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80 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Microphones that use a moving coil to transduce acoustic energy to electrical energy are _____________ microphones. |
Dynamic |
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Condenser microphones require you to add ______________ _______________ for them to work. |
Phantom Power |
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A condenser microphone operates on the principle that two parallel __________________ _______________________, each holding an opposing electrical charge (+ and -), creates a capacitor. |
Metal Plates |
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Most condenser mics operate on a phantom power of ___________________, others over a wide range of voltages (9-48Vdc). |
48Vdc |
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____________________ ____________________ refers to the increase in BASS response as the source signal is brought closer to the microphone capsule. |
Proximity Effect |
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__________-_______________ describes sound signals originating directly in front of the mic’s diaphragm. |
on-axis |
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__________________ polar patterns picks up sound arriving from all directions in a uniformly way. |
omnidirectional |
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__________________ polar patterns are designed to pick up sounds that originate right in front (0° on-axis), reducing the pickup levels at the sides (90° and 270°) while rejecting sounds from the rear (180° off-axis). |
Cardioid |
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___________________ polar pattern mics pic up sound from the front (0° on-axis) and rear (180° off-axis) with equal strength while rejecting sound from the sides (90° and 270° off-axis). |
Bidirectional/Figure Eight |
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An _________ connector is typically used for mic cables and AES/EBU digital cables. |
XLR |
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Professional line level audio is 1.23 Volts RMS or ________________________. |
+4dBu |
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Consumer line level audio is 0.316 Volts RMS or __________________________. |
-10dBV |
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The main purpose of a mic pre-amplifier (preamp) is to boost the signal to Line Level, which is the standard level for all professional equipment in the studio. |
True |
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When thinking signal flow in a studio or live environment, you should think about connecting _________________ to __________________. |
Outputs to Inputs |
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Gain staging is the process of optimizing your input noise levels in order to maximize noise strength while minimizing signal (bringing up the noise floor). |
False |
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A mic signal must go through a _______________________ to convert the signal to line level signal, ready to be distributed to other signal processing components or directly to a recording device. |
Preamp |
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In a DAW you don’t have to worry about the analog quality of the signal, because we can use plug-ins to fix it in the mix. |
False |
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All inputs and outputs of studio gear, the console, and your interface will be located on the _______________________. |
Patch Bay |
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Most professional patch bays use ________________ ________________________ connectors as their way to reroute signal. |
Tiny Telephone |
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What are the three main types of patch bays. |
Fully-normalled, Half-normalled, & no normalled. |
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The ________________of a waveform is measured in cycles per second or hertz. |
Frequency |
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____________________ ______________ do not have cycles per second property. |
Aperiodic waves |
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_______________________ is the intensity of vibration. |
Amplitude |
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We use a __________________ to convert one form of energy to another. |
transducer |
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The standard level for professional audio is ___________________. |
+4 dBu |
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A rarefaction is the ________________ of air pressure in a sound wave. |
decrease |
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The compression of a waveform is the ______________ of air pressure in a sound wave. |
increase |
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The useable dynamic range of a piece of gear is between the ___________ ______________ and the point that the signal gets _____________. |
noise floor, clipped |
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Three types of Transducers. |
microphone, speaker, & tape head |
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A ________________________ shows Amplitude vs. Frequency. |
spectrum analyzer |
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With an analog recording/mixing system, like a console, the busing is accomplished using the “____________ ________________” of the board. |
Routing Matrix |
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Busing signals inside a digital audio workstation is not that much different than using a traditional mixing board. |
True |
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Grouping allows dynamic processing on a group of signals using one processor (or two for stereo processing). We called this “___________ _________________”. |
audio subgrouping |
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If you're running out of audio tracks or channels, you can do some _____________ ________________ to free up tracks. |
track bouncing |
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Mixer Transunion is the process of combining multiple recorded tracks to one or two open tracks on the multi-track recorder. |
False |
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Fader grouping doesn’t introduce “noise” from summing amps, unlike a typical “busing” group. |
True |
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______________ _________________ doesn’t combine the signals, but makes use of a single control voltage or digital assignment to control the “relative” levels of tracks from a single fader. |
Fader Grouping |
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One single fader could control all other fader volumes, even if no audio is on that single fader. |
True |
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“How do I compress my drums with this one vintage stereo EQ I have?” |
audio subgrouping |
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When doing Audio Subgrouping you would want to remove the source signal from the stereo bus. |
True |
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_______________ __________________ determine our perception of a sound source’s location and size and conveys the true timbre of the source. |
Direct sounds |
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When surfaces are reflective, the sound is bounced back into the room and toward the listener. This is referred to as: |
Reflections |
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Early _________________ consist of the first few ________________ that are projected to the listener off of major boundaries within an acoustic space. |
