AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
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| Week 6 - Questions |
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1. Why is it often considered better to use an integrated disk recording system rather than one that uses a personal computer as the user interface?
Comment on the presentation of some disk recorders as replacements for tape multitrack recorders.
2. If a tape recorder has 24 inputs and 24 outputs, how many tracks will it have?
How many inputs and outputs would a disk recorder need if it was to be a replacement for a 24-track tape recorder?
3. If a disk recording system had two inputs, two outputs, and was capable of twenty-four tracks, what would be its main limitations?
4. What information is stored in the session file?
5. Are session files usually transportable between different systems?
Comment briefly on the suitability of SCSI, ATA and Firewire disks for audio recording.
6. What is 'fragmentation'?
7. Comment on archiving to CD-ROM.
8. What are 'virtual tracks'?
9. What is meant by 'edit density'? What are the implications of high edit density?
10. Does the editing and trimming of regions delete audio data from the disk?
11. In editing, what is the difference between 'slip' and 'grid' modes?
12. When might it not be possible to create a crossfade?
13. What is 'bouncing', in the context of mixing?
14. What is meant by 'latency'?
15. What is the difference between DSP processing and host-based processing?
16. Was DAT originally intended as a professional or a domestic recording medium?
17. What is the sampling rate of standard DAT?
18. What is the resolution of standard DAT?
19. What is 'azimuth recording'?
20. Describe the head wheel in DAT recorder.
21. What is SCMS?
22. Describe in what conditions a DAT recorder may be capable of near-simultaneous off-tape recording?
23. What is the sub-code area of the DAT tape used for?
24. What is 'interleaving'?
25. What is the width of the tape used for 24-track DASH?
26. What is the width of the tape used for 48-track DASH?
27. Describe how 24-track and 48-track DASH machines are compatible.
28. How are DASH tapes edited?
29. In DASH, why does a playback head come before the record head in the tape path?
30. Comment on the cleaning requirements of DASH
31. How many tracks does a modular digital multitrack (MDM) have?
32. How can more tracks be obtained?
33. Comment on the types of usage of ADAT and DTRS machines?
_________________
It's all in the ears. - Learn the concepts not the software.
Audio Courses is a way into the music business for you
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Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:00 pm |
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electrosushi
Tape Op
Joined: 31 Oct 2006
Posts: 21
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| My Answers |
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1. Why is it often considered better to use an integrated disk recording system rather than one that uses a personal computer as the user interface?
An integrated music system has the advantage of being built for this purpouse it would a HD on which the recordiing system would store all the information concerning the project reducing the possibilities of damaging the datas (fragmentation), also such type of hard disk allows a high speed in accessing the datas thus the perfomance is increased.
Comment on the presentation of some disk recorders as replacements for tape multitrack recorders.
There are several advantages from using a hard disk rather than the tape, basically in terms of dimensions, maintenance and cost a hard drive is definetly a cheaper choice for example for a small recording studio. Comparing the sizes of these 2 system a hard drive occupies a fraction of the space occupied by a tape recorder, they are also more silent.
2. If a tape recorder has 24 inputs and 24 outputs, how many tracks will it have?
24
How many inputs and outputs would a disk recorder need if it was to be a replacement for a 24-track tape recorder?
The disk recorder is accessed by a computer running the multi track software, 24 inputs and 24 outputs are necessary to match a 24-track tape recorder.
3. If a disk recording system had two inputs, two outputs, and was capable of twenty-four tracks, what would be its main limitations?
With 2 inputs, it would be possible to record 2 tracks at the time, I assume that the 2 outputs would have to set to the main output if listening to a ipotetical 24 mix.
4. What information is stored in the session file?
The session file stores all the takes done during a session, even those erased from trhe DAW are stored intended for a possible recycle of these.
5. Are session files usually transportable between different systems?
Depending on the way they are stored, in general it is possible to transport a session file between similar system, each stores the editing information in a specific way. In a studio enviroment the session files are contained in haard disks which can be extract and carried.
Comment briefly on the suitability of SCSI, ATA and Firewire disks for audio recording.
Speaking of ways to transport the session files, it is possible to store them in hard disks which can be connected via different types of connecion, such as SCSI, ATA, and Firewire; SCSI is probably the oldest of these and it was considered for years a standard due to its speed transfer, also the fact that several SCSI interfaces can be “daisy-chained” to each other forming one system and passing datas to each of them or some. ATA is the typical connection of a hard disk in a PC system, modern ATA drives can be used for audio purpouses due to the evolution of this technology, finally FireWire disk drives allow a good speed of data transfer and their main advantage is that they can be plugged without he need of restarting the all system.
6. What is 'fragmentation'?
When datas are saved on to a hard disk they are stored in several parts of the disk surface, so they need to be parted and distributed in different areas, causing a defragmentation of the datas. This is source of problems as the system will have to search for different parts of the same file in many areas, it doesn’t help to improve the performances.
7. Comment on archiving to CD-ROM.
CD-ROMs are not the best solution for real time audo recording as they have a limited speed compare to a hard disk but they are good way to store information such as CD master copies or loop libraries
8. What are 'virtual tracks'?
The audio business became familiar with virtual track with the advent of MIDI, the meaning f this word is to create a track were instead of a real instrument, there would be a sequence of impulse connected to tone generators so the listener would hear that instrument playing but without the fisical instrument being there.
