Week 6 lessons: Delay-based effects and audio processing

The overarching topic for this week is how to process sound to attain various effects.

One of the main ways to achieve such processing is to mix a sound with a delayed version of itself. So, we will be studying how to delay sound, and how delayed sound is used to achieve a wide variety of audio effects: echoes, filtering, flanging, chorusing, reverberation, etc.

To learn about basic delay (echoes, etc.), and one effect called flanging, study the lessons on the topic of "Delay-based effects".

Another delay-based effect that's very common in audio, and in signal processing in general, is filtering, to change the frequency content of a sound signal. Study the lessons and examples on the topic of "Filters".

As always, try all the examples provided, try changing the parameter values to hear how the effects change, and try your own modifications to improve your understanding of how the example programs work.

Another common way of processing sound is to edit it algorithmically, to make loops, chop it into minuscule grains, play it backward, etc. To understand some of the ways of doing that, study the lessons on "RAM-based Sample Playback in Max Links to an external site.". To get some experience with using the buffer~ object in Max, try building a Max patch that uses buffer~ and one or more of the buffer-access objects. (Search for the keyword "buffer~" in the Max Cookbook for examples that may inspire some ideas.) You're not required to hand in that patch, but spending some time working with manipulation of sound in buffer~, in order to get some experience with the possibilities, is highly recommended.