Audio Editing Audio Editing MCQ 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the effect of setting a compressor's 'release time' too short on a mix?
- The compressor will fail to catch fast transients
- It can cause audible 'pumping' or 'breathing' as the gain rapidly recovers (Correct answer)
- The noise floor of the recording will increase significantly
- High frequencies will be attenuated more than low frequencies
Correct answer: It can cause audible 'pumping' or 'breathing' as the gain rapidly recovers
A very short release causes the compressor to rapidly restore gain after each transient, creating an audible pumping artifact as the gain repeatedly surges and falls.
Question 2: When editing audio for broadcast in the US, which loudness standard is most commonly required?
- EBU R128 (-23 LUFS)
- ATSC A/85 (-24 LKFS integrated) (Correct answer)
- ASWG-R001 (-16 LUFS)
- AES17 (-18 dBFS RMS)
Correct answer: ATSC A/85 (-24 LKFS integrated)
ATSC A/85 specifies a target of -24 LKFS integrated loudness for US broadcast television, mandated to prevent jarring volume differences between programs and commercials.
Question 3: What is a 'room tone' and why is it recorded on professional audio productions?
- A test tone used to calibrate studio monitor levels
- The natural ambient sound of a recording location, used to fill gaps and maintain continuity in edits (Correct answer)
- A harmonic resonance added by the recording room's acoustic panels
- A low-frequency tone generated by HVAC systems that must be removed
Correct answer: The natural ambient sound of a recording location, used to fill gaps and maintain continuity in edits
Room tone is a recording of the ambient silence of a location; editors use it to fill cuts and transitions so the background sound doesn't abruptly drop to dead silence.
Question 4: In audio post-production, what does ADR stand for?
- Automated Dynamic Range
- Adaptive Digital Restoration
- Automated Dialogue Replacement (Correct answer)
- Acoustic Damping Ratio
Correct answer: Automated Dialogue Replacement
ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) is the process of re-recording dialogue in a studio to replace unusable production audio, with actors syncing their performance to picture.
Question 5: Which audio editing technique is used to remove the click or pop caused by a waveform not crossing zero at an edit point?
- Applying a de-clicker plugin to the entire session
- Using zero-crossing snapping or applying a short crossfade at the edit point (Correct answer)
- Boosting the high-pass filter cutoff above the click frequency
- Normalizing both clips to the same peak level before editing
Correct answer: Using zero-crossing snapping or applying a short crossfade at the edit point
Edit clicks occur when a waveform is cut at a non-zero amplitude point; snapping cuts to zero-crossings or adding a short crossfade smoothly transitions between clips and eliminates the pop.
Question 6: What is 'automation' in the context of a digital audio workstation (DAW)?
- A feature that automatically sets all track levels to -6 dBFS on import
- The recording and playback of parameter changes (like volume or panning) over time within a project (Correct answer)
- A tool that automatically detects and removes silence from recordings
- A plugin that generates MIDI patterns based on audio input
Correct answer: The recording and playback of parameter changes (like volume or panning) over time within a project
Automation records movements of parameters such as faders, pan knobs, or plugin settings so that the DAW can reproduce those exact changes with perfect timing during playback.
Question 7: What distinguishes a 'destructive' waveform editor (like Adobe Audition in waveform view) from a non-destructive DAW session?
- Destructive editors cannot handle sample rates above 44.1 kHz
- Edits made in destructive mode permanently alter the audio data in the source file immediately (Correct answer)
- Destructive editors do not support multi-track recording
- A destructive editor applies only to the master output, not individual tracks
Correct answer: Edits made in destructive mode permanently alter the audio data in the source file immediately
In destructive editing, operations like cutting, applying effects, or normalizing modify and overwrite the actual audio data on disk, making changes permanent unless an undo is available.
Audio Editing Audio Editing MCQ 5
What is the effect of setting a compressor's 'release time' too short on a mix?