Modulation Based Processors

Question 1

Auto-panner

Answer 1

Pans audio back and forth between the left and right sides of the stereo panorama in a cyclical way

Question 2

AutoTune

Answer 2

a plugin used to correct pitch using autocorrelation

Question 3

Chorus

Answer 3

Original sound is sent to multiple short time delays, and the delays are modulated to increase the uncertainty of the combined pitch; creates the illusion of a group of the same instrument playing together

Question 4

Comb filter

Answer 4

filter with a series of very deep notches in its frequency response; spacing is at multiples of the lowest frequency notch so they look evenly spaced on a linear frequency scale

produced when a signal is time-delayed and added to itself; frequencies where the time delay is ½ the period and multiples of these frequencies are canceled when the signals are combined because they have opposite polarity

Question 5

Detune

Answer 5

audio is duplicated and tuned slightly up or down in order to create a thicker sound; similar to beating in synthesis

Question 6

Double

Answer 6

A track that is recorded as a reinforcement track to an original (for example, a vocal track that is tracked the same performance twice to layer on top of itself)

Question 7

Doubling

Answer 7

the act of playing a track twice in a multitrack recording and using both in the final mix

Question 8

Double tracking

Answer 8

the act of recording a vocal track once, then listening to it while recording another similar track

Question 9

Envelope follower

Answer 9

A device used to convert the envelope of a musical signal into a control voltage; the output will be low when the signal is soft and high when the signal is loud

Question 10

Flanging

Answer 10

delayed version of a signal is mixed with a signal; as the speed is varied, the frequency of cancellation dips is swept across the frequency range, causing a swooshing sound

Question 11

Harmonizer

Answer 11

Produces more than one transposed version of an input signal and configures it around musical intervals and chords

Question 12

Melodyne

Answer 12

Pitch correction software using an FFT (fast Fourier transform) algorithm to spectrally analyze pitch

Question 13

Micro pitch-shift

Answer 13

A fine resolution pitch shifter used to fatten signals and make tracks sound thicker

Question 14

Modulation frequency (rate)

Answer 14

The speed at which modulation occurs

Question 15

Phaser

Answer 15

device that gives similar effect to flanging, but with less depth; shifts phase of signal and adds it back to the signal

Question 16

Pitch shifter

Answer 16

alters the pitch of the input signal without altering its duration; identifies waveform patterns, then shrinks or stretches them into the same time span

Question 17

Ring modulator

Answer 17

allows one signal to amplitude modulate another signal, resulting in a complex series of sum and difference frequencies between the input signal frequencies

Question 18

Sideband

Answer 18

frequency components derived from amplitude modulation; sum and difference frequencies (Carrier frequency+modulator frequency and carrier frequency-modulator frequency)

Question 19

Tremolo

Answer 19

repetitive change in amplitude over time

Question 20

Vibrato

Answer 20

repetitive change in pitch over time