 2 Class Discussion
I wanted to reply about the equal loudness coutour from norman

Equal Loudness Contours- A drawing of several curves showing how loud the tones of different frequencies would have to be played for a person to say they were equally loudness.

- This term is unique in that it shows on paper the magnitude of the actual tone verse what the human ear can distinguish.

I also think this document is very important because many producers do seem to underestimate how loud or how soft one instrument is to another, alot of people think just because the trim and gain are the same on two different sound that they automatically have the same noise level witch just isnt true

I would also like to speak on keiths de-essing
D-essing: intended to reduce or eliminate excess sibilant consonants such as "s", "z", and "sh" in the recording of the vocalists voice. This process is interesting because it might be essential depending on the sound of the vocalist.

The reason this is pertinant to me is because it reminds me of the roll of switch which is used in the same way just completely opposite,
I use the roll off to knock out too much low end and i use the de-esser to knock out the sibilance

Week 2 Class Discussion
would like to discuss the following three terms

-Patch Bay- 1/4" modular jack and plugs- have 48 balanced points configured in 2 rows of sockets 24 front/24 rear pairs
i would like to talk about patchbays for one reason and one reason only...
almost unlimited mixing possibilities. if you have a compressor that you want to use on mic a but you dont want to do a lot of unplugging and rerouting with the cords on the mixer and the mic cables, buy a patch bay. its underestimated the ease of use that they add to a studio. theyr great because they save time and skinned knees when it comes to changing roughting and signal flow

-Monitor Mix
A mix created to allow musicians to hear themselves, whether onstage or in the studio. Depending on the situation and application, a monitor mix may also be known as foldback, a cue mix, a headphone mix, or other names. In some cases, such as large stage rigs, there may be a separate monitor mixer and monitor mix engineer dedicated to creating and managing the monitor mix. In the studio and with smaller rigs, a pre-fader bus in a mixer is usually used as a monitor mix feed.
this is another undersetimated tool used in audio engineering. people doing home recording dont understand the aspect of giving the artist there own mix in the headphones to listen to and set levels on but you wont notice how necessisary they are till you use it.

-Rolloff
A request for this one resulted from last week's TTOTD and WFTD on Crossovers (see inSync 10/29/99). Roll Off (or Rolloff) - Specifically rolloff refers to the action of a specific type of filter; one designed to roll off frequencies above or below a certain point. It is called roll off because the process is gradual. Hi pass and low pass filters both roll off frequencies outside of their range, but they don't immediately eliminate all frequencies outside their range. The sound is gently (or not so gently) "rolled off" with frequencies further above or below the cutoff frequency becoming more and more attenuated. Rolloff steepness is generally stated in dB per Octave, with higher numbers indicating a steeper filter. 24 dB/Octave is steeper than 12 dB/Octave.
Roll off in primarlly important in preproduction eqing. it saves time imn the end because you get rid of a lot of frequencies you dont want in the first place so you wont have to deal with them later by simply turnig a know or just sliding an adjuster till you no longer hear what you dont want.

Week 2 Class Discussion
im replying to keiths post on the diffinition 'MASK':

MASK: To hide or cover up one sound with another sound. To make a sound inaudible by playing another sound along with it. Interesting because knowing this term would make producing and engineering artist more efficient

I think masking is important also because not all recordings are executed perfectly but if you know how to manipulate the levels of
audio correctly it can hide many inperfections through "masking".
so maskings cool!

my next response is to compositte tracks:

COMPOSITE TRACKS: The process of recording several performances of a musical part on different tracks, so that the best segments of each performance can be played in sequence during mixdown. I believe this is how we been recoding some sessions, and like the recording of the jazz band the other night!

I think composite tracks are inportant for the same reason i find Masking importatnt. they leave room for improvision but with composit tracking you open up your possibilitys even more because you have options of takes to compare!!

three interesting terms used in audio today

-Off axis: when your not standing directly in front of the path
of where the mic is designed to pic up signal from. ths is good sometimes because sometimes you dont want the full signal comming in. this is especially good when you have a pitchy artist or a loud one.

-Proximity Effect ; an increase in bass or low frequency response when a sound source is close to a microphone.
this is important because if your too close to the mic and doing vocals you can produce proximity wich will add a bass that you might not want. this is something to think about if your micing vocals and not getting sound you want.

-Ambient mic ; it is a microphone that is placed relatively far from its sound source to pick up ambience.
ambiaent micing is not as bad as people steariotype it to be. i just learned this. it can be used to make instruments sound more realistic and roomy. its cool to me.

week 4 definitions

-Sibalance ; is energy from a voice centered around 7 kHz caused by pronouncing "s", "sh" or "ch" sounds.
this can be good if your trying to brighten up instruments and post eqing, but when your doing vocal micing and you get too much sibalance, you might want to envest in a popfilter

-Phantom Power ; is a method for transmitting DC electric power through microphone cables to operate microphones that contain active electronic circuitry. It is best known as a convent power source for condenser microphones, though many active direct boxes also use it.
this is somethin people dont worry about untill its tooo late. if you have a condencer mic, it is imparative tha you keep a phantom power source becase contrary to popular beliefe, it dosnt only come on mixers. they also come in little boxes that can power the mic alone.

-rumble (noise) a form of white noise.
this is nois you dont want. its full of bass and is usually caused by
poor mic setups.