Diploma in Sound Engineering
What do all the
numbers mean?
2
Contents
3 Introduction
3 Lesson outcomes
3 Tempo
5 Time
6 Metering
8 Conclusion
8 References
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Lesson outcomes
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
• Understand tempo and beats
• Measure time and tempo
• Set time signatures for musical effect
• Make a clean recording
Avoid clipping and make a recording with sufficient headroom.
Introduction
In our DAW’s you would have noticed that we use numbers very often in sound engineering. Not to necessarily to make
calculations, but to make informed estimates during mixing, perform accurate editing and dynamic producing.
For us to understand how to approach mixing, composing and editing in a DAW, we need to understand how to measure
what we are doing. For this reason, it is important to know what all the numbers mean! In today’s lesson we will have a look
at tempo, time and metering and how to use rhythm to create music and manipulate sound.
Tempo
Tempo is a very interesting aspect of sound engineering and music production. It is the musical way of measuring time, and
you can regard it as the speed at which a song is being performed. In order for us to understand tempo and the role that it
plays in music, we need to understand what it is, how we measure it and what the aspects of tempo are that we can
manipulate.
Bars and beats part 1
If you play an instrument, have done music production or have friends that practice music, you’ll be familiar with the term
BPM or beats per minute. The term is exactly what its title states, it is the number of beats in a minute. As a general guideline
our default tempo is 120 BPM, or 120 beats per minute and each of these beats are called a quarter note.
A group of beats is called a bar. In most popular music a bar has 4 quarter note beats, which we call a time signature and is
indicated as 4/4. You can also have different time signatures such as 2/4, 3/4, which is a waltz and even 5/4, which is what
Dave Brubeck used to compose his famous song Take Five.
Tempo and genre
In classical music, tempo is indicative of the feel of a certain part of a composition. It tells us whether we need to speed up,
slow down or maintain our current pace. In modern music however, tempo changes are much less common. Most songs
today are set a fixed tempo from start to finish
Where classical music uses tempo to indicate the speed of a certain musical passage, in modern music it indicates genre.
The reason for this is because in modern music, especially dance music, the tempo is fixed. The result of this is that we often
define our genres based on the feel that a genre has additional to the instrumentation.
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As an example, the average tempo for
• Hip-hop is 85-115 bpm
• Funk 120-125
• Pop 90-135
• Rock 110-140
• House/techno 115-128
• Trance 140
• Dubstep 160 (or 80)
• Drum and bass 175-185
These are estimates but are accurate measurements of modern music genre's and tempos. They are not fixed though and
as a creative you are free to explore with tempo and timing us much as you see fit!
Counting beats
Now that we know that tempo is divided into beats, and that the tempo shows us how many beats we have in a minute, such
as 120 beats per minute, combining these beats in different groups can result in significant differences in the musical
outcome. Besides quarter notes, we have an entire host of other note lengths we can use to set the tempo of a song.
The note lengths we get are:
• Whole note = 1 bar regardless of time signature
• Half notes = 2 beats
• Quarter notes = 1 beat
• Eighth notes = ½ beat
• 16th notes = ¼ beat
To make writing music and rhythms easier, we also have dotted notes. When a
note is dotted, we indicate it like this image. All that it means when we say that a
note is dotted, is that the note is one and a half times longer. If we have a dotted
quarter note, we will play the note as long as ¼ note + 1/8 together. As an example,
in a ¾ time signature, we can play the length of 3 quarter notes in a bar.
Now if change the length of the notes to 2 dotted quarter notes, we can only play (West Rowan Music Theory; 2020)
two notes in that same ¾ bar. This is because ¼ note is equal to 2 eight notes, and
a dotted quarter note is equal to 3 eight notes. Therefor, if we have 2 dotted
quarter notes, it is the same as playing 6 eighth notes, which is 3 quarter notes.
Strong, weak and off beats
Now that you understand what tempo is and that we measure it in beats per
minute, we can begin to investigate rhythm. We all understand what a beat is and
how it feels. When music plays and we jump and dance to the music – we are
feeling the beat!
In modern music, where the time signature is 4/4, the strong beats are beats 1 +
3, and the weak beats are 2 + 4. In a waltz which is 3/4, the strong beat is 1 and the
weak beats are beats 2 + 3. We also have off-beats, and it is usually by using (West Rowan Music Theory; 2020)
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offbeat rhythms that we make music sound interesting. You can write music that starts on the beat for strong, powerful
driving sections, or you can play on the offbeat to create a bounce like feeling in a song.
