Homework 9 Responses The Studio Environment Research Task - Lucas 14.

. What are closed backed headphones and why, in the event of needing to monitor a recording on headphones rather than on near-field monitors, does a studio engineer need to use this type of headphone?

1. Complete the following descriptions: (a) The studio control room is... and (b) the studio live / performance room is...

2. In your own words, please state what a room with a flat frequency response is.

3. Why is it desirable for control rooms to have a flat frequency response?

4. What are room "reflections"?

5. Why is it often (but not always) desirable for live rooms to have reduced reflections? so that the microphones dont pick up any unwanted sounds. You are on the right lines but your answer lacks the detail and technical knowledge required. See my example answer below:A recording conducted in a room with reduced reflections (i.e. a dead or dry room in terms of ambience) allows for greater flexibility over the use of artificial ambiences (e.g. reverbs and delays) in the editing and mixing stage.

6. Describe 2 ways in which room reflections are reduced.

7. What is a bass trap?

8. What is "near-field" monitoring?

9. Describe the difference between powered monitors, and those that require a power amplifier.

10. What is a balanced line input?

11. Why are active DI boxes generally better than passive ones?

12. What are headphone distribution amplifiers?

13. Describe three other considerations which should be implemented in a studio environment to avoid unwanted audio interference.

The studio control room is where the main computer is based, external effects, speakers, mixing desk and the patch bay. And where must most of the mixing happens The studio live/performance room is where all the recording of the instruments well will happen and where the amps will be placed. Usually it will be a square room with pads on the walls to absorb so sound so it doesnt reflect off the wall

A room with a flat frequency response there is very little sound wave reflection off the walls and unwanted bass booms. Yes, true a room with standing waves / bass boom / other undesirable reflections overemphasises certain frequencies, where as room with a flat freq. response does not overemphasise freq. that is the key here.

So that you can hear the exact and natural frequency content of your audio, knowing that it is not being over or under exaggerated by the frequency content of your control room. Exaggerated room freq. responses tend to result in the engineer / producer over or under using EQ to compensate.

This is not always sound waves desirable which bounce off the sounding because sometimes you walls and are want the natural picked up by the microphone. ambience of a room or space

by having the amps or the instrument (e.g. drum kit) at an angle from the walls so there isnt instant sound reflection and by putting foam pads on the walls which absorb some of the sounds.

A bass trap is a piece of acoustic treatment (often foam) that sits in between the join between two walls (often but not always a right angle 90 degree join). This is designed to help with the build up of standing waves and therefore exaggerated bass frequencies that are often present in the corners of rooms where walls, floors, and ceilings join.

Powered monitors (sometimes called active monitors) have their power amplifier built into them (like the ones in our studio) where as unpowered Speakers monitors (called (sometimes monitors) called passive which are monitors) designed to require a faithfully separate power recreate source in the optimum audio form of a power playback at a amplifier to help close range to them generate the listener. sound.

A balanced line input is an input which uses a TRS jack or a three pin XLR connector where 2 wires carry the signal and the 3rd is used as a shield. This shield uses phase cancellation to cancel out any unwanted audible interference.

Because active DI boxes are quieter and can cope better with long cable runs

Headphone distribution amplifiers allow the musician to keep communication with the control room engineer as well as monitoring any music. They also allow for different monitor mixes to be fed to different musicians simultaneously, depending on the amount of channels the headphone amp has.

fluorescent lighting or other equipment which is likely to produce powerful magnetic fields. acoustic absorbent screens to help with separation from any unwanted external noise audio and power wires should be kept apart and cable runs should be as short as possible

it is a headphone which does not give off too much sound outside the headphone therefore eradicating spill from the headphones into microphones. Also importantly closed-backed headphones reduce sound leaking into the headphones from other sources meaning that the engineer can hear the true sound of the recording free from colouration of room acoustics and back ground noise

to be captured in the recording process.

5 valid points Lucas but there are lots of blanks, which is pretty poor. As a department we are now tracking all homework and this will already be flagged up as a concern. Please in future ensure that there are no blanks for any questions asked obviously do your best to get the correct information, but at the very least please write something intelligent for each question.