Effects

Question 1

What is reverb?

Answer 1

Reverb is essentially reflections which which persist after the original sound has diminished. The reflections diminish gradually in amplitude and the time this takes depends on the environment

Question 2

How is reverb generates in modern recording studios

Answer 2

Using digital algorithms and plug ins, recreating reverb characteristics and ambiance

Question 3

What is convolution reverb?

Answer 3

This stimulates the reverberation of a physical space or performance venue

Question 4

What is Pre - delay?

Answer 4

Refers to the amount of time between the original dry sound and the audible onset of early reflections and reverb tail

Question 5

What is reverb time?

Answer 5

The time taken for the reflections to diminish by 60dB from the first reflection

Question 6

Why does room size matter in reverb?

Answer 6

The room size alters the delay times of the early reflections of reverb creating the effect of a larger or smaller space

Question 7

What is diffusion in reverb?

Answer 7

Diffusion creates the character of the reverb tail. Higher diffusion is smoother while less diffusion can be clearer

Question 8

How does width effect reverb?

Answer 8

Width increases the stereo image response of the reverb

Question 9

What does HF damping do?

Answer 9

HF damping increases or decreases the loss of high frequency detail in the reverb tail as it diminishes.

Question 10

What is Gated Reverb

Answer 10

Micing the ambience of a room, often heavily compressed using a noise gate to produce a sharp cut off

Question 11

What is reverse reverb?

Answer 11

A modification of gated reverb where a reverse type envelope is applied to the early cluster of reflections. Sound sounds backwards even though it is not

Question 12

Chamber reverb/echo chamber

Answer 12

Sending signal to a loudspeaker in the chamber a mic picks up. The wet signal is blended with the dry signal.

Question 13

What is plate reverb?

Answer 13

A transducer creates vibrations in a large plate of sheet metal. A pickup captures the vibrations and the result is an audio signal

Question 14

What is spring reverb?

Answer 14

A transducer at one end of a spring and a pickup at the other to create and capture vibrations.

Question 15

What is delay?

Answer 15

An audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium then plays back after a period of time.

Question 16

What is the earliest forms of delay and how did it work?

Answer 16

Reel to reel tape machines where the record head of the tape machine was converted to another playback head, the difference in the distance between the two heads created a short delay called tape echo or slap back echo

Question 17

What options do digital delay units present?

Answer 17

Control over the time before playback
Select overall level of the processed signal
Level the delay signal is fed back into the buffer to be repeated
Audio filters
Multi tap delays

Question 18

What do software delay systems allow us to do?

Answer 18

Manipulate several parameters in the delay

Question 19

What is delay time?

Answer 19

The time between each delayed repetition

Question 20

What is feedback?

Answer 20

The length of time that the delayed repetitions last for

Question 21

What does EQ and filters do?

Answer 21

Shape the tone of the delayed signal

Question 22

What is mix level?

Answer 22

The balance between the original signal and the processed delayed signal

Question 23

What is panning?

Answer 23

Stereo delays allow the user to pan each side

Question 24

What is a flanger?

Answer 24

A time based effect that occurs when two identical signals are mixed together but with one signal time delayed by a small and gradually changing amount

Question 25

What is phasing?

Answer 25

The properties are similar to Flanders but a phaser uses all pass filters which are fed back into themselves

Question 26

How was flanging originally created?

Answer 26

A signal would be recorded to two tape machines. An engineer would put a finer on the flange of one of the tape machines to make it slip in and out of sync