4 How is mixing down like developing and printing a photograph?
5 What's the danger of mixing down without a break?
Reading Comparing sources
In work and study we depend on information from different sources, for example, what we hear from lecturers and what we read in textbooks. In the exercise that follows, you are asked to compare a listening text and a reading text.
Task 5 (Hi Read this advice on 'Mixing down'. Listen again to Part 2. Then note the points
In this text which are additional to those given on the tape.
Mixing down
When mixing down, play back and listen to your master version through different speakers. If it still sounds good on cheap speakers, it passes the test. If possible, mix down on a later day to the recording. Have a break, as fresh ears hear things differently.
5 Similarly, do not mix on your own - someone else might point out things you have missed. And do not keep turning the volume up 'to hear things better'. Keep an eye on the volume and, if necessary, turn everything down and have a break. It will seem loud enough when you come back.
10 Above all, always keep in mind the overall sound. Do not listen to one instrument at the expense of others. Walk around the room while listening to a playback. Remember: sound is flexible and can be changed by the slightest factor, so use your ears.
Language study Giving advice
The interview and the text mention things to do and things not to do when making your own recordings. For example:
Things to do
Leave it for a bit before you make the final copy.
Things not to do
Make sure you don't go into the red or you'll get distortion.
Here are some other ways in which we can give advice in an informal way. Note how we can make the advice stronger.
Things to do
You should keep an eye on the recording level.
Always keep an eye on the recording level.
3 You must always keep an eye on the recording level.
Things not to do
You shouldn't put the microphone too close to the drums.
Never put the microphone too close to the drums.
You must never put the microphone too close to the drums.
Task 6 Write a list of things to do and things not to do when making a recording. Use
information from the text and from the tape together with any information of your own. For example:
Things to do
1 You should listen to your master through different speakers.
Things not to do
2 Don't keep turning the volume up to 'hear things better'.
When you have finished, exchange lists with your partner. Do you agree with the list your partner has made? If not. discuss any disagreement with your partner.
Remote control
Task 1 Which television and video recorder controls are operated by remote control
buttons with these symbols?
1 (") 4 H 7 ►
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3 6 ■ 9 (Л»
Task 2 Read paragraph 1 of this text. How many of the controls you identified in Task
1 are named in the text?
couch potatoes: people who spend most of their time sitting on a couch (sofa) watching television
The widespread use of television remote control units has turned the British into a nation of couch potatoes*. Gone are all the fiddly knobs and buttons which once controlled picture contrast, colour brightness, volume, and so on. Nowadays we can change channel, adjust the sound and picture, and call up a range of services on the teletext systems with the push of a button.
para 1
Reading Information transfer
A useful way of remembering the main points of what we read is to transfer the important information into a different form, such as a table or a diagram. In this unit, you are asked to transfer information from a text to a flowchart. Flowcharts are often used to describe processes.
Now read paragraph 2 to complete the gaps in the flowchart, which shows how the remote control transmitter works.
para
The remote control unit contains keys and electronic components 2 similar to those of a calculator. The keys are connected by a matrix of wires which cross beneath each individual key. Pressing a key
10 completes an electrical circuit, and a signal is sent to a microchip which, in turn, sends a series of on-off electrical pulses to a light-emitting diode (LED) at the front of the handset. A code spelt out by the length and spacing of these pulses switches on the LED. The LED flashes on and off to send an infra-red beam to the receiving
15 'eye'on the television set.
1 You press a key.
I
2
3 A signal is sent to a microchip. 4
5 These pulses switch on the LED.
I
6
Language Study Actions in sequence
Study this flowchart, which describes what happens when the signals are received from the remote control.