| Is there generation loss between digital Files? |
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| No, there is no generation (quality) loss. |
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| Digital Audio Workstation (Digital Sequencer, Hard-Disk Recorder) |
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| What are the three characteristics of a DAW? |
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| Pointer Based, Non Linear, and Non Destructive. |
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| How Many tracks are available in Pro-Tools LE? Track Types? |
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32 Mono tracks, 128 Total tracks (96 inactive), Music production tool kit extends to 48 active tracks.
(128 Aux inputs)
(64 Master Faders)
(256 Midi Tracks)
(32 Instrument Tracks) |
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| What File types and sample rates are supported? |
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16 or 24bit BWF, AIFF, or SDII files.
Sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96kHz |
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| Name 3 things stored in a session folder. |
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Audio Files, Fade Files Folder, Session File.
(Session File is a map of all elements associated with project) (Wave Cache File stores waveform display data for session) (Fade files are audio files) |
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| What is the difference between an audio file, and an audio region? |
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| Audio file is digital audio stored on drive, and an Audio Region is a graphic object representing audio |
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| What are types of regions? |
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Whole File Regions: Bold Type representing complete file
Non-Whole File Regions: Plain type, part of audio file. |
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| How many active rulers are available at any given time? |
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| Only 1 active ruler at a time. |
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| How many primary windows exist in Pro-Tools? |
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| 2 Primary Windows: Edit window and Mix window |
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| What are the 4 edit modes in Pro-Tools? |
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Slip: moves freely to any sample location
Grid: moves between points on a defined grid (absolute grid snaps material to a grid point; relative grid moves material by a grid value)
Shuffle: Moves material within region boundaries
Spot: places audio in a specific location |
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| What edit tools are available? |
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| Zoom, Selector, Time Grabber |
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| What are the available file formats? |
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Stereo Interleaved: L&R channels together in a file
Split Stereo: separate L&R files
(Pro-Tools does not support stereo files, but does support stereo tracks and regions) |
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| What is an offline region? |
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| A region in the region list whose source file does not exist on the hard drive? |
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| What is the difference between Add/Copy/Convert when importing? |
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Add: Uses and references original audio file without moving it to the Audio Files Folder
Copy: copies files to Audio Files folder
Convert: copies to Audio Files folder after converting sample rate, bit depth, and file format. |
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| What are three ways to import audio? |
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Import Audio from file menu
Use Digibase browser
Use Finder/Explorer |
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| What is minimum selection length for loop playback? |
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| What trim options are available in the edit menu? |
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Trim to selection (removes all region except selection)
Start to Insertion (Removes between start and cursor)
End to Insertion (Removes between cursor and end) |
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| How do you reverse the trim tool’s direction? |
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| Option button (in slip mode Control lets you trim exactly to next region) |
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| How are regions nudged in Pro-Tools? |
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| Use plus or minus sign on numeric keypad. |
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| Can a locked region be moved, edited or recorded over? |
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| It can not be moved or edited, but it still may be recorded over when locked. |
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| How can you move the cursor to the previous transient? |
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| With Tab to Transient engaged, Option Tab will move cursor to previous dynamic peak (Select mode with shift button) |
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| What are the four ways to save? |
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Save: updates changes in session file
Save as: creates new session file with current status
Save Copy In: Complete backup copy of session (for use when saving to older version of PT)
Auto Backup: Makes backup session automatically |
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| Digital Signal Processors (processes digital audio) |
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| What is an audio interface? |
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| A physical audio connection to the computer |
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| What is the difference between primary and secondary storage? |
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Primary: used for main storage of session (OS, software, session files)
Secondary: used for back up purposes (CD-R, DVD-R, removable hard drive, etc.) |
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| What is the difference between hardware and host based systems? |
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Hardware: Engine and plug in processing handled by DSP chips
Host Based: Engine and plug in processing handled by CPU |
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| Host based system with added DSP chips. |
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| Name the Digital I/O formats and their channel capabilities. |
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AES/EBU: 2 channels
S/PDIF: Sony Phillips Digital Interface
TDIF: 8 Channels (Tascam Digital Interface)
ADAT: 8 Channels (Alesis Digital Audio Tape)
MADI: 56 Channels (Multichannel Audio Digital Interface) |
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| Can memory locations be made on the fly? |
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| Yes they may be created while playing or recording. |
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| What 3 options are available when setting Time Properties in a memory location? |
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Marker: to set a placeholder at specific point for return
