Homework 9 Responses - The Studio Environment Research Task - Kenny 1.

. Complete the following descriptions: (a) The studio control 2. In your own words, room is... and (b) the please state what a room 3. Why is it desirable for studio live / performance with a flat frequency control rooms to have a room is... response is. flat frequency response?

The studio control room is where all the sound and recordings end up. On the computer with the mixer being manipulated by a producer and engineer. What other equipment is present other than the computer & mixer? The live room is where all the recording action happens.

is when a speaker or headphones does not create any frequencies which arent naturally there You need to READ the question properly Kenny you are asked about a room regarding flat freq. response, not headphones or speakers. (Your understanding of what a flat freq. response is, is largely correct but you speak about this in the wrong context).

That way you can hear exactly what is coming in and out and can adjust it if needs be. Youre kinda right, but your answer lacks the detail required (although you are certainly along the right lines) So that you can hear the exact and natural frequency content of your audio, knowing that it is not being over or under exaggerated by the frequency content of your control room. Exaggerated room freq. responses tend to result in the engineer / producer over or under using EQ to compensate.

5. Why is it often (but not always) desirable for live 6. Describe 2 ways in 4. What are room rooms to have reduced which room reflections "reflections"? reflections? are reduced. More often its to have a clean sound or recording with out having echoes or unwanted sound bouncing back. You are on the right lines but your answer lacks the detail and technical knowledge required. See in most studios they my example answer mathematically place foam below:all around the walls and ceiling, which sucks up A recording conducted in a and absorbs the sound. room with reduced reflections (i.e. a dead or Then with a drumkit for dry room in terms of example you simply should ambience) allows for put it facing outwards greater flexibility over the rather facing inwards use of artificial ambiences towards the corner of a (e.g. reverbs and delays) room. You are very close in the editing and mixing with your second answer stage. its a bout the positioning of sound sources yes, but This is not always in particular so that they desirable because are nor perpendicular (at sometimes you want the right angles) to any natural ambience of a surface and also so that When soundwaves reflects room or space to be they are not positioned at an equal distance between of the different surfaces in captured in the recording process. two or more surfaces. a room

7. What is a bass trap?

A bass trap is also a form of sound dampening for a studio. it absorbs the higher frequency reflections. X Nope! It reduces lower freqs. hence the word BASS trap! These bass freq. are caused by standing waves that build up in the corners of rooms.

9. Describe the difference between powered monitors, 8. What is "nearand those that require a field" monitoring? power amplifier.

10. What is a balanced line input?

11. Why are active DI boxes generally better than passive ones?

12. What are headphone distribution amplifiers?

13. Describe three other considerations which should be implemented in a studio environment to avoid unwanted audio interference.

Powered monitors (sometimes called active monitors) have their power amplifier built into them (like Speakers (called the ones in our studio) where monitors) which are as unpowered monitors designed to faithfully (sometimes called passive recreate optimum monitors) require a separate audio playback at a power source in the form of a close range to the power amplifier to help them The input is where the wire is listener. generate sound. slotted in order to make it work.

Its a wire which has 3 pins, Positive, negative and ground. What this means is that it reduces the amount of unwanted signals getting through. Not unwanted signals, but unwanted audible interference (e.g. electrical hum and buzz). It does this via phase cancellation e.g. the interference is literally cancelled out between the negative and positive wires.

They are better because they can cope with lenghtier wires, they are quieter and have more facilities. It can also be powered by 48V phantom power or batteries

Anything with a large magnetic feild or too many objects with a This is the machine which magnetic feild such as connects both the control room and live room and enables quick bright florescent lighting, and easy communication between big computers etc Yep, good Kenny the two also: It provides monitoring to the instrumentalist or singer, so that acoustic absorbent he/she can hear him/herself as screens to help with well as any backing track and separation from any other musicians. They also allow unwanted external noise for different monitor mixes to be fed to different musicians audio and power wires simultaneously, depending on the should be kept apart and amount of channels the cable runs should be as headphone amp has. short as possible

14. What are closed backed headphones and why, in the event of needing to monitor a recording on headphones rather than on near-field monitors, does a studio engineer need to use this type of headphone? it is a headphone which does not give off too much sound outside the headphone therefore eradicating spill from the headphones into microphones. Also importantly closed-backed headphones reduce sound leaking into the headphones from other sources meaning that the engineer can hear the true sound of the recording free from colouration of room acoustics and back ground noise

9 valid points made Kenny which is not terrible but not great either. There were quite a few blanks, which is worrying. Please try to attempt every question there is nothing in this research task that is not covered on pages 17 22 of the revision guide, so really you should have attempted every question. We are now tracking homework tasks and this will be flagged up as amber i.e. not terrible, but still under where Id expect you to be. Where you have made valid points this has been done well however, which shows me you can produce good pieces of homework. Let s get this level of quality consistent Kenny!