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Thursday 27 th September. Periods 3 + 4. Music Technology A2

Thursday 27 th 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.

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Thursday 27 th September. Periods 3 + 4. Music Technology A2

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  1. Thursday 27th September. Periods 3 + 4.Music Technology A2

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Samplers & Sampling…What do you know?

  5. 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.

  6. 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).

  7. Mellotron http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_VGa5TInBc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAKsbvKr2s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR6D1ZH2CMk&feature=related

  8. 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!)

  9. 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).

  10. 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.

  11. Digital Sampling. Sample Rate.

  12. 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

  13. 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#!

  14. 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)

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

  19. 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)

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