9. What is meant by 'edit density'? What are the implications of high edit density?
It is the amount of density applied on a track, a highly edited track is a source of problems for a system which may take longer to process all the editing pplied to it thus penalizing the performances. Not to be confused with recording density.
10. Does the editing and trimming of regions delete audio data from the disk?
No, the original audio tracks are contained into the session folder and will not be directly affected. Whenever a track is edited, all the information concerning the edit is stored in a separate file than the the audio track itself.
11. In editing, what is the difference between 'slip' and 'grid' modes?
It refers to 2 types of moving the audio files withina track, within the grid mode, the files can be moved around according to a tempo grid while in Slip mode, the files are free to be placed arbitrarily.
12. When might it not be possible to create a crossfade?
In the case that 2 or more audio files are overlapping, it would be impossible to create a crossfade between them, because the system wouldn’t understand where the croosfade of 1 file finishes and when the next file starts.
13. What is 'bouncing', in the context of mixing?
When working on multiple tracks, it might be necessary to export it in some file formats, then it would be necessary to bounce the track in that particular format.
14. What is meant by 'latency'?
Latency is the time difference between the MIDI impulse and the actual sound once processed by the system.
15. What is the difference between DSP processing and host-based processing?
A host based signal processor is an effect/plug-in which can be applied to a track in a multitrack editor software, it would use the computer’s resources to process the sound, the more is the load of work the less the computer will perform, while Digital Signal Processors are effects built onto an audio card/audio interface, they reduce the amount of work for the computer as they process the sound externally.
16. Was DAT originally intended as a professional or a domestic recording medium?
DAT was initially aimed to replace the Audio Casette as its evolution, it offered more relaiability than a normal cassette, the DAT was a concurent of the CD but was tehn widely used a lot more in the professional market rather than home.
17. What is the sampling rate of standard DAT?
DAT can go up to 48 kHz or 96 kHz in few cases, 44.1 kHz but it was capable of operating also at 32 kHz.
18. What is the resolution of standard DAT?
16 bit
19. What is 'azimuth recording'?
It is the orientation of the head respect to the tape, it should be as close as possible to perpendicular in order to allow the right amount of high frequencies to be recorded and keep the phase between the tracks constant. In the case of a DAT, 2 heads will be placed respectively at +20 degrees and -20 degrees, this technique is useful to overcome the crosstalk between tracks.
20. Describe the head wheel in DAT recorder.
A DAT recorder uses a number of heads (2 or 4) mounted inside a rotary drum, the drum spins at about 1500 rpm but as the tape is partially wrapped around the drum it allows the tape to a much lower speed having 2 of the heads mounted inside the drum. This is quiet important in terms of quality of the data.
21. What is SCMS?
The Serial Copy Management System was created to prevent DAT to make copies of copies, the code set the tapes to a specific code which could 1) Prevent any copy 2) Allow 1 copy or 3) Copy always allowed.
22. Describe in what conditions a DAT recorder may be capable of near-simultaneous off-tape recording?
To provide off-tape recording the DAT needs at least 4 heads which allow the signal to pass to a record circuit which adds the error protection. The all process takes about 45 milliseconds.
23. What is the sub-code area of the DAT tape used for?
2 sub-codes areas are present in the DAT: one set is recorded within the audio, and the other is recorded on the two outer edges of each stripe where it can be over-recorded without affecting the audio data.
24. What is 'interleaving'?
It consists on a technique aimed to reduce the burst error on data transmission, in case an error occurs and bits are altered the file code could be decoded, so the bits would be interleaved; in this way the error can be prevented by the decoder who will receive the datas with a slight delay.
25. What is the width of the tape used for 24-track DASH?
half inch
26. What is the width of the tape used for 48-track DASH?
half inch
27. Describe how 24-track and 48-track DASH machines are compatible.
A 24 tracks tape can be played on a 48 tracks machine without problems while a 48 tracks tape can also be played on a 24 tracks machine but only the first 24 tracks can be heard.
28. How are DASH tapes edited?
DASH can be edited like analog tape by physically being cut and pasted.
29. In DASH, why does a playback head come before the record head in the tape path?
It is due to the physical position of the playing head which is place before the recording head.
30. Comment on the cleaning requirements of DASH
When the error rate begins to rise, a cleaning tape
should be used and then the errors checked again. If there is no improvement, the
machine should be cleaned manually and re-aligned. Note that each pass of the
cleaning tape will reduce the head life by approximately 5 to 10 hours. Manual cleaning
does not reduce head life, but there is a danger that the head will be damaged (turn
anti-clockwise only) and also the strong possibility that the tape path alignment will be
altered. It is therefore always advisable to check the alignment after manual cleaning.
31. How many tracks does a modular digital multitrack (MDM) have?
8 tracks, they use manly Hi8 or S-VHS format.
32. How can more tracks be obtained?
In the case of the Tascam DA-88, the device provides a standard 8 tracks recording, but it possible to link up to 16 DA-88s to obtain up to 128 tracks. This is due to the sample-accurate timing of these machines which made possible linking a number of these in order to obtain more tracks.
33. Comment on the types of usage of ADAT and DTRS machines?
ADAT and DTRS were both Modular Digital Multitrack recorders introduced in the early 90s. Thy represent the 2 major technologies available and they differed by the type of media used: ADAT, developed by Alesis used S-VHS cassettes while DTRS, developed by TASCAM used Hi8 medias; both used medias borrowed from Video technology. |
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Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:56 pm |
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