Digital Audio Foundations

Interested in a career in music? Learn everything you need to know about working with digital audio, including the digital signal path, compression, DAWs, MIDI, and mixing.

Introduction

• Welcome

1. Concepts of Sound

• What is sound made of?
• Frequency and amplitude
• Phase and time
• How do we hear?
• The acoustic, analog, and digital domains

2. The Signal Path: Acoustic and Analog

• Overview of a signal path
• Getting sound into the analog domain
• Types of analog connections
• Gain stages in the analog domain
• Metering
• Getting sound back to the acoustic domain

3. The Signal Path: Digital

• Adding the digital domain
• Analog to digital conversion
• Gain stages in the digital domain
• Dither
• Digital to analog conversion
• Digital formats and data compression
• How digital connections work

4. Digital Audio Workstations

• Introducing the DAW
• Types of DAWs
• Effects plugins and virtual instruments
• Managing computer resources

5. MIDI

• MIDI: Recording performances, not sounds
• How MIDI is communicated
• Storing and processing MIDI

6. Mixing and Processing Audio

• Levels, pan, and automation
• Monitoring levels while mixing
• Partials, harmonics, and equalization (EQ)
• Types of EQ components
• Compression and other dynamic processing
• Threshold, ratio, and four types of dynamic processors
• Attack and release in dynamic processors
• Reverb
• Characteristics of analog and digital

Conclusion

• Next steps