Midterm Exam - Music Production

1\. What is a good rule of thumb when placing your monitor speakers? How should your monitors be set up in relation to your listening position? 2\. What happens if your monitor speakers are too close together? What happens when your monitor speakers are too far apart? 3\. Why is it important to...

1\. What is a good rule of thumb when placing your monitor speakers? How should your monitors be set up in relation to your listening position? 2\. What happens if your monitor speakers are too close together? What happens when your monitor speakers are too far apart? 3\. Why is it important to decouple the monitors from whatever they're sitting on? 4\. What are two ways to decouple a monitor? 5\. Why is it not recommended to mix at high volume levels (4 reasons)? 6\. What are some reasons why mixing is done at low levels, or quietly? 7\. What are some reasons why you would want to listen to a mix in mono? 8\. What is a reason you would want to listen to a mix on more than one speaker system? 9\. What are some things you can do to overcome potential acoustic problems in your listening environment? 10\. Why should you avoid placing monitor speakers directly against a wall? 1\. Why is it not a good idea to work on the original session file? What's the first thing you should do? 2\. What should you trim regardless of whether it was recorded during basics or overdubs? 3\. What happens to edits if they don't contain any crossfades? Why is it a "good practice" to have crossfades on every edit? 4\. Once all your edits, comping and tuning is complete, what is it a good idea to do? 5\. Why is it important to clearly label each track? 6\. What are major timesavers in any DAW and essential to an efficient mix? What do most veteran mixers do with these? 7\. Why are subgroups useful to a mix? How do subgroups work best? 8\. Usually, there are certain tracks that will use a particular effect. What should you do with those channels? 9\. Why do the kick, snare, bass and vocal usually need a compressor during the mix? 10\. What are some things you should do to calibrate your hearing when preparing to mix? 11\. What happens if you close your eyes while mixing? 12\. Why should you have a pen and a pad of paper ready to write on? 1\. What do many engineers do to begin a mix? How do they do this? What does Ed Seay always try to have when he's mixing? 2\. How do the vast majority of mixers prefer to start a mix? 3\. What are the 3 steps to use when approaching a mix? Which step is the most important to creating an outstanding mix? 4\. What three dimensions do great mixers mix in? What does this mean? 5\. How do you achieve a "deep" dimension in your mix? 6\. What are some of the signs of an amateur mix? Name 3 -- 4. 7\. What are the six elements of a great mix? Define them. 8\. What is usually the \#1 non-audio problem in a mix? 9\. Why was a shaky performance on a song pretty much accepted int the 50's, 60's, and 70's? 10\. What should be done to a song that doesn't have a point of interest? 11\. What should you do to make a great mix sound bigger than real life? 12\. What examples does the book give about the most important element of a song? What does this element compel you to do? 1\. What does a good balance start with? Why is this? 2\. What happens when two instruments occupy the same frequency band and play at the same volume at the same time? How do you get around this conflict? 3\. Please list and define the basic elements of arrangements. 4\. Listen to one or two of the examples mentioned in the textbook (Born This Way, Rolling in the Deep, Grenade, Refugee, What Hurts the Most) looking for the arrangement elements mentioned in the text and write a short response explaining what you heard. (1 to 2 paragraphs) 5\. What are the two rules for arrangements and how can you prevent instruments from fighting? 6\. The text mentions quotes from various mixing engineers about where they start on their mixes. Name two or three of these starting points. 7\. Where is the obvious starting point when mixing dance music? 8\. Why should you keep watching your master bus meters when mixing? 9\. What is one way to make sure that your mix stays on track when your mixing? 10\. Why is it a good idea to use a comparison plugin like SampleMagic's Magic AB?