A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST Electric Guitars & Amplification

how was the first pickup created in the 20s / why? how did the pickups work? what was the problem with acoustic and steel guitar pickups? what was the first solid body electric guitar? who favoured the electric guitars to begin with, and what style musician adopted them? what was the first successful electric bass? when did gibson/les paul release the p90 pickup and what is it now known as? what is the difference between single coil and humbucker pickups and what is the difference in sound? how did the les paul guitar change how guitars were made? how have guitars in general changed since hendrix and led zep? (look into electromagnetic coils and componants of a pickup and how they work with eachother/the amp.) what is the role of a guitar amp and how does it work? what was the first style of amp? (combo/head/cab) and who produced them? what was the first popular amp? what did marshall do to revolutionise amps? how are amps different to stereo hi fis? what are the different types of amp and how do they work? (solid state, valve, modeling) (look into what the valves are made from and how they are different) also have a look at stompboxes and guitar effects (pedals and rack mount)

A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST Keyboard Instruments & Samplers

Keyboard instruments
Telharmonium - 1898 Who invented the Telharmonium? How did the Telharmonium work? - What equipment did it use? Why was the Telharmonium abandoned? Monophonic or Polyphonic? Thrmin - 1920 Who invented the Theremin? How does the Theremin work? How is the Theremin played? What is an example of the use of a Theremin in a song? Monophonic or Polyphonic? Ondes Martenot - 1928 Who invented the Ondes Martenot? How is it similar to the Theremin? What are some of its characteristics? Monophonic or Polyphonic? Hammond Organ - 1933 What was the main characteristic of the Hammond Organ that was different to the Telharmonium, Theremin and Ondes Martenot? How does the Hammond Organ work? What are some songs in which the Hammond Organ was used? Mellotron - 1963 What kind of instrument was the mellotron? What did the mellotron do that is different from things seen before? What is an example of its use in 1960?

Samplers
What is a sampler? What is a sample?

A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST

How does the sampler work? How many snapshots should be taken per second to get a faithful impression of the sound? What is sample rate and how does it affect the sample? What is bit resolution and how does it affect the sample?

Fairlight CMI - 1979 What is the sampler capable of? How much was the sampler? (Series 1 and Series 3) What was an example of the use of the Fairlight CMI in a song? What part of the song was this used on? For example, the cello, the bass, the drums etc. Synclavier - 1980 Who created the Synclavier? What the Synclaviers advantage over the Fairlight CMI? Emulator sampler - 1981 How much was the emulator sampler? Why was this beneficial? Who bought serial number 001 because they were so impressed with it? What equipment did the emulator sampler have? AKAI S900 - 1986 What was superior to the AKAI S900 compared to already existing samplers? Name one famous artist who used the AKAI S900 in their career. What type of display does the AKAI S900 have? What was introduced to the sampler world that featured on the AKAI S900? Explain how this worked. Software Sampler How did the software sampler work? What equipment was needed for the software sampler to work? Why did this make editing much easier? Problems that occurred with samplers - Copyright What is copyright? How did copyright affect the use of samples and samplers? Name one example where copyright has affected the artist and their song, explain what happened.

A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST Digital Audio

Analog-digital converters:
What are they Where are they found Advantages and disadvantages

Sampling Rates:
measured in Also known as- Sampling Frequency, Sample Bandwidth what is a sample Industry standard rates/Red book standard other common rates Why have high sample rates storage problems Nyquist theory Aliasing Anti-aliasing filters Jitters

Bits/Bit rate:
what is a bit what is a bit rate industry standards/Red book standard possible values Quantisation Quantisation errors Recording at a low level Audio Dithering- digital interconnections, digital processors, Analog to digital converters

A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST STUDIO EFFECTS

Reverb
Time and level Pre delay Spring reverb Plate reverb Absorption

Delay
Analogue delay Digital delay

Dynamics processors
Compression
Gain reduction Attack Release Knee Compressor threshold

Limiter
Gain reduction Output level Release

Noise gate
Threshold Attack Release Reduction

EQ
High shelf Low shelf Filters
Hi Pass Low pass High shelf Low shelf

Modulation effect
Chorus effects Flanger Phaser Vibrato Tremolo Pitch correction Vocoders

A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST MIDI

What is in MIDI data? -Transmits commands, NOT audio signals -Provides information about events, such as: -Note on, note off, pitch bend, sustain pedal etc -Uses Binary data just like every computer -This means there are only 2 numerical values 1 and 0 (on and off)

Why was it created? -Created in 1983. -A large number of musical instrument manufacturers banded together for the first time -Was in answer to frustration of having more than one musical interface and format (made music creation, sharing and collaboration hard) -By 1985 almost every keyboard type instrument had a MIDI interface

What is a MIDI message? - A MIDI message is when bytes are combined together to create a command - There are two types of MIDI message, channel and system. - Channel messages are mostly related to performance of the MIDI information - System messages usually deal with the system itself. They aren't sent through channels.

A2 MUSIC TECH REVISION CHECKLIST SYNTHESIS

What is the starting point of Synthesis?: Different waveforms used. Properties of these basic waveforms. What the next parts of synthesis do to the waveform.

What are the basic elements to synthesis? What are Oscillators?: What do they do? What is another name for Oscillators? And what it stands for or abbreviated to? Example of synths which replaced analogue waveforms for samples of basic waveforms. What is a filter? What is another name for a filter? And what it stands for or abbreviated to? What does a filter do to the waveform? What is the Envelope? What the envelope does? What are the different sections of a envelope and what are their definitions/jobs. What is another name for a envelope? And what it stands for or abbreviated to? What is a standard graph for the envelope? What is Modulation? What does modulation most commonly use? What does modulation do to the waveform? What parts of the synth can modulation effect? What happens when you modulate the: Oscillators Filter Envelope

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Video Explaining Subtractive Synthesis