Beginner Foundation 5 hours 240 XP on completion

How Sound Actually Works

The physics you need, and none that you do not.

Frequency, amplitude, phase, decibels, sample rate and bit depth. Everything in mixing and sound design is downstream of this, and most people never learn it properly.

Completing this course unlocks

Apprentice

1. Waves

6 lessons

What is actually moving.

○ Air, pressure and what a microphone hears Reading 10 min ○ Frequency and pitch Reading 11 min ○ Amplitude, loudness and why they differ Reading 11 min ○ Harmonics and timbre Reading 12 min ○ Phase, and the reason two good sounds can cancel Reading 13 min ○ Waves check Quiz 8 min

2. Decibels and levels

5 lessons

The one scale that confuses everybody.

○ Why decibels are logarithmic Reading 12 min ○ dBFS, dBu and why 0 means different things Reading 12 min ○ Peak, RMS and LUFS Reading 13 min ○ Headroom, and the mistake you cannot undo Reading 11 min ○ Reading a meter properly Reading 10 min

3. Digital audio

7 lessons

What the computer is actually storing.

○ Sample rate and the Nyquist limit Reading 12 min ○ Bit depth, dynamic range and dither Reading 12 min ○ Latency, buffer size and the trade-off Reading 12 min ○ File formats: WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC Reading 10 min ○ Gain staging from input to master Reading 13 min ○ Prove it to yourself Studio 20 min ○ Digital audio final Quiz 10 min

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