Selection: Remember for later editing
None: Remembering settings for zoom, track height, etc. (independent of marker or selection) |
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| What are the general properties of Memory locations? |
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| Zoom settings, Pre/Post Roll Times, Track Show/Hide, Track Heights, Group Enables, Comments |
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| How many levels of undo are available in LE? |
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| Up to 32 levels of UNDO are available |
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| What clears the undo queue? |
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| Deleting Tracks, Closing Sessions, Quitting Pro-Tools, Destructive Recording, Certain File Management Functions (Saving Session DOES NOT clear the queue) |
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| What are the main differences between Analog and Digital audio? |
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| Analog is a smooth, continuous variation of air pressure; Digital is discrete measurements of air pressure at a pre determined number of snapshots |
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| What is Sample Rate? Quantization? |
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Sample Rate is the number of amplitude snapshots taken per second
Quantization is the measurement of amplitude which is rounded to the nearest interval (causing ERRORS) |
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| What is Quantization Error? At what amplitudes is it most significant? |
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| The distortion caused by rounding an amplitude measurement up or down to the nearest quantization interval. It is most significant at lower amplitudes. |
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| How many quantization intervals are present in 16-bit resolution? 20-bit? 24-bit? |
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16=65,536 quantization intervals
20=1,048,576 ” “
24=16,777,216 ” “ |
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| What is the theoretical dynamic range of 16-bit audio? 20-bit? 24-bit? |
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16= 96dB
20= 120dB
24= 144dB |
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| What is another name for maximum digital level? |
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| Full Scale (0dBFS….there are no numbers above 0dBFS) |
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| What are the advantages of recording at a higher bit depth? |
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Greater potential Dynamic range
Greater effective resolution
Lowers the dynamic level of quantization errors
Greater headroom before clipping |
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| What is dither? Does it counteract QE? |
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| Dither is low level noise added to signal which DOES COUNTERACT QUANTIZATION ERROR |
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| What does Nyquist’s Theorem state? |
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| The sample rate must be at least twice the highest frequency to be accurately reproduced (example is a 10k tone must have a sample rate of 20k) |
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| How many samples per period are in the Nyquist frequency? |
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| 2 samples per period (sample rate divided by 2 is Nyquist Frequency) |
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| When is the anti-aliasing filter applied? |
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| Used in Audio to Digital conversion to remove all frequencies above the Nyquist Frequency. |
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| When is the anti-imaging filter applied? |
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| Used in Digital to Audio conversion to remove high frequencies. |
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| How do we determine bits per second? |
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| The sample rate multiplied by the bit depth determines bits per second ( a 44.1 sample rate at a bit depth of 16 = 705,600 bits per second) |
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| What is a voice? Do inactive tracks use voices? |
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| A voice is an audio event, and a pathway to or from storage. Inactive audio tracks DO NOT use voices. |
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| Do Pro-Tools Faders change levels recorded to the hard drive? |
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| No, the source signal from an instrument or mic determines level of signal recorded. |
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| Which monitoring mode monitors playback until you record? |
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| Auto Input monitoring monitors playback of record enabled track until you are recording (input only monitoring monitors source input on record enabled tracks) |
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| Which monitoring mode monitors playback until you record? |
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| Auto Input monitoring monitors playback of record enabled track until you are recording (input only monitoring monitors source input on record enabled tracks) |
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| Monitoring latency is the delay between what two things? |
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| It is the delay between an input and the output through which it is monitored |
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| Which recording mode is selection based? |
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| Auto-Punch recording is selection based |
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| What does destructive recording do? |
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| It directly overwrites audio file, replacing original data on disk, and alters any regions that refer to that portion of the whole file region. CAN NOT BE UNDONE OR REVERSED |
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| Quick-Punch recording uses how many voices on a mono track? |
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| Uses 2 voices on mono, and 4 on stereo ( up to 200 running punches) |
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| How long does a selection have to be to loop record? |
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| Must be at least one second (records multiple passes of a selection) |
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| What modifier key allows you to view all loop recorded takes? |
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| Apple click with selector on region will show list of alternate takes/loops. |
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| Can offline regions be edited or processed? |
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| They may still be edited but not processed. |
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| What is the minimum length of a fade be? |
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| It must be at least 4 samples. |
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| What 3 options are available when linking fades? |
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Equal Power: gives 3dB boost in amplitude at middle of fade.
