Cover lesson · Music · Year 10 · Intermediate
DCF: Producing → Creating digital content
Name: Class: Date:
What this practises: GCSE Music (Made for Wales, first teaching 2025), Unit 3: Appraising, content 1.3.1: “identify and describe how music technology has been used to create aural effects”, using the Technology terms in the specification’s glossary. Unit 3 is an on-screen listening examination in the final year, so this is early groundwork for it.
Print: this sheet, one per pupil, and the stimulus sheet “Golau Stryd: the DAW session”, one between two. No computers or audio are needed. Pupils work out the sound from the session and the listeners’ comments. Calculators help in Step 3.
Run: 8 min pupils read the stimulus sheet in pairs · 12 min Step 2, matching what listeners heard to the technology · 10 min Step 3, the numbers · 12 min Step 4, the exam-style answer, alone and in silence · 13 min Step 5, planning a new mix. Total 55 minutes.
Collect: this sheet, for the class teacher to check against the worked example.
In the Unit 3 examination you will hear music and describe how music technology changes the sound. Today there is no audio. Instead you have the full DAW session for a song, and a list of what some listeners heard. You will work out which technology caused each effect, describe the effects in exam language, then plan a new mix of your own for a different purpose.
Read all five sections of the stimulus sheet. Highlight every bar number in the mixer table. Key words:
For each listener comment, name the technology using a glossary term, give the track and the bars, and say which setting in the mixer table causes it.
| Technology term(s) | Track and bars | The setting that causes it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | |||
| B | |||
| C | |||
| D | |||
| E | |||
| F | |||
| G | |||
| H |
(a) The delay on the lead vocal is set to one crotchet. At 96 BPM, how long is one crotchet beat in seconds, and in milliseconds (ms)? Show your working. (1 second = 1,000 ms.)
(b) The band plays a faster version at 120 BPM. How many milliseconds should the delay be now, so the echo still lands exactly one beat later? Why does a producer set the delay to match the tempo?
(c) The song has 76 bars of 4/4 at 96 BPM. How many beats is that, and how long does the song last in minutes and seconds?
(d) Count the tracks that play in the bridge (bars 57 to 64) and in the final chorus (bars 65 to 72). What does this tell you about the texture of each section, and why might the producer have done this?
Answer on your own, in silence. In the real examination you would type this on screen.
Describe how music technology has been used to create aural effects in the bridge and final chorus of Golau Stryd (bars 57 to 72).
Write 100 to 140 words. Use at least four glossary terms. For each point: name the technology, give the bars, and describe what the listener hears.
The brief: Lleuad will play Golau Stryd live on a late-night Welsh-language radio session. Only three parts: Nia’s voice, the acoustic guitar and the piano sample. The producer wants the listener to feel that Nia is singing quietly, close to them, in a small room.
Choose settings for each track. Use real settings (a pan position, a reverb type and length, a delay value, an EQ cut, an autotune speed, or “off”). Explain what the listener will hear and why it suits this purpose and audience.
| Track | Technology and setting | What the listener will hear | Why it suits the brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice | |||
| Acoustic guitar | |||
| Piano sample |
One effect from the original mix that you would remove for this version, and why: