A2 Mock Exam 1 Analysis 1a.

Identify and correct rhythm - More practice required - Dont spend too long - Easier of the marks are identifying - Never leave it blank! 1b. Drum ambience table - KNOWLEDGE: Ambient mics are never going to be dynamics! - KNOWLEDGE: Youve got to know your stereo mic setups coincident and near coincident pair (coincident means close to one another) - KNOWLEDGE & TECHNIQUE: Mic placement always give (a) the position of the mics (i.e. from the sound source, and from one another if its a stereo / multi-mic setup) (b) distance from the sound source (c) polar pattern - TECHNIQUE: Never leave anything blank always have an educated guess - TECHNIQUE: Kenny - the questions asking about Drum ambience and you start talking about guitar sound-holes! Read the question - TECHNIQUE: Always read the example, which will give you an indication of how to answer the question, and what sort of information is required 2a. Identify and correct pitch - See 1a. 2b. DI - Mostly all right - Injection 2c. What does it do and why is it useful - KNOWLEDGE: Youve got to know what a DI box does and why this is useful reduces the high impedance of a line level cable / unbalanced signal (2pin) to microphone level / balanced signal (3pin) the ground pin in an XLR cancels out noise via phase cancellation. Useful to reduce interference and therefore gives a better signal to noise ratio 3a. What is a Fender Rhodes - No one got this right - KNOWLEDGE & TECHNIQUE: Keyboard is too vague! Can you provide more detail? Electric Piano; Synthesiser; keyboard-based sampler (e.g. Mellotron) - Keyboard is simply the family of instruments 3b. Chords - KNOWLEDGE: Youve got to either know your chords, or know how you can work them out. Triads / 7ths / Extensions / Add / Sus / Dim / Inversions - KNOWLEDGE: Many gave the wrong inversion (1st not 2nd)

- TECHNIQUE: Read the question! It tells you how many marks there are going to be per correct note for a reason! - TECHNIQUE: At least get the triad right as theres one mark for this how many additional notes are required is hinted at by how many marks 4a. Difference between Rhodes and Piano - All got this right! 4b. Grand Piano Lid position for the brightest sound - At least those that attempted this gave a reason for their answer (i.e. attempting to get both marks short response question type) - KNOWLEDGE: Open lid is to vague the lid can be opened in different positions! 45 degree for reflections; detail is required this does not mean waffle! Detail can still be a short answer, just using the right technical terms and vocab. 4c. Recording a grand piano table - TECHNIQUE: Read the question 2 out of 4 of you missed marks because you did not underline anything in the first column - KNOWLEDGE: Mic distance too close to capture the whole instrument evenly! - KNOWLEDGE: Perhaps slightly unclear in the question (should have said stereo microphones rather than just microphones) but, still this should hint at the potential consideration re: phase issues 4d. Upright piano / against a wall - KNOWLEDGE: Reflections and soundboard micing 5a. Amp Simulator 5b. Amp sim brighter tone / overdrive sound 5c. Even out peak in guitar using dynamic processing - KNOWLEDGE: See how much the peak is in db (4db) and this is the amount of reduction you need using a compressor; attack and release set appropriately 6a. Close to speaker cone proximity effect - KNOWLEDGE 6b., 6c., & 6d. cardioid = proximity / omin = no proximity / increased bass response - KNOWLEDGE - No-one got this right 7a. Micing a close miced guitar amp with a condenser for subtle ambience - KNOWLEDGE: Common technique for adding depth to a miced guitar setup - TECHNIQUE: Subtle in the title - KNOWLEDGE & TECHNIQUE: Mic placement always give

(a) the position of the mics (i.e. from the sound source, and from one another if its a stereo / multi-mic setup) (b) distance from the sound source (c) polar pattern 7b. Recreate this using a plugin - KNOWLEDGE & TECHNIQUE: Again, subtle in the title would hint at a small room reverb 8a. Eradicating noise - KNOWLEDGE 8b. Carry this noise reduction out - KNOWLEDGE - Kenny and Gabriele didnt attempt this, or at least they didnt bounce it down it their final mixes 9a. Name two methods of stereo double-tracking during the recording process - KNOWLEDGE - KNOWLEDGE & TECHNIQUE: Read the question double tracking = a method of producing 2 tracks - Henry and Juuso: both didnt give two distinct methods (or wrote a load of crap for the 2nd method!) - Kenny and Gabriele: wishy washy or not attempted 10a. Apply the reverb - KNOWLEDGE & TECHNIQUE: read the question! Juuso put too short a reverb on the track 10b. - KNOWLEDGE: You cant have a Ribbon for an ambient mic (technically) or a dynamic for an ambient mic! - KNOWLEDGE: Mic position 1 -2 feet away (a certain amount of air) and pointing at the F-hole (where the sound is produced); also not pointing towards the string-bow contact point (avoid the rosin sound) - KNOWLEDGE: Ambient could be cardioid or omni probably omi is the better setting for an ambient mic 10c. - KNOWLEDGE: Youve got to know how to pan a quartet or an orchestra its one of the more unusual panning requirements - TECHNIQUE: Draw the panning on the diagrams 11. - TECHNIQUE: Bits missing = 0