Audio Engineering Basics

Explore how sound travels as vibrations through air in longitudinal waves, and how room reflections cause reverberations and echoes via acoustic panels, absorbers, and diffusers using rockville, foam, and fiberglass.

Explore condenser microphones, their capacitor design, and phantom power needs, and understand why large diaphragm condensers are favored for studio vocals and instrument recording.

Understand dynamic microphones, including moving coil and ribbon types, which use electromagnetism, need no phantom power, and resist hand noise, with the SM7, now rebranded as seven B, for vocals.

Explore six microphone polar patterns—omnidirectional, cardioid, super cardioid, hypercardioid, unique detection, and bidirectional (figure eight). See how front and side capture, back rejection, and increased directivity shape sound pickup.

Learn how audio interfaces connect microphones and instruments to a computer, featuring input and output channels, built-in preamps, phantom power, ADC/DAC converters, and USB-C or Thunderbolt ports.

Learn about analog cables like xlr and 1/4 inch for microphones and audio gear, and digital cables such as midi and usb for instrument communication and computer interfaces.

Learn what a digital audio workstation is and how it lets you record audio and music on a computer, using Logic Pro, Ableton, or Cubase as examples.

Learn gain staging to optimize signal-to-noise ratio and reduce distortion, keep 12 inches from the mic to control proximity effect, and set peaks between minus 6 and minus 12 dB.

Learn how an audio interface reads and samples an analog signal to convert it to digital data. Understand sample rate in kilohertz, bit depth, and mono versus stereo.

Explore mixing and mastering: combine multiple tracks into mono, stereo, or surround formats, apply compressors, equalizers, delays, and reverbs, and finalize to ensure consistency for distribution.

Set up your mic session by labeling tracks, deleting empty ones, importing reference tracks, optimizing CPU with buffer, and keeping peaks at -6 to -12 dB while tempo and key.

Learn how mixing plugins—digital copies of analog hardware—work, and discover dynamic range, measured in decibels, and how a compressor, an audio signal processor, reduces loud sounds and boosts quiet ones.

Explore how an equalizer shapes audio by manipulating frequency content across low, mid, and high bands, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, using visual EQ and an analog-like knob interface.

Explore how reverb manipulates reverberations to craft cathedral, chamber, or empty road spaces. Learn how delay creates rhythmic echoes, and how a de-esser reduces sibilance for cleaner recordings.

Analyze a mix using compression, eq, reverb, delay, and pitch correction. Shape the vocal and piano with high-pass filtering, reduce boxing and sibilance, balance levels, and master.

Explore foley, the post-production creation of everyday sound effects to enhance film and television sound quality, and learn how Jack Foley pioneered this technique.

Explore how the music business governs releasing music through distribution or a record label, and how streaming platforms pay royalties to artists, songwriters, and publishers.

Explore additional courses on audio for films, including Dolby Atmos, and visit the Sine Wave Academy website.