dcf.cymru stimulus sheet · Music · Year 10
The band, the song, the session and the listening panel are invented. The music technology is real: every tool on this sheet is in the GCSE Music glossary and is used in real studios.
Time runs from left to right, one small step per bar. Each coloured block is a region: a part that plays for those bars. If a track has no block, it is silent.
Pan shows where a sound sits between the left and right speakers. C is the centre. L100 is fully left and R100 is fully right, so L70 is well over to the left.
A plug-in is an effect added to a track. Automation means the DAW changes a setting by itself at a chosen bar.
| Track | What it is | Plug-ins | Automation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Drums | Drum machine: a software instrument. Every hit was entered in the sequencer and quantised (moved exactly onto the beat). | Equalisation | None |
| 2 Synth bass | Synthesised bass: a software instrument playing MIDI notes. | Equalisation | None |
| 3 Piano sample | The 1962 chapel piano sample, looped (repeated) every 4 bars. | Equalisation | Bars 1 to 8: the EQ cuts every frequency below 500 Hz and above 3,000 Hz, so only the middle of the sound is left. From bar 57: EQ switched off, full sound. |
| 4 Acoustic guitar | Audio: one microphone in front of the guitar. | Equalisation; Reverb (Room, 0.8 seconds) | None |
| 5 Lead vocal | Audio: Nia, recorded in a vocal booth. | Autotune; Delay; Reverb | Autotune: retune speed 50 ms (gentle, natural) for the whole song, except bars 57 to 64, where it is 0 ms (instant, so the voice jumps from note to note). Delay: one crotchet, feedback 30%, switched on for bars 33 to 48 only. Reverb: Plate, 1.2 seconds, changing to Hall, 3.5 seconds, for bars 65 to 72. |
| 6 Vocal double | Audio: Nia singing each chorus a second time on a separate track (multitrack recording), played together with track 5. | Reverb (Plate, 1.2 seconds) | None |
| 7 Backing vox L | Audio: Owain, harmony line. | Reverb (Plate, 1.2 seconds) | None |
| 8 Backing vox R | Audio: Elin, harmony line. | Reverb (Plate, 1.2 seconds) | None |
| 9 Synth pad | Synthesised pad: long, held chords from a software instrument. | Phaser | None |
These are the Technology words from the GCSE Music glossary that appear in this session.
| Term | What it does to the sound |
|---|---|
| DAW | Digital Audio Workstation: software for recording, editing and mixing many tracks. |
| Sequencer | The part of a DAW where notes are entered, edited and played back as MIDI. |
| Multitrack recording | Recording parts separately on their own tracks, then playing them back together. One singer can be recorded twice to make a thicker sound. |
| Drum machine | An electronic instrument that plays programmed drum patterns. It can be perfectly in time, every bar. |
| Synthesised / Electronic | Sound made electronically, not by an acoustic instrument. |
| Sample / Sampling | Taking a short piece of an existing recording and reusing it, often looped. |
| Panning | Placing a sound between the left and right speakers to spread the mix out. |
| Equalisation (EQ) | Turning some frequencies up or down. Cutting the low and high frequencies makes a sound thin, like a small radio. |
| Reverb | The sound of a space: many quick reflections that blend together. A long reverb sounds like a large hall or chapel. |
| Delay / Echo | A copy of the sound played back later. Separate repeats that you can hear one by one are an echo. Feedback controls how many repeats there are. |
| Autotune | Software that corrects pitch. Set gently, it sounds natural. Set to 0 ms, the voice snaps between notes and sounds robotic. |
| Phasing | Mixing a sound with a slightly shifted copy of itself, so it seems to swirl or whoosh. |
A Year 9 class listened to the finished mix on headphones and wrote down what they noticed. They did not know any of the technology words.
| What they heard | |
|---|---|
| A | “At the very start the piano sounds thin and crackly, like an old radio in another room.” |
| B | “In the choruses the two backing singers seem to come from opposite sides of my head.” |
| C | “In the second verse, the last word of each line comes back again, quieter, one beat later.” |
| D | “In the slow bit without drums, Nia’s voice jumps between notes like a robot.” |
| E | “The drum beat is exactly the same in every bar. It never speeds up or slows down, not even a tiny bit.” |
| F | “In the last chorus Nia sounds like she is singing in a huge, empty chapel.” |
| G | “In every chorus Nia’s voice sounds thicker, as if there are two of her.” |
| H | “In the slow bit there is a soft, swirling, whooshing sound under the voice.” |