Synthesis and Sound Design Flashcards
7 cards from real Music & Audio Advice practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Synthesis and Sound Design flashcards as text
Which synthesis method builds sound by adding together sine waves?
Answer: Additive
Additive synthesis constructs timbres by summing many individual sine partials.
Granular synthesis generates sound from what building blocks?
Answer: Tiny grains of sampled audio
Granular synthesis splices audio into micro-grains and replays them in clouds.
What does a wavetable synthesizer let you do that a single oscillator cannot?
Answer: Sweep through a series of stored waveforms
Wavetable synths scan across a table of different waveshapes to create evolving timbres.
In an ADSR envelope, the sustain stage controls what?
Answer: The level held while a key is pressed
Sustain sets the steady level maintained as long as the key is held down.
What characterizes white noise?
Answer: Equal energy per frequency
White noise contains equal power across all frequencies, sounding like a hiss.
A high-pass filter is most useful for which task?
Answer: Removing low-end rumble or mud
A high-pass filter cuts low frequencies, cleaning up rumble and muddiness.
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is applied to which waveform?
Answer: Square/pulse
PWM varies the duty cycle of a pulse wave, animating its harmonic content.