Signal Flow (Lesson 2) - Posted on 2017-10-16 by Hunter Rick

In this lesson, Zach went over the science and measuring of electricity and how it functions within the gear an audio technician might use. I learned that amps x resistance (Ohms) = Voltage and that the equation can be algebraically changed to fit whatever variable you're finding. He explained how the Ampage of electricity is the amount of electrons flowing through a current, voltage is the power behind it all, and Ohms is the materials resistance to that flow and power. To find Wattage, you simply take amps and volts and multiply them. This is what the specs on a guitar amp mean when it tells you the watts of the gear. It's the overall power that the amp can produce leading to higher amplitude/volume possible. After he got the math out of the way, he showed me the insides and working parts of music tech, explaining how the chips in computerized gear looks and what each piece meant, as well as analogue gear. There were transducers, which stored energy and released it in steady streams to avoid spikes in power. Without a transducer, there's a good chance most of our gear would short out. There were also reducers in the gear that used resistance in materials to negate some of the power passing through into smaller more manageable amounts.

 Although analogue gear's insides looked much simpler he explained to me how they were much more expensive to craft, but also easier to refurbish as all the parts are replaceable. On digital gear much of the wiring and circuits are seared into the chip, making for a very complex fix. This was a reason that he preferred analogue over digital when possible.

We also covered tube amps, their sound, and how they function. They are digital pre-amps older brother that kept the signal in terms of electricity instead 1's and 0's. They tend to have a slightly "warmer" sound to them because of the harmonic distortion they create in signals. The harder you crank the amp, the higher the levels of harmonic distortion, creating a very thick dense sound, where the harmonic octave frequencies are nearly as strong as the fundamental frequency.

Finally, he told me that in a few lessons he would have me bring in a project I was working on and we would mix it together under his expertise.