PT 101: Lesson 1: Pro Tools background: Review and Discussion Questions
1. Name and describe five types of production tasks that ProTools can be used for. 1 Audio Processing, 2 MIDI Production, 3 Notation and Scores, 4 Mixing and Automation, 5 Audio for Video and Post-production
2.What’s the frequency range of human hearing? 20Hz – 20Khz
3. What does the frequency of a sound wave affect in terms of how we perceive the sound? How is frequency measured? Pitch. Cycles per second (CPS) / Hertz (Hz)
4. What does the amplitude of the sound wave affect? How is amplitude measured? Loudness / Volume. Decibels (db)
5. How does the sample rate of a system relate to the frequency of audio it can capture? What is the name of the law that specifies the relationship between sample rate and audio frequency? The sample rate of a system should be twice the frequency of audio it is required to capture. Nyquist theorum
6. How does the bit depth relate to the dynamic range of audio it can capture. How can you estimate the dynamic range of a system? The more binary digits included in the bit depth, the greater the accuracy of each sample measurement. For example a 4-bit word (2 to the 4th power) can represent 16 discrete amplitude levels. A 16-bit word could represent 65, 536 levels (2 to the 16) and a 24-bit work can define more than 16 million discrete amplitude levels (2 to the 24)
You can estimate the dynamic range of a system by multiplying by 6.
e.g. an 8-bit system would produce a dynamic range of 8 x 6 = 48b. 16-bit = 96dB (16 x 6) and 24-bit = 144dB (24 x 6)
Note: 16-bit / 44.1Khz mono = 5MB per minute, 16-bit 96-Khz mono = 11MB per minute. 24-bit/44.1kHz mono 7.5MB per minute, 32-bit/44.1Khz = 10 MB per minute.
7. What are some common digital connections available on Pro Tools audio interfaces? What type of connector jack does each use? S/ PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) which uses RCA (a.k.a. coaxial) and AES / EBU (Audio Engineering Society /European Broadcast Union) that uses XLR. The latter is preferable as it is technically more stable and filters out any copy protection encoded in the digital audio stream. Also S/PDIF is consumer grade.
8. Name some audio interfaces that are compatible with standard Pro Tools software. Any audio interface with Core Audio (Mac) or ASIO (Windows) drivers
9. Name some Avid audio interfaces that are compatible with Pro Tools | Ultimate software. Pro Tools | HD OMNI, Pro Tools | HD I/O, Pro Tools | HD MADI, Pro Tools | HD MTRX, Pro Tools | HD MTRX Studio