reflections, reflections |
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Reverberation is sounds reaching the listener ______________ or later in time, and is perceived as a random and continuous stream of reflections that arrive from all directions. |
50-msec |
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The Haas Effect is also known as the ________________________ Effect. |
Precedence |
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Effects that change the signal’s timing in one way or the other to produce the desired result, are _____________________ effects. |
Time-based |
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____________ _____________ uses magnetic tape as their recording and playback medium. Electric motors guide a tape loop through a variety of mechanisms allowing modification of the effect's parameters. |
Tape Delay |
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What are the three parameters used in Modulation? |
Depth, Rate, & Waveform |
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__________ is the time that’s required for a sound to die away to a millionth of its original intensity (resulting in a decrease over time of 60 dB). |
RT60 |
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Some of the common reverb types are: |
Hall, Spring, & Plate |
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Multitrack recording for modern sessions and projects involves three stages: |
Recording, Overdubbing, & Mixdown |
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Musicians listen to the previously recorded tracks and then play along in sync while recording new and separate tracks that are added to the basic tracks in order to fill out and finish the project. This is called? |
Overdubbing |
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If the musician makes a minor mistake during an otherwise good performance, sections of a take can be “______________________” on the same track to correct a bad overdub section. |
punched in |
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The individually recorded signals are blended into a stereo signal (most common), and that’s fed to the master recorder . This process is called? |
Mixdown |
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Professional analog multi-tracks will have a separate head for each function. What are the functions? |
Erase, Record, & Reproduce |
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Analog tape recorders use magnetic tape to store the information, recording onto it and playing back off it. |
True |
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DAWs have the ability to edit a sound file without altering the data that was originally recorded to disk. This is referred to as “_____________________________________”. |
Nondestructive Editing |
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Before recording actually begins, the software can be setup to give the performer a “_______________” so as to get in the groove and land a good take. Its usually set up in bars. |
Count-in |
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When performing a punch in/out, the artist needs a some time to properly lead into the take. This is known as the “_______________”. Once the mistake is corrected, the amount of time the machine is allowed to play is the “______________”. |
pre-roll / post-roll |
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Color coding your tracks provides a visual reference as to the nature of your tracks, whereas they may be audio, instrument, midi, or auxiliary tracks. It makes navigating through your tracks a little easier, especially during mixing. |
True |
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______________ range in analog audio is the difference between the noise floor and high-level signal saturation resulting in clipping. |
Dynamic |
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________________ reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds by narrowing or "compressing" an audio signal's dynamic range. |
Compressors |
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On a Compressor the __________________ setting is the level at which the compressor will begin to process the signal. Commonly set in decibels dB. |
Threshold |
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On a Compressor the __________________ setting is how fast the gain reduction will happen after signal crosses the threshold. Commonly expressed in mSec. |
Attack |
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On a Compressor the __________________ setting is how fast the compression will end after signal crosses below the threshold Commonly expressed in mSec. |
Release |
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________________ is a behavior of compression by which the output level will not significantly increase as the input level increases, thus _________________ the output of signal. |
Limiting |
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Expanders increase the difference in loudness between quieter and louder sections of audio making quiet sounds quieter and loud sounds louder. |
True |
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What are the four main controls on a Noise Gate? |
Threshold, Attack, Release, & Range |
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A __________________ can be used to eliminate noise from an instrument or vocal track during silent passages. |
Noise Gate |
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Professional gate units can also provide a secondary input in order to “open” (release the attenuation) via this secondary signal. This is referred to as _______________ the gate. |
Keying |
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A visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in a sound as they vary with time. Is called a : |
Audio spectrogram |
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_______________ is a professional audio device that measures and displays the frequency spectrum of an audio signal. |
RTA |
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A __________________ __________________ will only allow to change the amplitude of each frequency. |
Graphic Equalizer |
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Parametric equalizers are _____________ _____________ equalizers which allow users to control the three primary parameters per band: amplitude, center frequency and bandwidth. |
multi-band variable |
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A Parametric EQ with no bandwidth control is referred to as ________-______________ or shelving EQ. |
semi-parametric |
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Filters differ from equalizers in that they are designed to only attenuate at a _____________ slope. |
constant |
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A ____________________ (also known as low-cut) is a filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a certain cutoff frequency, and attenuates signals with frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency. |
high-pass filter |
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A ____________________ (also known as a high-cut) is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. |
low-pass filter |
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________________ __________________ is the result of combining a high-pass and a low-pass filter. Adjusting the cutoff frequencies of both filters results in a defined bandwidth of frequencies “passing” through. |
band-pass filter |
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The _________ frequency of a filter is the frequency where the signal starts attenuating down by -3dB. |
cutoff |