Sonic Faults
Sonic Faults: Rationale
LO3 Understand sonic problems that may have a negative effect upon
music performance or production
3.1 identify musical shortcomings
Musical: accuracy e.g. incorrect notes, sharp, flat, keeping time, variations
in tempo and pitch
3.2 explain balance and timbre problems
Balance and timbre: characteristics e.g. audio spectrum, acoustic
environments, blend, intelligibility, volume and compression
considerations, reverb issues, EQ, effect of the listening environment,
stereophony anomalies, normalisation
Sonic Faults: Rationale
3.3 explain extraneous problems that detract from musical or sonic
effectiveness
Extraneous problems: errors e.g. pops and clicks, clips, signal-to-noise
ratio, excessive low frequency content, hums, balance, editing, phase
problems, cross-talk, microphone and headphone spill, feedback and
howl-round, slapback and echo problems, drop-outs, analogue and digital
distortion, sibilance, loudness, reverse image, polarity reversal
Look at task sheet and grading criteria
Sonic Faults: Musical Accuracy
(performers influence)
Incorrect notes: e.g. out of musical key / dissonant / sharp / flat / tuning
and pitch
Timing: keeping time with other instruments / musical phrasing
Dynamics: notes that are too loud or quiet etc
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Balance and Timbre: e.g. a mix or recording that has been created in a
space that is not a critical listening environment can be influenced by.
Effect of the listening environment e.g. poor acoustics in the mixing space
mean that frequency and amplitude balance are different when played in
new environments
Acoustic environment e.g. poor acoustics in the recording space can lead
to inaccuracies in timbral reproduction and problems with mono
reproduction (stereo mic pairings cause significant phase problems)
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Frequency spectrum e.g. frequency re-production may be affected
because the original mixing recording environment emphasised / deemphasised certain frequencies (standing waves / comb filtering / flutter
echoes)
As the original mixing space did not have a controlled or flat frequency
response and accurate reverb time (0.2 to 0.5 sec max with consistency in
the mids and highs lows can be longer but ideally the same), the
reproduction in other spaces is unpredictable
A control room is typically designed to reproduce the reverb
characteristics of a living room (e.g. consumer listening environment)
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Acoustic treatment of recording and mixing spaces can never compensate
for all the possible places a recording may be heard
However, the greater the control, the greater the possibility that reproduction will be accurate enough in order to showcase the recording
sympathetically
Typically, it is good practice to listen to a mix on various playback devices
and in different spaces
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Acoustic problems include: standing waves which is cancellation and
addition of frequency in the low end leading to inaccuracies in bass levels.
This is down to room shape and size
Plus 100hz
Minus 100hz
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Comb filtering: changes in
instrument timbre caused by
phase problems in the mids
and highs. The same
frequencies arrive at the ear /
mic at different times causing
phase addition and
cancellation. As the sound
reflects this can evolve and
cause changes over time. This
is down to poor acoustic
treatment or mic positioning
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Flutter echoes: frequencies that bounce between two parallel surfaces
slightly out of time with each other causing a ringing sound. This is due to
poor acoustic treatment
Sonic Faults: Balance and Timbre
(acoustic influences)
Amplitude levels and instrumental balance will all be affected by acoustic
conditions
For example, if there is a prominent standing wave that causes certain
bass frequencies to be emphasised or lowered, this may affect the
decision making process in terms of adding or subtracting EQ. It would also
influence volume and compression considerations.
A control room with the incorrect reverb response may influence how
reverb is applied and stereo imaging is likely to be inaccurate in a room
that is acoustically poor
Sonic Faults: Extraneous Problems
(errors in the recording process)
Pops and clicks may be caused by a variety of processes but typically may
be associated with mic technique, poor drop-ins (in the analogue world)
and poor edits (without crossfades in digital editing)
It can also be associated with low buffer sizes so the computer struggles
with the workload causing drop-outs which result in pops and clicks,
Clipping is caused by gain levels that are too high for the system to cope
with and ultimately lead to distortion
Sonic Faults: Extraneous Problems
(errors in the recording process)
A poor signal-to-noise ratio will mean that the noise inherent in all
recording systems will be audible in the recording
In analogue systems this resulted in audible tape hiss whereas in digital
systems noise is caused by quantisation error e.g. the system cannot fully
represent the analogue data because a signal falls between two
quantisation levels (or steps). Higher bit rates create more steps and
higher sample rates increase the amount of discreet chunks measured in
the waveform
Sonic Faults: Extraneous Problems
(errors in the recording process)
Excessive low frequency content could arise from poor mixing levels (e.g.
listening at too low a level will mean that the ear does not accurately
measure the bass content), room acoustics and poor speaker selection. As
the low end is the foundation of the mix it is crucial to get this correct
Hums occur because of electrical wiring. The voltage in our cables is at a
specific frequency (in Europe = 50hz) and this can be picked up by
electrical equipment. Balanced systems remove hum whereas unbalanced
systems do not
Sonic Faults: Extraneous Problems
(errors in the recording process)
Balance problems occur with poor mixing and poor recording. It could be
influenced by not using compression e.g. an instrument level constantly
changes therefore its level in the mix is not consistent
Editing problems are caused by poor attention to detail when editing or
dropping in
Microphone and headphone spill are caused by poor sound isolation (for
example, not noticing the vocalist has the headphone on one ear only!)
Analogue and digital distortion is caused by poor gain staging and mix
levels
Sonic Faults: Extraneous Problems
(errors in the recording process)
Sibilance is caused by the human voices pronunciation of certain
consonants typically S which sounds like hissing. This is typically rectified
with a de-esser which is a specialised compressor that operates in a
frequency band (typically upper mids and highs e.g. 2khz to 8khz) where
these artefacts occur
Sonic Faults: Example 1 Christina
Aguilera Beautiful (3 min 54 secs in
original track)
Sonic Faults: Example 2 Police
Roxanne (6 secs in original track)
Sonic Faults: Example 3 Dixie Chicks
The Long Way Around (21 secs in
original track)
Sonic Faults: Example 4 Eric Clapton
Blues Power (1 min 28 secs in original
track)
Sonic Faults: Example 5 Jackson 5 I
Want You Back (1 min 8 secs in original
track)
Any Questions?
