DIGITAL AUDIO PRODUCTION
course information

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This class explores the tools and techniques of digital audio production by focusing on a series of individual and collaborative projects. We will cover: sampling; sound editing and effects processing; loop-based multitrack mixing and sequencing; synthesis and sound design; performance with digital audio software; live recording; and final cut editing and mastering.

Throughout the quarter, you'll explore three different ways to combine your project file libraries into longer, sustained works: non-linear sound editing, multitrack sequencing, and live sampling. First, you will learn how to fashion your own audio collage or sound sculpture from various media sources, Internet-based samples, and field recordings. Second, you'll participate in an ongoing remix project in which you will build your own works in whole or in part from the material of other students. Third, you will generate and mix original sound sources through software synthesis and real-time digital signal processing. Finally, you will learn some mastering techniques in order to prepare your collected works for distribution in digitized formats (CD-R, streaming and direct download). We'll also touch on some strategies for preparing sound files for incorporation into multimedia projects. You'll wrap up the class by delivering your mastered portfolio of five tracks as a packaged CD, or as a web-based downloadable album, of your own design.

While introducing a number of audio software packages, this class introduces the history and present status of computer-based audio. We will study a number of recorded works in order to establish some of the production techniques and artistic strategies characteristic of genres and styles such as: musique concrete, tape music, sound collage, dub, turntablism, techno, microsound, ambient, trip-hop, psychedelia, and space rock. This means that we will combine our production work with theoretical and critical discussion. We will consider some of the social, artistic, ethical, and commercial frameworks through which we experience and participate in the culture of digital sound.

The required text for the class is Thom Holmes, Electronic and Experimental Music (2nd Ed., Routledge, 2002).

OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, you should be able to:

) use the personal computer as a digital sound studio for content-gathering and resources management; non-linear editing; multitrack sequencing; live recording and effects processing; software synthesis and databending; audio mastering; distribution and delivery

) take advantage of the networked computer's ability to share resources and foster a collaborative working environment

) present and distribute your original digital audio works via the web

) critically discuss the theoretical aspects of your productions, as well as situate them in historical, artistic, social and commercial contexts

The requirements show how you will demonstrate, and I will measure, these outcomes.