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tenorsextets
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What does the Yamaha DX7 have with MIDI?
It was the first synth to be able to use MIDI
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What is MIDI?
language for electronic instructions to make something happen (based on bytes); can be music, lights, pyrotechnics, or water jets
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When was MIDI introduced?
1981 at AES convention, 1983 at the NAMM Show
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What was MIDI originally intended for?
to connect 2 different keyboards to control one another
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What disadvantages did analog synths have to digital synths?
- depend on voltage and could go out of tune if there isn't enough voltage
- heat would mess with the tuning of oscillators
- didn't have as good of an attack as digital synths
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What two numbers could a bit be?
0 or 1
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How many values does 2 bits have?
4 values
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What is the first bit called in an 8-bit word?
Status byte
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What is MIDI's value range?
0-127 (128 total values)
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How many bits are in a byte?
8 bits
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What parameter in MIDI isn't controlled on the same scale as everything else?
Pitch bend isn't on the 0-127 scale
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How many keys are on a keyboard?
88
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What key number is middle C on a keyboard?
60
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What is automation?
changes in mix that are synced to the timeline of the music
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Velocity:
how fast a key is pressed down (translates to volume to us)
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What kind of transmission is MIDI?
serial
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How many bits/sec. does MIDI do?
31,250
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How many bits make one nibble?
4 bits
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How many channels per port can MIDI do?
16 channels per port
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What is channel 10 reserved for in MIDI?
drums
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What does it mean when people say "digital"?
information is represented as 0's and 1's (binary code)
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What are the two types of bytes? What does each tell us?
- Status Byte: if the note is pressed or released
- Data Byte: which note is pressed
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What does a panic button do? Why use it?
It turns off all MIDI notes because sometimes a note will get stuck on
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What is the default velocity for MIDI?
64
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What is included in a note-on message?
- note on status
- MIDI pitch #/note #
- attack velocity value
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What is included in a note-off message?
- note-off status
- MIDI pitch #/note #
- release velocity
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Pressure messages:
- you can press down on the key and then add more pressure to make something else happen to the note (like some sort of effect)
- AKA "aftertouch"
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Channel Pressure messages:
play a chord and do aftertouch to ONE key to make a thing happen to that key
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Polyphonic key pressure:
aftertouch applied to each note of the chord
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Pitch Bend message:
2 data bytes to 1 status byte
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Monophonic:
One note at a time
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Polyphonic:
more than one note at one time
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Multi-timbral:
More than one sound at a time
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What number range is the MIDI note messages in?
21-108 (88 keys of MIDI controller)
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Local off:
breaking the internal connection between the keyboard and tone generator; signal goes to MIDI OUT port
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What is sampling?
taking a snapshot of a waveform
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What is quantization?
assigning values to samples that are taken
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Zero Crossing also called:
Crossover point
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4 advantages of hard disk recorders:
- larger sound files
- random access editing
- nondestructive edits
- digital signal processing
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5 characteristics of DAWs
- Integration: allows everything to talk to each other
- Communication: DAW should be able to distribute info
- Speed/flexibility: quicker to edit and process
- Automation: can recall session and undo easily
- Expandibility: can add new stuff
- User Friendly: can communicate with user
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LCD:
CRT:
LED:
- These are all display types
- LCD: liquid crystal display
- CRT: cathode ray tube
- LED: light emitting diode
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Audio interface:
hardware that allows you to connect instruments and mics to your computer, converts audio from analog to digital
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What is "nondestructive" editing?
nothing is actually deleted, you can always get it back easily
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What does the Red Book tell us?
audio specs
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What is the CD quality spec?
- 44.1kHz sample rate
- 16 bit depth
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MIDI IN
MIDI OUT
MIDI THRU
- IN: receive message from external source
- OUT: transmits MIDI performance and control messages to another device
- THRU: transmit copy of IN messages
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What does a longer word length give you?
more detail and quality in recording
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Sample rate:
how many times audio is sampled per second; tells us frequency range
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Nyquist Theorem:
sample rate must be double that of the highest frequency
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Audio Driver protocols:
- WDM: Windows Driver Model (AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE)
- AISO: Audio Stream I/O (backbone of VST, low latency)
- MAS: MOTU Audio System (for mac)
- Core Audio: made by Mac
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How many ticks (Pulses per Quarter note AKA PPQ) are there in a beat?
960
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System Exclusive message:
bulk transmission and reception of many things...
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 What does each pin do on a MIDI cable?
- 1: nothing
- 2: Ground (earth to ground)
- 3: nothing
- 4: MIDI signal
- 5: MIDI signal
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What is at the core of an electronic instrument?
a CPU
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Subtractive synthesis:
EQ out overtones you don't want
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Additive synthesis:
add oscillators/operators for sounds
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What is wavetable synthesis and who developed it?
Roland; take a sample of the initial sound of a real instrument ("chiff") and then the rest of the note is synthesized
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What are operators?
signal generators for frequency modulation synthesis
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Frequency modulation synthesis:
digital sounds (pioneered by Yamaha DX-7), had a minimum of 2 operators; could get harder attack than analog
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Soundcard synths:
general MIDI on the motherboard
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What did samplers allow people to do?
load a WAV file to a key or button
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Key scaling:
a key will change something at a certain key #
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Modular software synths:
hold multiple synths inside them
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Splitting/Mapping:
split keyboard into zones
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Plug-in Protocols:
- DirectX
- AU (Audio Unit)
- VST (Virtual Sound Technology)
- MAS (MOTU Audio System)
- Audiosuite
- RTAS (Real Time Audio Suite)
- TDM (Time Domain Multiplex)
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Firewire:
- Made in mid '90's by Intel for Apple
- can handle 63 devices
- FireWire 400: 400 Mbits/sec
- FireWire 800: 800 Mbits/sec
- FireWire 400 and 800 are different plugs
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USB throughput
- Universal Serial Bus
- 1.0: 1.5 Mbits/sec (first generation); low bandwidth peripherals
- 1.0: 12 Mbits/sec (second gen); for devices needing higher throughput
- 2.0: 480 Mbits/sec; hi-throughput and fast transfer
- 3.1: 10G Gbits/sec
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Thunderbolt:
- 3 years old now
- 10 Gbits/sec per channel (two channels)
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USB:
- can handle 127 external devices
- devices can be plugged and unplugged when computer is on (except flash drives)
- data flows both ways
- provides data signal and DC power
- can daisy chain in USB hub (but it looks for things in order)
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How long can these cable types be?
USB
FireWire 400 and 800
MIDI
Wireless MIDI (not a cable, I know)
- USB: 5m for hi-speed, 3m for low-speed
- FireWire 400: 4.5m
- FireWire 800: 100m
- MIDI: 50ft.
- Wireless MIDI: 500ft
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Normalize:
looks at highest peaks and the distance from peak to the highest one, turns up that peak the amount of distance
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MTC:
MIDI time code; quarter frame messages that MIDI syncs to
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SMPTE:
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers; identifies an exact position on a tape or media form by assigning digital address' over the course of a program's duration; standard method to interlock audio, video, and film transports
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How many values are in:
8-bit
16-bit
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How many bits are in 1dB?
.167
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How many channel voice messages are there?
- 7
- note on, note off, polyphonic key pressure, channel pressure, program change, pitch bend change, control changeq
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29.97 fps drop-frame:
designed so color TV's could still read a monochrome signal; 2 frames are dropped every minute except for multiples of 10 (00, 10, 20, etc.)
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29.97 fps non-drop
color standard; frame count will always increase one count per frame
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Stem:
submix of instruments, intended to be used to master a song
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