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Scott McBirnie
Sound Engineering Unit 1
25 September 2013
• Audio Session
Notes
Use ‘Carillion’ for teaching stuff in class.
Command Shift 4 = screen shot
Command + = Toggle screens
Alt and click faders etc. and highlighted stuff on mix desk = set to 0
Follow this formula: • EQ • Compression • Effects
(picking and picking 2 is duplicated to boost sound – done a lot with vocals). Can be done with a natural double-take (record twice). Makes double sound level. • Alt and click on EQ effects at top of
mix box and move over to ‘picking two’ – copies EQ all over.
• EQ 1 (picking track)
EQ 7-band
Sweep through on graph – ‘where is the sweet spot?’ (which is the fundamental tone is)
4th harmonic ends up in HMF – sounds like a whistle (all sounds have 4 harmonics and doesn’t resemble the fundamental); make sure that this isn’t here – take this out and brighten up sound using HF (check poster for different harmonics to see where ‘whistle’ appears).
Why I’ve done what I’ve done: • LF decreased due to ‘boomy’ sound • LMF – Q decreased to make the effect more ‘pointed’ – affects
less frequencies. • HF – increased to bring out brightness. • HMF – brought down to eliminate the ‘whistle’ (Q narrow to
affect less frequencies)
Fundamental Tone – 1200Khz (Vocal) 1 harmonic – 2400 KHz 2 harmonic – 3600 KHz 3 harmonic – 4800 KHz (maybe boost this due to weakness, but depends on microphone/room used) 4 harmonic – 6000 KHz Do some lessons around this?
Dynamic hearing range: 20Hz to 20Khz
These are found most between LMF – HMF (therefore these make the most difference when using EQ).
‘bypass’ button – takes it back to what the EQ was before EQ (when you hear the difference it should just be a tonal difference).
Options > loop playback = loops each individual trackAllows you to tighten or expand the frequency bandwidth
Allows you to sweep through the frequencies
Gain allows you to CUT or BOOST
• EQ 2 (arpeggio track)
Not touching the bass register as the track is very treble
LMF raised to warm sound
HMF gets rid of whistle
HF brightens sound
• EQ (melody track)
The microphone is too close to the guitar and hand – bad frequencies brought in. Mic placement important.
This journal should document the student’s why they’ve done what they’ve done.
Each ball can be moved up and down to boost more bass/treble frequencies depending on needs.
LF left untouched due – most affect is made with middle three mixes.
• EQ (harmony track)
LF is decreased in order to remove the sound of the finger hitting another guitar string
LMF and MF are brought closer together in order to warm this level of frequency.
HMF decreased to remove whistle
HF brightens sound
• EQ (chords track)
LF is decreased in order to bring all other elements down as this provides more freedom to make a difference with the sound.
LMF – warmed slightly
HMF – whistle decreased
HF – not brightened too much as the ‘chinks’ will be brightened too much.
• How to Bounce track
This creates a raw file (Left Right Stereo) unpanned – everything will be referred from this. Comparing the bounces will see the progression.
AIFF = mac
WAV = PC
Never mp3 – no quality
• Bounced tracks (EQ)
• Compressor
Go for Maxim compressor
‘Bringing the ceiling down’ and ‘brings up the noise floor’
Always set to -1 Threshold – bringing down makes the dynamic louder
Soft compressor 3:1 Hard “ 5:1
If you apply something else at the compressor then sometimes you’ll have to go back and tweak the EQ. If they like the power of the compressor then it becomes boomy again and you have to sort this out at EQ.
If a track isn’t sitting the mix then a compressor might bring it out
• Compressor (arpeggios)
A soft (3:1) compressor was used, but this brought up the sound/noise floor.
This had to be compensated back in the EQ by cutting the gain
• Compressor (melody)
This has to stand out in the mix as this is the main melody. It has quite a weak signal already (can be seen by the big sound ceiling).
This therefore needs a larger compressor but doesn’t necessarily need a EQ change.
Teaching point: Get learners to get screen clips of each compressor to describe what needs done to it and if anything needed done with the EQ.
The chords track doesn’t need much (if any) compression due to the ‘chink’ and because we want it sitting in the mix.
• Panning
Think about the group will sit and pan with this visual in mind – create a stereo image.
Aware of musicians in the stereo image; interpret the visuals. This guitar group perform in a half-moon:
• Centre: main melody
Pan them to what position they are sitting in.
Shift and select all the tracks at the bottom (white boxes)
Command G = groups all these together
• Effects
Always bring the mix DOWN before we add any effects – this will gradually be put up to add the effect.
Sometimes effects will just be put on individual tracks – but this effect works well for the class
Stems – different word instead of ‘grouping’/’groups’
Effects addedWhen tracks are grouped if you move on track up then ALL tracks move up.
See effects (D-Verb) box
• Lesson re. binary
• Put up first 3 sections of binary code (3 bit rate instead of 64 bit rate)
• Put binary code up and get them to work out digital code
• Then do in reverse.
Dissect a film clip by clip
• Film
Clips can be imported on ProTools
Check these figures out: National 3 = 3 audio tracks? National 4 = 5 audio tracks? National 5 = 6 audio tracks?
How many people make soundtrack? Composer – 1 stem Foley engineers (for real-life sounds) 200 people over 1 year to create sound for a film.
Educational use – as long as they acknowledge intellectual property then they can us it in our context.
Same concept make animations really come alive – see folder on USB (Brave? Monster Inc.)
Can show a film which highlights mistakes (good exercise for after dissecting film – they know what to look for)
Dissect each clip and decide how we’d put sound to this. Each time the scene changes it’s a different clip – the sound changes from outside the car to inside, etc.
(Clip of plane and car)
LoTR – extended DVD 2 towers (sound scape how to do it); The Dark Knight too.
If at a distance this should be reflected in sound – reverb and quieter. Close-up to people – hear them breathing, etc.
More training: • October = radio • Saturday training? • Protools expert – working on educational
stuff
Money from literacy and numeracy across curriculum.
Should I apply for National 5 music?
