Thursday 27th September. Periods 3 + 4.Music Technology A2
A2 exam written question revision
‘The development of music technology’
•Must answer 1 question (choice of 2)•16 marks available (8% of A2)•Include 16 different points•Organise ideas in date order.•After planning, answer can be bullet points or prose
A2 exam written question revision
‘The development of music technology’Topics:
•Synthesisers•Drum machines•Samplers•Audio effects and audio processing - EQ•MIDI•Recording media (tape / digital etc). Consumer media (Vinyl & MP3 etc)•Multi-track recording (Digital and Analogue)•Computer based recording – Cubase / Logic etc•Electric Guitars and Amplification Internet•Mixers•Digital Synthesis / FM / Additive / Wavetable / Sample based
Samplers & Sampling…What do you know?
Samplers & Sampling.
• Sampling is basically recording a sound. This recorded sound is called a sample and it is stored (RAM / disk etc).
• Samplers makes sounds by playing back samples. The pitch of the sample is determined by the speed it is played back – to play a sample 1 octave higher you would double the playback speed.
• Samplers are played via a keyboard or sequencer.
Mellotron
• The first sampler. 1963.• Each note played a 12 second tape strip
of a pre-recorded sound. Like a violin.• Very complicated - have to change tape
strips to change sounds.• Unique sounding (sometimes unreliable)
– Analogue – pitch fluctuates (not unlike a human playing an instrument).
Mellotron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR6D1ZH2CMk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAKsbvKr2s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_VGa5TInBc
Digital samplers• After the Mellotron – Samplers were
digital.
• Digital samplers recorded sounds and saved them digitally (onto floppy disk / internal memory).
• The quality of the sound was dependent on…….(its going to get a bit technical!)
Digital sampling – Sample Rate.• 1 The ‘sample rate’. This is basically how often a
‘sample’ or an audio snapshot / recording is taken of the sound that is to be sampled.
• ‘CD quality’ has a sample rate of 44.1 Khz which means a sample is taken of the original music 44100 times a second. Human ears in very good condition can hear roughly 20Hz to 20Khz. Cubase can record with a sample rate of up to 192Khz.
• Rule of thumb (or Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem!) is that you need to sample at twice the highest frequency of the sound. Ie if you wanted to accurately sample a violin which has a frequency response of about 200Hz (lowest note) to 3Khz (highest note) you would sample at 6Khz – twice 3Khz.
• Sampling at a too low a sample rate causes ‘aliasing’. This means you will hear errors (harmonics / overtones).
Digital Sampling – Bit Depth.• 2 The audio ‘bit depth’. This is basically the quality
of the ‘sample’ or audio snapshot / recording.
• ‘CD quality’ has a bit depth of 16 bits which means every time a sample is taken (44100 times a second) it is recorded at 16 bits. Early digital samplers were 8 bit. Today studio digital recordings (as on Cubase) are usually done at 24 or 32 bit depth.
• The higher the bit depth (and sample rate) the higher the data size of the sample sound. Like a ‘high quality’ 320 Kbits/s MP3 takes more space on your ipod than a lower 128 Kbits/s MP3 (this is the sample rate).
• Play around with the Bit Crusher FX in Cubase which allows you to change the bit depth on a sound.
Digital Sampling.
Sample Rate.
Digital Samplers
• 1977 8 bit Synclavier 1 followed by the more widely used Synclavier 2 in 1979.
• Synclaivier 2 cost about $75,000 in 1979.• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=YWipCvQOryU
Digital Samplers• 1979 8 bit Fairlight CMI sampler (from Australia).
£18,000.• Mark 2 model in 1982 featured a graphical
sequencer called Page R (the origins of sequencers like Cubase).
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt_iZLgo2f8&feature=player_embedded#!
Digital Samplers Development• 1988 Akai S1000 16bit
Stereo sampler. First to use ‘time stretch’.
• £2000
• Developments of samplers since early 80’s:
• Technology has become a lot cheaper. Original samplers were at least $8,000 for the cheapest model (1982 E-mu Emulator as used by ABC in early 80’s). Samplers used to be out of reach of the average musician.
• More and less expensive memory. Original samplers had 64/129K RAM – less than 1 second of CD quality sound!).
• Better sound quality because of: Greater Bit depth (form 8 to 16 bits) And greater sample rates (from 22/32Khz to 44.1Khz CD quality up to 96Khz and beyond)
Software Samplers• As synths became VST’s
(Virtual Studio Technology) in late 90’s – so did samplers.
• All the features of hardware samplers but as PCs and Macs became more powerful so did VST’s making hardware samplers obsolete.
• Steinberg Halion.
Using a Sampler• Start and End Points
• The start and end of the audio WAV when played back on the sampler.
• Keyboard range (Zones / span)• The range of notes a sample can be played on. Different samples can
span a keyboard.
• Looping• While playing back a sample – when the loop end point is reached the
playback jumps to the loop start point. Ie you could loop a string sample so when it gets to the end it jumps back to the start to make a continuous sound.
• Changing the sounds (Filters / Envelopes). • Just like a synthesiser – the sample can be treated like a wave (VCO)
and flitered and also an envelope (ADSR) can shape the sound.
Practical• Create a multi sample
of a ‘real’ instrument like guitar / violin etc.
• Record 1 note per octave for at least 5 octaves.
• Import the samples into the Cubase Short Circuit VST sampler.
• Create a short musical riff / piece.
Homework • You are advised to keep your answer to a maximum of 200
words. You may write in continuous prose, bullet points or use a table to communicate your answer.
• Try to make 20 valid points. There is 16 marks for this question.
• The digital sampler has transformed the sonic palette available to musicians and producers by allowing any sound to be incorporated into a recording with accurate control. Describe what a sampler is and how sampling technology
• has developed from the 1980s to the present day. You should refer to technical specifications of sampling equipment in your answer.
Further study – sampling ‘ethics’
• Is it right to use someone else's music in your music?
• Should you need permission before using a sample?
• Should the artist you sample be compensated and if so for how much?
• http://youtu.be/Uz5cUTmuWjY (from 2 mins in)