Unit 35 Definitions

Editing Functions

Oscillator - Device which generates physical or digital waveforms.

Amplifier - Increases amplitude of a wave.

Filter - A range of attenuated frequencies.

Envelope Generator - Creates an ADSR envelope: Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release.

LFO - Low-frequency oscillator, which uses inaudible frequencies below 20Hz to alter the sound.

Modulation - Continuous automation of a function, eg. tremolo.

Patch-bay - Connects the sound of two rooms in a studio setting. This also applies to multiple DAWs.

Preset - Settings that come with the synthesiser already.

Monophonic/Polyphonic - The amount of voices are played at the same time per note on a synthesiser, eg. 16 voices. Monophonic is just one voice.

Parameter Select - The choice of parameters that can be manipulated on a synthesiser.

Parameter Change - Manipulation of parameters in order to shape a sound.

Waveform Editing

Acoustic theory of waveforms - All ‘sound’ is just our brain’s interpretation of vibrations made by external stimuli. This is explained by acoustic theory. Vibrations created by a source such as knocking a door come out as sound waves. The higher the frequency of these waves, the higher in pitch this sound will be. For example, D and C in the same octave on a piano differ in that a wave that sounds like D has a higher frequency than C. A wave’s frequency, wavelength and amplitude are all linked; the higher it’s frequency, the shorter its wavelength as the wave has less distance to travel between each peak and trough. Meanwhile a wave’s amplitude translates in the ear to loudness of the sound.

Loops - Samples where the beginning and end are arranged to join, allowing the sample to play continuously.

Sample beginning and ending points - The start and end of a sample; generally you want it to start after any silence and end before any silence in the wider recording from which you’re sampling.

Creating Instruments

Zones - Selection of keys which will play a certain sample. This allows us to use multiple samples within one sampler.

Multi-sampling - Using multiple samples in one sampler (utilising zones).

Velocity Layering - Using samples of different textures and mapping them to velocity values of the same sampler. You might use this to add expression to a sampled instrument by changing its timbre from soft to hard as notes are played more softly or hard.

One-shot - A setting on a sampler that means the sample will only play once, no matter for how long a key is pressed for. This contrasts with a looping sample.

Reverse - Reversing a sample.