Lock’n Time
The Course
Twelve lessons.
One signal.
Start at the physics. End at the loudspeaker. Nothing skipped in between.
The Signal Path is a free, animated audio engineering curriculum — lessons B1 through B12 — that follows a single sound from the air it starts in to the ear it ends at. Microphones and placement. Cables and balanced audio. The console, its buses and sends. EQ, compression, gating, reverb and delay. Monitoring, and the gain‑staging discipline that makes the whole chain agree at once.
It assumes nothing. There is no prerequisite gear, no software to buy, and every lesson ends with an exercise you can do tonight with what’s already in the room — a phone, a pair of headphones, a song you know well. The gear is easy. The ear takes practice, and practice is what these lessons are built to give you.
Each lesson releases free on YouTube with English narration, and dubs planned in Spanish and French, so the series can travel past one room, one language, or one console.
Curriculum
Every lesson stands on the last.
Follow the signal in order — from the air that carries it to the speaker that gives it back.
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B01
Before You Touch Anything
Four foundations, before the first knob turns: the wave, the decibel, the ear, and the room. Every expensive mistake in this profession comes from forgetting one of them.
● Foundations -
B02
Microphones IHow They Hear
Dynamic, condenser, ribbon. A microphone doesn’t record sound — it gives you its opinion of sound. Three families, three opinions, and how to tell which one the job wants.
● Capture -
B03
Microphones IIPlacement Is Everything
Polar patterns, the proximity effect, the room’s share, and the three‑to‑one rule — the most powerful processor you own, and it’s free.
● Capture -
B04
The Journey BetweenCables, Connectors & Balanced Audio
Read a cable from its ends. Why XLR locks, why guitar cables stay short, and the century‑old trick that invites noise in and makes it cancel itself out.
● Signal flow -
B05
Into the Console
The machine that frightens beginners is one channel strip, copied. Five decisions — gain, tone, dynamics, fader, pan — and why gain is engineering while the fader is opinion.
● Signal flow -
B06
Side RoadsBuses, Sends & Routing
One performance, many journeys. Pre‑fader sends that protect the stage, groups that put eight drum mics under one finger, and effects that live off to the side.
● Signal flow -
B07
Shaping ToneEQ
Where, how much, how wide. Masking, frequency slotting, and the old crew wisdom: if it sounds muddy, stop asking what to boost and start asking what to cut.
● Shaping -
B08
Controlling DynamicsCompression
Threshold, ratio, attack, release — a volume control with a reflex. Plus the question nobody asks: does this signal need compressing at all?
● Shaping -
B09
The Dynamics FamilyGates, Limiters & De‑essers
The compressor calms, the gate excludes, the limiter forbids, the de‑esser hunts. One idea, four triggers — and every one only as wise as the threshold you gave it.
● Shaping -
B10
Creating SpaceReverb & Delay
Build a room out of arithmetic. Decay and pre‑delay, why delay often does reverb’s job with less clutter, and why the drier the capture, the grander the space you can build.
● Space -
B11
Out of the BoxSpeakers & Monitoring
The ear’s last mile. Why monitors are built to tell the truth rather than sound good — and why your mix keeps falling apart in the car.
● Delivery -
B12
Gain StructureThe Whole Chain at Once
The capstone. Every stage has a noise floor and a ceiling; the craft is staying high above one and safely under the other, everywhere, at the same time.
● Delivery
The Engineer
Thirty‑five years behind the console.
When it’s right, it brings more light.
Larry Roberts is the founder of Lock’n Time Inc., based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Thirty‑five years of professional sound engineering sit behind every lesson in this series — off‑Broadway and Broadway houses with Sound Associates, major venue installations, and arena touring.
The Signal Path is the teaching arm of a larger project: building Newfoundland’s first intimate critical‑listening room and recording soundstage. The lessons are the part that can be given away — so they are, in full, for free.
Release Notice
Know when B01 lands.
One message when the first lesson publishes. Nothing else.
Lessons are recorded and in edit now, releasing through fall 2026. Leave an address and you’ll hear once, when the first lesson goes live — or skip it entirely and subscribe on YouTube, where every lesson appears the day it publishes.