Effects

Question 1

What is pre delay time

Answer 1

Gap between the sound and the onset of the early reflections and reverb tail. This gives your brain information about the perceived size of the room

Question 2

What is reverb time

Answer 2

The amount of time taken for the reverb to decay to the point that we can no longer hear it. This is sometimes called RT60 and is measured at the point the reverb is 60dB quieter than the original signal

Question 3

What are early reflections

Answer 3

The first reflection occur after the direct sound, but before the reverb tail. These also give your brain information about the perceived size of the room

Question 4

What is the reverb tail

Answer 4

The general wash of sound that occurs after the direct sound and early reflections

Question 5

What is HF damping

Answer 5

Increases the perceived warmth of the space by ‘absorbing’ more high frequencies

Question 6

What is plate reverb

Answer 6

• it is achieved by feeding an audio signal through a thin metal plate suspended in a frame and picked up by pickup transducers
• the reverb can be adjusted by damping the vibrations using felt pads
• used in the 1960s - 70s

Question 7

What is spring reverb

Answer 7

• a cheaper, more practical but less desirable sound to plate reverb
• works the same as plate reverb but using loose springs rather than a metal plate
• has a more metallic and less rich sound than plate reverb

Question 8

What is digital reverb

Answer 8

• first seen in the 1980s
• it models reverb by using lots of delays which are mathematically calculated. Filtering is also applied to stimulate the way natural reflections would occur in a room
• it enables users to store lots of presets

Question 9

What is convlution reverb

Answer 9

• reproduces a real reverb from a real space
• a sine wave is played and sweeps across a room and the responce is recorded
• mathematical algorithms recreate this response and it can then be applied to other sounds

Question 10

What is gated reverb

Answer 10

• using a lot of reverb on percussion sounds can muddy a mic, if a reverb is sent through a noise gate, the tail is abruptly cut of, which prevents this from becoming an issue
• this is prominent in 1980s rock

Question 11

What is delay

Answer 11

A repeat of a sound that occurs after the original sound

Question 12

What is tape delay

Answer 12

• it recorded the original sound onto a magnetic tape and then played back
• they delay time can be changed by moving the position of the playback head. Some tape delay units changed the delay time by altering the speed of the tape
• feedback is created by adding some of the output signal into the input, this gives the number of repeats
• the delay lost some of the original high frequency content giving it a warm sound - people try to recreate this

Question 13

What is bucket brigade delay

Answer 13

• later analogue delays used bucket brigade chips to store the original sound
• each stage hands the signal off to the next stage
• the signal is held in each capacitor briefly and then moved on to the next
• these chips where much more convenient and reliable than tape but where noisy, the longer the delay, the more noise

Question 14

What is delay time

Answer 14

The gap between each repeat, often measured in milliseconds

Question 15

What is multi tap delay

Answer 15

Allows the user to set several different delay times in one effect

Question 16

How could you create modulation using tape recordings

Answer 16

• the recording would be duplicated and played simultaneously on two tape machines
• hand pressure was applied to the supply reel of one of the tape recorders which slowed it down slightly. This created a slight delay along with a variation of pitch

Question 17

What is ring modulation

Answer 17

• Adds and subtracts two frequencies to produce two new frequencies
• it can be a very dissonant effect that is used to create ringing, metallic or bell like sounds