Time
Time and duration are extremely important terms to us. They are crucial aspects of sound engineering and therefore we
have more than one way to relate to time. In this section we will discuss how time is measured and how to keep effective
track of your session.
Time in a DAW
We measure time in two ways. Firstly, we measure time as an absolute value. What this means is that we all know 1 second
is as long as one second. This way of measuring time is great! Especially for video editing, but what if we wanted to record
or produce music?
This is where tempo, bars and beats come into play. The length of a note depends on the tempo. At a slower tempo, let’s
say, 60 bpm, the length of a quarter note is twice as long as if we were to play it at 120 bpm. This is the musical way of
measuring time. In sound engineering we have time as an absolute value, and we also have time with its flexible musical
value, namely tempo.
Metronome
In the same way that we use a watch or a clock to measure the passing of time in hours, minutes and seconds, we use a
metronome to measure tempo. It allows us to slow down or speed up musical time depending on the feel that we want from
a certain passage. A metronome is also often referred to as a click track due to the clicking pulse it makes.
Our metronome is particularly important because musicians use it to make sure they are playing in sync with the song and
each other. It is also important because it tells us how far in the bar we are, the tempo of the music and therefore the duration
of our notes.
If we are recording at different time signatures than 4/4, we also have the option of adjusting our time signature to the music
we want to record or produce. For example, you can set your click track to 2/4, or 6/8.
Bars and beats part 2
If tempo is the musical way of keeping time, bars and beats can be regarded as the musical hours and minutes. The top
number in the time-signature tells us how many beats we have in a bar. The bottom number tells us how long these beats
are. In this example the time signature is 3/4.
The tempo shows us how many of the bottom note will be played in a minute. This is how speed control is achieved. So, if
we have 100 beats a minute and the time signature is in a straightforward 4/4 time-signature, we can safely say that 100/4 =
25 bars of music.
This is quite helpful, because now we can begin to understand the context of our music production. If you want a song to be
3:00 minutes long and want to add an intro, verse, chorus, bridge and maybe even repeat some of them, we can begin to
plan the length of the different sections that we want to create. Generally different sections of songs are grouped in bar
lengths of 8. As an example, an intro might be 8 bars long, the verse 16, bridge 8 and chorus 8 which often gets repeated and
ends up being 16 bars long anyway.
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Metering
The meters in our DAW’s tell us a lot about what we are busy doing and how much we are doing it. We use it to measure any
processing we do, to make sure our microphones are well placed and how much we are affecting signals in the many ways
possible.
In this third section of our lesson we will look at the meters we have in our DAWs, how to read them correctly and make sure
that you deliver quality audio every time.
The decibel and loudness
In lessons 1 and 2 we spoke about soundwaves and that sound is a pressure wave moving through air. Interestingly, our ears
do not hear all frequencies equally loud. Our ears are much more sensitive to higher frequencies than lower frequencies and
consequently we perceive loudness on an exponential scale rather than a linear one.
We measure loudness in 2 ways. The first is to measure the sound pressure level from a sound wave. This we measure in
decibel, but because we do not hear all frequencies equally, this only works for sound pressure and not for how loud we
perceive sound.
For us to measure loudness how we perceive it, we use phons, where 1 phon is equal to 1 decibel. In 1933 Fletcher and
Munson devised a set of curves that represent human loudness perception over the range of audible frequencies of 20 Hz to
20 kHz. What they discovered was that our ears become increasingly less sensitive the lower frequencies are.
The curve in this image shows the sound pressure level needed to play all the frequencies equally loud. This curve shows
that in order for us to perceive 20 Hz and 1 kHz equally loud, we need to play the low 20 Hz tone at almost 130 phon and the
1 kHz tone at 90 phon, an entire 30 phon or dB lower!
There is a difference between sound power and loudness. For
sound power, if a sound has 60 dB of power, that same signal
will have double the amount of power at 63dB, 4 times at
66dB and 8 times more power at 69dB. The decibel scale is
exponential.
As an example, a signal at 60 dB will be twice as loud at 70 dB,
and 4 times as loud at 80 dB. That same sound will be 8 times
louder at 90 dB. Due to the exponential rate at which
loudness increases, the last 10 dB from 80dB to 90dB
quadrupled the sound intensity where the first 10 dB
increase from 60dB to 70 dB, which was only a doubling in
intensity.
