The Channel Strip

The Channel strip

The purpose of this post is to teach the signal flow through a channel strip in Reaper, describing in detail every component of the channel strip including, its usage and position in the signal flow.

Before starting: Expanding the mixer

it is important to note that in Reaper, when you open the application, it displays only a compact view of the mixer:

Every channel strip looks like this:

You can resize the mixer control panel and to display a full view of the channel strips:

The following is the complete view of a Channel Strip:

The view modes can also be customized using the options from the "View" menu.

The Signal flow

When you look at a channel strip, the general idea is that sound moves from the top to the bottom. But you have to keep in mind that it is not exactly that way. There are some places where the signal flow isn't quite top to bottom. 

The signal flow is the following:

At the very top of the channel strip we have the input section. This could be a hardware input or a virtual instrument.

After that we find the inserts. The inserts are a collection of places that we can add effects, like gates, compressors, EQs, etc. 

The next thing we'll find in our signal flow are the sends. Reaper actually provides 3 kinds of sends:

• Pre-FX (these will actually be acting before the inserts)
• Post-FX
• Post-Fader  

The sends will route the signal to a destination which will usually be a bus or a hardware output (for monitoring purposes, for example). The channel strip includes knobs to set how much signal is going to that output.

After the pan knob, we really have the most important part of the channel strip: The volume fader.

Next, we have the mute button, which just turns off the sound of that track. And then, our solo button, which isolates that track by itself, muting all the other tracks.

Also in the middle of this signal flow there are the volume and pan envelopes. The pan controls the output of the signal in the left or the right channel, and the volume controls the main output. 

Finally, the audio signal will go into the Master Channel where all the audio streams will be mixed down.

Conclusion

This is basically how the audio signal flows in the mixer channel strip. For most controls you can think of a top-to-bottom signal flow, but it is important to keep in mind the special cases, an how they are going to affect your mix.

In real life, the actual signal flow can be quite complex, i.e. taking into account all the possible options, mutes, envelopes, etc.. The following diagram will give an idea of the complexity involved:








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Sources used:

• http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=59784

Sound Fundamentals: Timbre

Hello fellow classmates! My name is Ram, from Colombia, and as my first assignment I chose to explore one of the audio fundamental properties: Timbre.
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What is Timbre?

Timber is the quality of a sound independent of its pitch and volume. It is what differentiates one sound from another and one instrument from another. This quality is how we can tell a guitar from a violin when they are playing the same notes (i.e. same pitch) at the same volume.

The timbre results from the combination of all sound frequencies, attack and release envelopes, and other qualities that comprise a tone. The Timbre is determined by the instrument and how theinstrument is played (i.e.: bowed versus plucked) and also by the environment where the sound is being played.

Of all the above factors, the key component of timbre is the combination of sound frequencies. 

The sine waves described on a text book are sound signals that are not normally present in the real world. You can create those waves using electronic equipment, but every time you strike a note on a musical instrument, there's not going to be only one frequency. Instead the sound will be comprised of a fundamental frequency plus a set of other frequency components. 

The following pictures show a real audio signal from a music instrument, and a frequency spectrum of the signal:





The other frequencies that come about when a sound is created are called harmonics or overtones. Specifically the harmonics are defined as integer 
multiples of the fundamental frequency

The relative balance of these overtones is what gives an instrument its distinctive sound. The timbre varies widely between different instruments, voices, and to lesser degree, between instruments of the same type due to variations in their construction, and also due to the performer's technique.

What's the importance :

Understanding this concept is a big part of understanding music. Most of what we are going to do in the studio is going to be related either capturing or playing with all the frequency components of the music sounds.

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Sources Used: 

• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/timbre
• http://education-portal.com/academy/topic/ap-music-theory-fundamentals-of-music.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory#Timbre
• http://annieintrotomusicproduction.blogspot.com/2014/05/timbre.htm

Reflection:

Although I wanted to explore multimedia presentations I decided to make the assignments as text-only documents, due to time constraints. Anyway, having this in a blog will hopefully make this material useful for someone else.

First Post

Some Words about Me.... 

My name is Ram, and I am from Colombia. I work as software engineer but I'd like to think of myself as an amateur musician. I've always been interested in music, composing, recording and exploring the possibilities of computers and DAW (digital audio workstation) applications.

The purpose of this blog

In this blog post I will be publishing my assignments for the Introduction to Music Production
course, dictated by the Berklee College of Music.

This is going to be my fisrt attempt on online education. I am already amazed about the quality of the course and the wide variety of  education opportunities provided by Coursera.