Music Technology

For the two exam papers of the Edexcel A level, Components 3 and 4. Chapters on every topic, benches you play, drawings of the real machines, and lessons you work through with the sound on.

Start with the compressor What's free

One topic, four ways in.

  1. Read it
  2. Play with it
  3. See inside it
  4. Work through it

Here is one topic, dynamic processing, as a student sees it on the site. Every line below opens the real thing.

01Read it

Learn

Four chapters on dynamic processing, in the words the exam papers use, with the drawings set in the text.

Hands on
A transfer curve you drag from 1:1 to 20:1
Questions
44 Test yourself questions through the chapters, each with a hint and the answer folded away until you open them
Fold-outs
Common mistakes, exam tips and a step further, folded under the text until you want them
Key terms
Fourteen, each with its definition. Tap one at the top of the page to go straight to it
Sound
None here. The sound is on the bench, so you can read anywhere
  1. 1The compressorSix drawings and the curve you drag
  2. 2Compressor techniquesSide-chain, structure and parallel
  3. 3Noise gatesThe gate's controls, with four checks
  4. 4The dynamics familyOne graph, four jobs
  5. 5Key termsThe words the exam expects

Set the page your way

Every topic page has a Display button, bottom right, marked Aa. What a student sets there stays set on every page.

Reading
For dyslexic students, or anyone who finds dense text hard going: a clearer typeface, wider spacing, shorter lines, larger type, and a reading ruler that dims the page above and below your line
Depth
Full depth, or Essentials: the prose folds away and the key points stay, for the night before the exam
Levels
Traffic-light labels on every section: foundation, intermediate or advanced
Focus
Sitting Component 3 or Component 4? Focus the page on it: the other paper's sections dim but stay where they are
Room light
Daylight, a warm Golden Hour, or Night Session for late revision

Free. Every chapter of every topic. See every topic

02Play with it

Explore

The Compression Workshop. One compressor, switched on a stage at a time, until the whole machine is yours.

Hands on
Six controls from threshold to make-up, a side-chain switch, and a threshold you drag into the music
Moving
The meters, the level trace and the gain taken away, as it plays
Sound
A drum loop and bass, squeezed as you turn
  1. 1SqueezeDrag the threshold and see which parts pay
  2. 2CurveThe transfer curve, with a point you drag along it
  3. 3ClockAttack and release
  4. 4FamilyThe dynamics family on one switch
  5. 5Side-chainThe key input, the signal running round the circuit

Pass a stage's check and its module lights up on the rack. Two ear checks, and a past paper question you answer by dragging.

Free to try. Every other bench, on every topic, is for members.

03See inside it

Anatomy

Drawings of real studio machines that explain themselves. They go era by era through the history of the studio, in the order the chapters reach them.

Hands on
Turn the knobs, switch the meter, bypass it, labels on or off
Moving
The whole machine. Watch runs it at a quarter speed and names each control as it turns
Sound
Listen plays drums or a vocal through it at real speed
  1. 12The compressorIts two paths, the transfer curve, and the level over the last two beatsFree
  1. Era 1. Direct to tape, mono The room, Sound on sound, Tape echo, Spring reverb tank
  2. Era 2. Early multitrack Four-track, Stereo groove, ADT and flanging, Modular synthesiser
  3. Era 3. Large-scale analogue multitrack 24-track and noise reduction, Console channel strip, Compressor, Gated reverb, Mix automation, Splice and cut

Fourteen figures, every one with sound. The rest are for members. See every figure, era by era

04Work through it

Lessons

Lessons a teacher runs with the class. Put one on the board, say what today is about and press Start: the pen draws on the device as the sound plays, the class answers before anything is shown, then every student takes the controls. Or set it for homework.

Hands on
Each student sets the controls, copies a sound by ear, then writes it as the paper asks
Moving
The pen writes on the device, and what isn't being taught goes grey
Sound
Real recordings, heard as each control changes them
Time
About 15 to 25 minutes, in four parts: Watch, Try, Make, Explain
  1. 1The compressorMembers
  2. 2The noise gateFourteen steps: eight to watch, two to try, three to make, one to explainFree
  3. 3Sidechain: the kick ducks the bassMembers
  4. 4The keyed gateMembers
  5. 5The de-esserMembers
  6. 6Parallel compressionMembers
  7. 7The dynamics familyMembers
  8. 8Which tool?Mixed practice: eighteen problems, and you pick what fixes each oneMembers

The eight make the Dynamics course, in teaching order. The Synthesis course runs beside it: the envelope, oscillators, the filter and FM. Being built now: the synth essay, modelled. See every lesson

How the lessons work, for teachers

What's free, and what members get.

Every chapter, on every topic, is free to read. Members get every lesson, figure and bench, and each new one as it's made.

Free

To try a topic all four ways

£0

No card.

Start with the compressor

Student

One student, every topic

£39a year

The founding price. The standard price is £49.

  • Every lesson course: Dynamics and Synthesis now
  • All fourteen figures, with sound
  • Every Explore bench, the 3D ones too
  • Revise, for the run-up to the papers, coming next
Join for £39 a year

School

Every student in your centre, and you

£199a year

The founding price. The standard price is £299.

  • Everything a student gets, for all of them
  • Set a lesson to a class
  • See who has done it
  • Teacher notes for each lesson
  • Pay by invoice
Ask about a school licence

Music Tech Studio is for the two exam papers of the Edexcel A level: Component 3, Listening and analysing, and Component 4, Producing and analysing. The coursework, Components 1 and 2, isn't covered here.

Who made this.

Mike LehnertTeacher of Music Technology

I'm Mike Lehnert. I teach A level Music Technology, and I made this site for my own classes.

Everything on it is something I use in lessons. My students read the chapters before we start a topic. They play the benches when an idea like ratio or Q won't stick from the page. The drawings are how I show them the machines the papers ask about, most of which no school owns any more. The lessons are what they work through in class, with the sound on.

I'm a teacher first. I'm always reading about how students learn, and it shapes everything here: the order each lesson goes in, why the pen draws as it explains, why the rest of the device goes grey. I support students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties in my own classes, so every topic page can be set the way they read best: a clearer typeface, more space between the lines, a reading ruler, or just the key points.

When something doesn't work for my students, I change it, and the change goes on the site. So it grows a topic at a time, and each part has been through a real classroom first.

It's for students working towards the two exam papers, for teachers who want something they can use in tomorrow's lesson, and for departments that want all of it for every student.

Where to start

New to a topic
Read the first chapter, then play the bench.
Revising for the papers
Open the figure, then do the lesson's Explain step.
Teaching it
Read how the lessons work, then try the free one with your class.
Start with the compressorWhat's free