To truly understand the difference between our low and high
frequency perception and that our hearing functions on an
exponential scale rather than a linear one, listen to these
tones being played at the same loudness and notice how the
sound is becoming louder as frequency moves up, even
though the signal stays at the same level. (Shannon, 2015)
You can see the output meter on the right, which is constant at -12 dB. Pay attention to the frequency and how loud or soft
it sounds to you. Notice how the lower frequencies feel extremely soft and the higher frequencies super loud. This is the
strange and wonderful way that we hear sound. Please keep your fingers on the volume control. This is going
to feel extremely loud once we’ve passed the 200 Hz mark.
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Input, headroom and clipping
We do not hear all frequencies equally loud, and this is clear after seeing and hearing our perception at equal loudness, like
the previous clip. When we record sound, we need to keep three basic principles in mind. Input, headroom and clipping.
• Input is the source of the sound that you want to record. It can be from a microphone, a direct line input like an
electric guitar, or sound from software like digital instruments and plug-ins.
• Headroom is the amount by which your input signal has room for dynamic changes.
• Clipping is the distortion of your input signal if you exceed your headroom.
In the same way that we do not hear all frequencies equally, our microphones, instruments and digital instruments don’t
produce or capture frequencies at equal loudness levels. In fact, everything produces its own set of frequencies at different
loudness levels based on the harmonic series, and that is what we call timbre.
Now, because the world around us produce frequencies at different loudness’s, we have dynamics in our music and
recordings. Finding a balance between all of these frequencies and their loudness is the key to producing a great mix. So,
when we record sound, we need to keep an eye on our faders and meters. We want to capture and record all our sound as
clean as possible and stay true to the original audio as much as possible. For this reason, we need to always avoid clipping.
Clipping is when you exceed the maximum threshold of your fader and recording format and distort your audio signal
beyond repair. It is always indicated by red lights at the top of your fader and should always be avoided. If you see that a
track is clipping, this should sound all the alarms in your vicinity, and you should tend to the clipping track immediately. It
is recommended for music and speech to have your final output peak at around -6dB and preferably not be lower than -
20dB.
The distance between -6dB and 0 dB on a fader is referred to as headroom. If you work in peak mode (which you should not),
your maximum threshold before clipping is 0dB. I recommend to record using the Root Mean Squared or RMS. This means
that the average loudness of the waveform is measured and not only the peak, which allows for even more headroom when
you are recording and trying to avoid clipping.
Proximity effect and plosives
During recording everything does not always go as planned. We are often confronted with challenges that arise due to the
sound source, our equipment and some inherent limitations in its application. There are two common problems many
people face in their sound engineering career regardless of age or experience. The two problems that I am talking about is
the proximity effect and plosives. Let’s begin with the proximity effect.
When we record with a microphone, due to the design of the microphones we might struggle with some limitations. One of
these limitations is called the proximity effect. Remember that sound waves are only pressure waves travelling through the
air? Well, they also lose power the further they have to travel. Now when we place our microphones roughly 30 cm or closer
to a sound source, such as a voice, guitar or drum, we will hear an increase in bass frequencies the closer the microphone is
placed to the sound source. This increase in low frequencies that we record with our microphones is called the proximity
effect.
Microphones that are omni directional do not suffer from this effect, but cardioid microphones do, and most of our
microphones are cardioid or a version thereof. Because we as audio engineers know which microphones will produce the
proximity effect, we can use it to our advantage. One example would be that the proximity effect can add extra low end to
a voice which results in a warm, velvet radio voice recording, perfect for a podcast or presentation.
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This brings me to my second point, plosives. Plosives are letters that we say that produce powerful pressure waves that can
clip our recordings. They are the letters that produce a lot of air when we pronounce them such as p, b , t, k, q, d, g. To
prevent plosives from exceeding all our carefully planned headroom, we can use a pop filter.
Plosives are produced by the human voice, but other sounds with very strong attacks can also clip our recordings.
Conclusion
The numbers in our DAWs play a very important role in many ways. We use it to measure time, tempo, time signature, note
lengths, loudness, sound power, our loudness perception, microphone gains, headroom, sample rate, bit rate and much
more to come during this course.
To prepare for the next lesson, study the note lengths and make sure that you are comfortable with them. We’re going to
need it in the next lesson!
References
• Cazaubon, M., 2020. Counting Dotted Notes. [online] [Link]. Available at:
<[Link] [Accessed 13 November 2020].
• Koehler, K., 2020. Understanding Sound Pressure Level And The Decibel Scale | PTR. [online] Pro Tool
Reviews. Available at: <[Link]
the-decibel-scale/50431/> [Accessed 13 November 2020].
• Shannon, A., 2020. 20Hz To 20Khz Frequency Sweep (Logarithmic) 1080P HD. [online] [Link].
Available at: <[Link] [Accessed
13 November 2020].
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