← studio-lab

Featured lab · 3D spectrogram

Subtractive Synth, Three-Axis View

Two oscillators · resonant lowpass · twin ADSRs · spectrogram waterfall with time as the third axis.

Open lab →

Component 4 · Ableton Live 12 · 12 devices (growing)

Effects & Processors

When the exam describes a sonic problem in examiner vocabulary, which Ableton device should you reach for, and what does it sound like? Click the front card for past-paper context, key controls, and the misconception trap.

Your DAW →
same exam concepts · your DAW's device & controls
01
When the exam says…
examiner vocabulary
02
Use this effect/processor
Ableton Live 12 device
03
Which sounds like…
plain-English audio fingerprint
Filter →

Shape & Space · Corrective + spatial tools · 6 devices

Dynamics01 / 06
Gate

Gate

Silences everything below a threshold so only the wanted sound passes.

Time-based02 / 06
Echo

Echo

All the classic delay flavours in one device — clean, tape, ping-pong, modulated, ducked.

Tonal03 / 06
Auto Filter

Auto Filter

A frequency curtain you can open and close — sweep the cutoff to take a sound from muffled to bright (or vice versa).

Time-based04 / 06
Reverb

Reverb

Classic algorithmic reverb — early reflections, diffusion, decay, predelay — every parameter the spec asks about.

Pitch & Time05 / 06
Auto Shift

Auto Shift

Snaps off-pitch notes onto the nearest scale tone — gentle for natural tuning, extreme for the classic robotic "T-Pain" sound.

Utility06 / 06
Utility

Utility

Two correlated signals summed in opposite polarity cancel each other — full + flipped = silence.

01 / 06 · Gate

Hover the front card to A/B the audio (Dry ⇄ Wet) · click it for examiner detail · ←/→ to browse · ESC to close

Confusables

The pairs students mix up — tell them apart by ear

Play both wets back to back. Each card names the tell — the one listening cue that separates them in a 1-mark identify question.

Chorus or Flanger?

A-Level 2020 Q1a gave 1 mark for hearing "flange" on a cymbal. This is that mark.

Both are modulated short delays — but only one comb-filters.

Chorus-Ensemble

The tellLonger modulated delay, no comb filtering — the sound gets THICKER and WIDER but stays itself. One voice becomes a small group.

Phaser-Flanger (Flanger)

The tellSHORT delay with feedback → a comb filter. A metallic, jet-plane notch SWEEPS up and down through the sound. If it whooshes, it flanges.

Saturation or Distortion?

Mark schemes reward the contrast: saturation = subtle warmth/glue; distortion = audibly broken. Name which one you mean.

Both add harmonics by driving the signal — the difference is how far.

Saturator

The tellGentle harmonic thickening — the source is still recognisably itself, just warmer and heavier. If you have to listen twice, it's saturation.

Pedal

The tellAggressive clipping — the sound is audibly broken, buzzy, transformed. OD / Distort / Fuzz modes go from grit to total fuzz.

[SRC] Ableton ↔ Logic bridge production techniques · Live 12 assessment & exam techniques · past papers as cited on each card (2019–2024, incl. the 2023 PEF reverb-automation note)  ·  audio A/B pairs are the same source bounced dry and through the named Ableton Live 12 device — and shown in both DAW views, because an effect’s character is the same tool to tool; the Logic tab swaps the screenshot and control names to match your DAW.