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Bill Sloyer
During our 7th lesson on Friday 8/25, Larry and I talked about:
Polarity:
-Polarity issues can only exist if there’s more than one input
-Can’t always have absolute phase/polarity, it varies
-Some phase issues add to signal, some detract from signal
-Phase is constantly shifting
-Low frequencies are affected first when there are phase issues
-If you put a signal in mono, that’s an easy way to check for a phase problem
-Comb filtering = bad phase! Caused by internal latency issues or sounds hitting mic at slightly separate times.
-Larry uses a “clicker box” to change phase on mic and speakers. Can use to check speaker phase for concert setups.
-When setting up a kick drum, flip the phase to see if anything changes. Go with what sounds best.
-Panning reduces the input level of a source
-A master fader is a post fader
-All other faders are pre-faders
-All inserts are pre-fader in Pro Tools
-Mixing boards used to have a monitor section, but you don’t see that any more. They would have fader and pan controls only.
-On an in line console, you can record/monitor the same channel
ProTools:
-1989 – Digidesign came out with Sound Tools (which later became Pro Tools)
-Did 2 tracks of audio onto a computer
-Could only hold one song
-Originally made for sound effects and placing them with video
-Could edit audio off-line and then put back onto tape, which meant you didn’t have to do a perfect vocal take
-MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn) came out with “Digital Performer” which was basically an elaborate MIDI program. It could handle 4 tracks, but there were latency problems. It was better for a single live recording/scoring.
-Latency (delay) was an issue but AVID fixed it with through put / input monitoring.
-“Headroom” = how many channels
-“Echo Return effect” is now called an Aux Input in Protools
-Use aux busses set on pre for headphone sends. Then it won’t affect what the artist hears if you solo the track in your room
-Master fader is always in a mix
Buffer size:
Protools is actually recording before you hit record. (There’s a buffer setting for this). Lower = lower latency. Set as small as you can without creating glitches.
MIDI – musical instrument digital interface
-A data recorder/sequencer that lets instruments talk to each other
-Used instead of playing 2 keyboards at once. Can trigger one keyboard with another. Sync Syths.
-Reacts like a piano with how you press keys
-The beginning of recording into a computer, had templates, and you could note velocity, beat, and bars. Had linear scroll, metronome.
-Came out early eighties. Could record digital info but not “real” audio. Can’t add vocals, only add hardware.
-Could edit data
-Then sequencer came into play. The Who’s Baba O'Riley was done on a sequencer.
-Then they added SMPTE timecode to the MIDI interface, now able to chase timecode with a computer. Computer was slave and followed tape machine master.
-The Eurythmics used real time (“Live”) MIDI and would trigger sequences.