Equal Gain: Linear fade in or out
None: disables the linking between the fade out and fade in curve |
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DAE- Digital Audio Engine
TDM-Time Division Multiplexing
Bus- Internal audio pathway
Send- Routes copy of signal to output or buss
Insert- Redirects signal to plug in or I/O
Pre Fader- Copy before fader affected by track fader or pan
Post Fader- copy sent after fader passing through track fader |
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| What is a Plug in? Where can it be placed? |
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| A plug-in is an application within an application, placed and created on insert and used for effects (gate, delay, etc.) |
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| Can a track’s format be changed after it’s created? Output format? |
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| The track format can not be changed, but the output format can. |
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| Do aux tracks and master faders handle audio? |
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| Aux inputs contain no audio data |
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| How are mixer windows different from actual signal flow? |
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| The mix window is the order of elements in a channel strip, not the flow of the actual signal |
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| How much of a signal does an insert affect? |
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| An insert affects 100% of a signal. |
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| What is the difference between Dynamic and Time based processing and routing? |
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| A dynamic processor is placed directly on the track’s insert, and a time based processor takes a copy of the signal, routed to an aux input, and places itself on the insert of that aux |
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| What is the Target button within a plug-in? |
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| It allows multiple plug-in windows to be viewed at once. |
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| How are plug-ins moved and copied? |
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| They may be dragged from insert to insert or track to track and may be copied by option dragging |
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| What are the functions of bounce to disk? How, why and where? |
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| Renders entire or partial mix to disk, Bounces a single output or buss,bounces selection in time line, bounces in real time only |
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| What is the optimized audio protocol for Mac OSX? For Pro-Tools? |
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| It is Core Audio for Mac OSX and DAE for Pro-Tools. |
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| Can Pro Tools be run on non-Digi hardware? |
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| No it can only use Digi hardware |
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| What are 4 Plug in formats? What does Pro-Tools LE support? |
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| VST, DirectX, AudioUnits,RTAS- Pro-Tools LE supports RTAS and AudioSuite |
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| What is monitored in the Pro-Tools System Usage Window? |
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| CPU activity, PCI Activity, and disk traffic |
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| Should the Hardware Buffer size be raised to maximum for tracking? |
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| No, the hardware buffer should be set as small as possible, which will create less delay |
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| Monitoring latency is the delay between what two things? |
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| It is the delay between an input and the output through which it’s monitored |
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| Is AudioSuite File based? Is it destructive? |
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| It is file based processing, that can either be destructive or non-destructive. |
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| What 2 graphical places can an AudioSuite process be found? |
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| Either in Playlist or Region List |
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| How many MIDI tracks does Pro-Tools LE support? |
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| What MIDI track views are available? |
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| Track View, Regions View, Notes View, Velocity View, Controller View |
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| Are MIDI regions stored in a session file? |
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| Can MIDI Notes be edited in Regions view? |
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| No individual notes may be edited in this view |
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| What can the Grabber Tool do with MIDI? |
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| It can be used to move, transpose, and trim |
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| Which pencil will draw in a series of notes? |
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| What does flatten performance do in Pro-Tools? |
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| It locks the current state of selected notes and creates a new “restore to” state for specified note attributes |
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| What does restore performance do? |
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| It restores all selected MIDI notes to their original state. |
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| How do you export MIDI out of Pro-Tools? |
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| File-Export-MIDI…… Choose type |
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