resources.musictechstudio.co.uk/subtractive-synth-explorer
Synthesis · 1.3
Subtractive synth explorer
Four stages, oscillator to patch. Choose a waveform, press play and build the sound one stage at a time.
Open the toolMusic Technology
For students and teachers.
Fifty interactive tools across Pearson Edexcel Components 3 & 4, the two exam papers.
What this is
All 23 topics, built to study from.
Music Tech Studio takes Components 3 & 4 of the Pearson Edexcel specification and rebuilds them as interactive resources, so the compressor is one you push yourself and the sample rate is one you drag below Nyquist to hear it break. It was made for students working on their own, and it is precise enough to revise from.
If you are new to the subject, What is A-Level Music Technology? explains the four components, how the grade divides and what happens in the two exams. It was written for students choosing their options, and for parents.
If you teach the course, there is a school licence, and what a department gets is set out below.
How it’s organised
Learn · Explore · Revise
Learn
Each topic is taught from first principles, with the tools embedded where they help.
Explore
These are instruments with no right answer. Turn the controls until something breaks, then listen to why.
Revise
Recall practice covers the definitions, calculations and details examiners ask for, each tied to its line in the specification.
Free, today
Fifty interactive tools across all 23 topics of Components 3 & 4, open at full depth with no account. Members see the same tools, questions and explanations.
For a student
£49 a year adds progress tracking, spaced revision and a readiness view before results, and it opens the 3D workshop benches further down this page. The founding offer is £39 a year for your first two years.
For a school
£299 a year covers the whole centre, with unlimited students, per-student links and no accounts for under-18s. The founding rate is £199.
The tools
Fifty free interactive tools.
There are fifty free tools (explorers, quizzes, assessments and flashcards) covering Components 3 & 4. They are open now without an account. Members use the same tools, questions and explanations; there is no cut-down version. Six of them are pictured further down this page, captured straight from the hub.
The twenty-three topics of Components 3 & 4:
1.1Software & Hardware1.2 · 2.4Recording & Microphones1.3Synthesis1.4Sampling1.5MIDI & Sequencing1.6Audio Editing1.7Pitch Correction1.8Automation1.9Dynamic Processing1.10Stereo & Panning1.11EQ & Filters1.12Delay Effects
1.12Reverb1.12Distortion1.12Modulation & Voice FX1.13Balance & Blend1.14Mastering2.1Acoustics2.2Monitor Speakers2.3Signals & Connections2.4Digital & Analogue Audio2.5Numeracy2.6Levels & Gain Staging
The teaching above is free. £49 a year adds a record of your progress, an “I know this” tick, spaced revision and a readiness view before results. It covers one student and you can cancel at any time.
£49 /year
Join at member.musictechstudio.co.ukFounding offer: £39 a year for your first two years, code FOUNDING at checkout.
See what the studio looks like, with screenshots of the topic map and a topic’s Learn, Explore and Revise bands.
resources.musictechstudio.co.uk/midi-pitch-bend-controller
MIDI & Sequencing · 1.5
MIDI pitch bend & controllers
Move the bend wheel and watch the 14-bit value, the semitone shift and all three MIDI bytes change underneath it.
Open the tool
resources.musictechstudio.co.uk/bpm-delay-calculator
Delay · Numeracy · 2.5
BPM delay calculator
A tape machine, a drum loop and the maths. 60,000 ÷ BPM gives each note value in milliseconds, and you hear the result.
Open the tool
The Workshops
Each effect is a bench you run yourself.
workshops.musictechstudio.co.uk
The Workshops are a second site, built the same way as the tools above. The signal processing runs live in the browser; nothing is a recording. Ten benches and explorers cover synthesis, dynamics, EQ, modulation, delay, microphones and monitors, the mixing desk and the room itself, and there is an Essay hub for Section B.
The benches are for members. A free tool teaches one idea; a bench gives you the full instrument. The one part open to everyone is the Essay hub, where Component 3’s Question 5 is available in full.
The Map Room
The whole course in one room.
It draws every topic in Components 3 & 4, and the three hundred-odd ideas inside them, as one connected graph you can turn, grab and walk through. The arrow keys step through the spec. Past exam questions light up as trails across the room, in the examiner’s own words. You can re-hang it all as the studio signal chain, or switch on sound and hear a topic demonstrate itself.
The examiner’s record
Where the questions come from
Each topic is built on the examiner reports Pearson has published for Components 3 & 4 since 2019 and on the exemplar packs of marked scripts, transcribed with the examiner’s commentary alongside. The essay questions (Component 3’s Questions 5 and 6, Component 4’s Question 6) have been gone through year by year to find what earns marks and what examiners keep saying about the best answers.
The revision questions, and the traps flagged inside them, come from that reading.
For students
Start with any topic
Fifty tools are open to anyone at full depth, across every topic in Components 3 & 4, so you can browse before you sign in. The same sign-in starts a new membership or picks up an existing one. There is no password; we email you a link.
For teachers & schools
It is built for one qualification, Pearson Edexcel A-Level Music Technology, Components 3 & 4. One licence covers the whole department.
01A readiness view of your class
02The essay-marking loop: C3 Q5·Q6, C4 Q6
03Per-student links: no accounts or emails for under-18s
04£299 a year per centre, unlimited students (founding rate £199)