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)