Over the past several months our growing Audio segment has been adding key courses that aim to teach both the foundations of good audio practices as well as important audio software skills. This week’s featured five free movies were compiled with some help from our content manager for Audio, and lynda.com go-to Pro Tools author, David Franz, and focus on movies that are all centered around a very specific theme: improving the way you interact with your music, and the quality of the sound you create.
1. Recording audio in Pro Tools
In this excerpt from chapter four of Pro Tools 10 Essential Training, the aforementioned David Franz shows you how to create a new audio track in Pro Tools. While David takes you step-by-step through the process, you’ll also hear his real-world practical reasons for why one might choose one setting over another. Bonus: You get to hear David play the guitar.
2. Determining the correct listening position for your mixing session
In this video from chapter one of Audio Mixing Bootcamp, industry leader Bobby Owsinski explains how room acoustics can effect your perception of sound, and how to choose the best position for listening to playback. My favorite element of this movie is how Bobby’s explanations are made even more accessible by illustrative motion graphics.
3. Using lynda.com Get in the Mix interactive exercise files
As of March 2012, all of our Foundations of Audio courses in the lynda.com Audio segment now include Get in the Mix high-fidelity interactive exercise files that allow Pro Tools and Logic Pro users to experience hands-on instruction from the course author directly inside their personal Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW. All Get in the Mix exercise files are free to any lynda.com member (no premium membership required). In this movie, Alex Case explains how Get in the Mix files work and the advantages of learning from within your own DAW. If you’re interested in trying out a Get in the Mix learning session yourself, Alex’s Foundations of Audio: Delay and Modulation course includes eight member-exclusive Get in the Mix learning sessions, and two unlocked sessions that are free for all to try (Get in the Mix: Establishing groove with long delays and Get in the Mix: Modulation rate and depth).
4. Getting creative with EQ Curves and the telephone effect
In this tutorial from chapter three of Foundations of Audio: EQ and Filters, Brian Lee White discusses how EQ curves can be used to apply creative effect, or to place an element in a unique space within a mix. Discussing the telephone-effect (aptly named because the effect makes it sound like the signal is coming across on a telephone connection) Brian shows a real-life example of how a classic low-fi sound filter can be used to give you interesting, expressive possibilities.
5. Filtering loops in Pro Tools
In this video from chapter four of Pro Tools Mixing and Mastering, Brian Lee White explains how and why you might need to filter pre-recorded, synth, or sampled loops that you’re working with as part of a larger mix. While those loops are fundamentally designed to hold their own in isolation, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are always suitable as-is for your arrangement. I love how Brian uses a stock photography analogy, pointing out that when you choose a commercial or sample photo, you know you’re going to have to crop, scale, and tweak it to fit your design.
If you’re interested in sampling more of our new Audio segment content, keep in mind that all lynda.com courses have movies that are free to try, even if you’re not yet a member. Just click on any course of interest, and explore the blue links within any table of contents page in our library to watch unlocked videos.
