Music & Audio Advice Synthesis and Sound Design 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which synthesis method builds sound by adding together sine waves?
- Subtractive
- Additive (Correct answer)
- Granular
- Wavetable
Correct answer: Additive
Additive synthesis constructs timbres by summing many individual sine partials.
Question 2: Granular synthesis generates sound from what building blocks?
- Tiny grains of sampled audio (Correct answer)
- Single sine oscillators
- MIDI notes only
- Filtered noise bursts
Correct answer: Tiny grains of sampled audio
Granular synthesis splices audio into micro-grains and replays them in clouds.
Question 3: What does a wavetable synthesizer let you do that a single oscillator cannot?
- Sweep through a series of stored waveforms (Correct answer)
- Only play sine waves
- Disable all filters
- Record audio to tape
Correct answer: Sweep through a series of stored waveforms
Wavetable synths scan across a table of different waveshapes to create evolving timbres.
Question 4: In an ADSR envelope, the sustain stage controls what?
- How long the note takes to start
- The level held while a key is pressed (Correct answer)
- How fast the note fades after release
- The filter cutoff
Correct answer: The level held while a key is pressed
Sustain sets the steady level maintained as long as the key is held down.
Question 5: What characterizes white noise?
- Equal energy per frequency (Correct answer)
- Only low frequencies
- Only one pitch
- Silence with clicks
Correct answer: Equal energy per frequency
White noise contains equal power across all frequencies, sounding like a hiss.
Question 6: A high-pass filter is most useful for which task?
- Removing low-end rumble or mud (Correct answer)
- Adding bass weight
- Boosting sub frequencies
- Creating reverb
Correct answer: Removing low-end rumble or mud
A high-pass filter cuts low frequencies, cleaning up rumble and muddiness.
Question 7: Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is applied to which waveform?
- Sine
- Square/pulse (Correct answer)
- Triangle
- Noise
Correct answer: Square/pulse
PWM varies the duty cycle of a pulse wave, animating its harmonic content.
Music & Audio Advice Synthesis and Sound Design 3
Which synthesis method builds sound by adding together sine waves?