Start studying these now; we’ll use them in drills next week.

Reverb ALAC

Reverb WAV

What it is

Reverberation (or reverb) mimics the complex set of echoes and resonances in natural spaces. It is commonly done with a complex set of delays (with delay periods set to avoid common multiples, which would allow [...]

We’ll drill on these next week.

Delay ALAC

Delay WAV

What it is

Just a simple delay, with or without feedback (limited to 50% or -6dB). On vocal tracks, it may be 75, 125, 250, 500, or 1000ms. On non-vocal tracks, it’s only 75ms, with or without feedback. Your answers will need to identify [...]

Start studying now for next week!

Error2 ALAC

Error2 WAV

What it is

Alias—these tracks have a lower than usual sampling rate; partials that are above the Nyquist frequency (half of the sample rate) are “folded over” the Nyquist frequency like a mirror image, so we hear very high inharmonic partials. Hiss—Low signal-to-noise [...]

Compression ALAC

Compression WAV

What it is

Compression is a kind of automatic volume control. You give it a threshold to become active (it acts on moments where the sound is louder than the threshold). You give it a ratio by which to compress the louder moments, e.g. a 2:1 ratio would “split [...]

Here is the next set of drills. We’re just boosting or cutting one track at a time by 3dB. Your goal is to identify which instrument changed and by +3dB or -3dB. This will seem like a subtle change at first, but once you get tuned into it, you’ll see what a difference it can [...]

Here is the next set of drills. Start studying now; we’ll drill on them in class next week.

Error_1 ALAC

Error_1 WAV

What it is

These drills test your ability to detect common errors in mixing: allowing clicks (e.g., from bad edits or dropped CPU cycles), hard clipping (from overdriving an input or [...]