Music Technology · A Level · Core topics
Five topics, each built as a working bench. You assemble the machine by learning it: every stage you pass switches its module on, until the whole rack runs.
Each stage ends with a short check: answer it and the rail lights up. Take the stages in order the first time; after that, jump anywhere. Below the benches sit the explorers, where you take one real machine apart instead.
Every bench here is part of the member studio and opens on its own from its topic page at member.musictechstudio.co.uk. The C3 Q5 essay page is the one thing anyone can open.
1.3 · Synthesis
MembersAssemble a synthesiser voice from the oscillator up: waveform, filter, envelope, then the movement that brings it alive.
IN → Oscillators → Filter → Envelope → Modulation → Paradigms → OUT · The synth
Open the bench1.9 · Dynamic processing
MembersBuild a working compressor and hear what the curve, the clock and the side-chain each do to a live loop.
IN → Squeeze → Curve → Clock → Family → Side-chain → OUT · The rack
Open the bench1.11 · EQ
MembersLearn the bands, the filter shapes and the three knobs that drive them, then make real mix moves.
IN → Bands → Shapes → Knobs → Family → Moves → OUT · The rack
Open the bench1.12 · Modulation
MembersChorus, flanger and phaser all grow from one idea: a copy of the signal, moved in time. Build each in turn.
IN → The idea → The LFO → Chorus → Flanger · Phaser → The moves → OUT · The rack
Open the bench1.12 · Delay
MembersOne sound sent back late, then again, quieter each time. Build the line, set the clock to the tempo, and hear where the repeats land.
IN → The line → The loop → The clock → The colour → The field → OUT · The rack
Open the benchThe explorers · take a machine apart
1.2 · Capture of sound
MembersA dynamic and a condenser, in 3D. Turn them, pull them apart, cut them in half, and watch each one turn air into a signal, then take the phantom power away and see the condenser go quiet.
Open the explorer2.2 · Monitor speakers
MembersA passive and an active nearfield, in 3D. Follow the signal back out into air, see where the crossover splits it, and look at the back panel: that is where the two designs part company.
Open the explorer1.13 · Balance & blend
MembersA large-format analogue desk, in 3D. One channel strip carries the whole story: follow the signal from the gain pot down to the fader, out through the sends and inserts, and into the mix bus, then pull the desk apart to see where every stage lives.
Open the explorer1.12 · Delay
MembersA tape echo, in 3D. Fire a stab at the record head, watch the mark travel to the play head, then drag the play head and slide the tape speed to change the delay time.
Open the explorer1.12 Distortion · 3.2 Analogue hardware
MembersA valve stage and a transistor stage, built part by part in 3D. Cut the valve open, drive both into clipping, and read the curve, the waves and the harmonics they make.
Open the explorer1.12 Reverb · 2.1 Acoustics
MembersA cutaway recording room, in 3D. Clap and watch the direct sound, the early reflections and the tail arrive in true order; treat it with absorbers, diffusers and bass traps and watch RT60 fall band by band; then step out to the bench: spring, plate and digital rack.
Open the explorer1.12 Reverb · 3.2 Analogue effects
MembersA plate reverb and a spring tank, built part by part in 3D. Hear the steel sheet ring from its own modes, swing the damper to change the reverb time, and kick the spring.
Open the explorer3.2 Analogue Recording
MembersA turntable you can play, in 3D. The loop you hear was cut into the groove at load time, so the spiral on the face, the canyon walls and the crackle are all that same data. Drop the arm, scratch the platter, switch to 45, reverse it, and bypass the phono stage to hear the raw cut.
Open the explorer3.1 Digital Recording · 2.4 Converters
MembersA CD player built part by part, in 3D, and the opposite number to the turntable. Follow the laser up through the disc and magnify the pits to see the bits of the music playing now. Change the sample rate or the bit depth and the loop is genuinely resampled and requantised, so what you hear is that buffer; switch the anti-aliasing filter off to hear real fold-back.
Open the explorer2.1 · Acoustics
MembersOne tone, three scales. Drag it from a rumble you feel to a hiss you almost don't, and watch the same frequency play out as wavelength against a metre rule, as compressions moving through a block of air, and as a pressure map you can walk around inside a real room.
Open the explorerThe Studio · the four machines as one room
Components 3 & 4 · The recording chain
MembersThe four machines of the recording chain (microphone, tape machine, mixing desk and monitor) each in 3D, gathered as one room. Start at the mic and follow the signal all the way to your ears.
Step insideThe practice rooms · put it to work
1.5 · Sequencing
MembersProgram the classic breaks step by step on a real drum grid (The Funky Drummer, Cold Sweat, four-on-the-floor House), then tune the kick, set the tempo, and export your pattern as a one-bar MIDI clip.
Open the machine1.7 · Pitch correction
MembersA wandering vocal, a retune-speed dial and your ears. Slow the correction until the voice sits naturally, then snap it hard and hear the exact artefact the exam asked students to name.
Open the repair baySection B · Extended writing
C3 Q5 · C3 Q6 · C4 Q6
C3 Q5 free · C3 Q6 & C4 Q6 membersOn both exam papers, Section B is where the essays live. Three questions, three marking machines: each on its own page, built from what the examiners actually reward.
Open the essay pages