EXAM WALKTHROUGHS

Past paper production question walkthroughs

Well answeredMixed resultsChallenging

Q1 Guitar

National avg: 53%
Examiner's Report

“Mixed success. Many attempted pitch correction which introduced unwanted artefacts.”

Steps0/7 completed
  • Highlight bar 17 and loop it
  • Add a Tuner from Audio Effects to identify notes (A and E)
  • Locate the wrong chord region in the guitar part
  • Find a matching correct note elsewhere (e.g. bar 20)
  • Cut out the wrong note and paste the correct one in
  • Zoom in and check for clicks at edit points
  • Apply or widen crossfades at each cut point

Q2 Drums

National avg: 67%
Examiner's Report

“Most candidates comfortable with decimal to binary conversion. Some misidentified velocity values.”

Steps0/7 completed
  • Drag and drop the MIDI file — click No on import prompt
  • Drag a Drum Rack onto the MIDI track
  • Load kick, snare, closed hi-hat, ride, toms, and crash into pads
  • Open the MIDI clip and move notes to correct drum pads
  • Verify kick on beat 1, snare on beats 2 and 4
  • Check hi-hat covers bars 2–25, ride covers bars 14–21
  • Place tom fill before the crash cymbal hit

Q3 Synth

National avg: 49%
Examiner's Report

“Great spread of marks. Most common errors: polyphony causing note overlaps, addition of stereo processing.”

Steps0/9 completed
  • Drag Operator onto the synth MIDI track
  • Add Tuner and Spectrum to the example audio track
  • Read the frequency/note from Spectrum (e.g. E3)
  • Transpose Operator to match the correct octave
  • Set oscillator waveform to Sine to match the example
  • Set Voices to 1 and turn on Glide for portamento
  • Adjust ADSR envelope by ear to match the example
  • Switch filter to High Pass, turn on LFO with subtle rate/amount
  • Fix the misplaced note at bar 20 in the MIDI clip

Q5 Full Mix

National avg: 66%
Examiner's Report

“Many failed to set sufficiently low threshold or high enough ratio for compression. Most struggled to create distance effect.”

Steps0/9 completed
  • Duplicate acoustic guitar track, pan original L and duplicate R
  • Nudge duplicate slightly out of time for double-tracking effect
  • Add Compressor to vocals, automate on/off for loud transients
  • Cut out the word "love" and pitch it up to A (from G#)
  • Automate vocal reverb send from end of bar 5 through bar 22
  • Automate vocal volume down so reverb creates distance effect
  • Balance drums and vocals first, then bring in remaining tracks
  • Keep muted DI guitar track muted, trim and fade bass tail
  • Check start is within 1s, reverb tail not cut off at end