Syllabus

MUSI 288, Digital Audio Techniques

Professor Betts (betts@monmouthcollege.edu)

Spring 2012

Music Department computer area (Austin Hall 08)

Goals. The goals of this course are:

·         To develop an understanding of the history of audio recording;

·         To observe the basic concepts of digital audio formats and data, including waveforms, .mp3 and .mp4, and MIDI;

·         To gain experience in basic recording, editing, production, and mixing techniques;

·         To become familiar with the operation of commonly used digital audio software;

·         To use these concepts and skills in the production of original digital audio projects.

Activities. Students will begin with the Savage text (see Texts), explore the history of audio recording, and consider the implications of basic digital audio principles such as acoustics, sampling rates, and resolution. Following this, students will complete a series of basic exercises utilizing the Audacity 1.3 program to gain familiarity with the theory of digital audio production, use of effects, mixing, stereophonic separation, and hardware and software techniques used to implement these concepts in audio recording and editing. Throughout these activities, there will be occasional quizzes to ensure that the concepts are understood and their parameters are clear. For the final course project, each student will design, record, mix, edit, and produce an audio assignment appropriate to the student’s interests, using either Audacity, Adobe Audition, Avid Pro Tools (all available on department computers), or Apple GarageBand (restricted to Macintosh computers, but readily available to many students). As part of all activities, students will be expected to keep a journal logging hours of activity, types of activities, notes on parameters of particular techniques, and observations on problems encountered, solutions attempted (both successes and failures), and possible applications of this information in later activities (both within and outside the course).

Texts. The required texts for all students will be:

·         Savage, Steve.  The Art of Digital Audio Recording: a practical guide for home and studio. Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0195394108. A very detailed introduction to recording and basic mixing techniques, not limited to any particular program or platform.

·         Schroder, Carla. The Book of Audacity: recording, editing, mixing, and mastering with the free audio editor. No Starch Press, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-1593272708. Audacity will be the principal software platform for the digital audio exercises in this course, and Schroder offers excellent explanations of its capabilities and possibilities.

Supplemental texts include but are not limited to:

·         Schonbrun, Marc.  The Everything Guide to Digital Home Recording: Tips, tools, and techniques for studio sound at home. Adams Media, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-1605501642. Marc Schonbrun is a respected musician and writer who serves as a technical consultant for many music companies, including Sibelius music notation software (he has written support texts for two versions of the program, and serves as one of Sibelius’ trainers). This book gives a different perspective on the topics covered in the Savage book.

·         Hiitola, Bethany. Getting started with Audacity 1.3. Packt Publishing, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-1847197641

·         Avid Technology. Pro Tools 101 Official Courseware, version 9.0.  Course Technology PTR, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-1435458802

·         Riley, Richard. Audio Editing with Adobe Audition, second edition. PC Publishing, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-1906005030

·         Collins, Mike. Pro Tools 9: Music Production, Recording, Editing and Mixing. Focal Press, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0240522487

Grading. Grading will be based on quiz responses (25%), satisfactory completion of lab exercises (25%) and final project (30%), and submission of detailed journal entries (20%).

Proposed schedule. This is a tentative schedule and is subject to revision.

·         Week 1 and 2: Introduction of basic terms and concepts such as file formats, resolution, bit depth, input and output devices. Lab work with microphones, headphones, and hardware mixers. Read Savage, Chapter 1, chapter 2.3, appendix; Schroder, pp. 25-30, chapter 2.

·         Week 3: Exercise in importing prerecorded audio and simple editing (cut, paste, trim). Read Savage, chapter 4.1; Schroder, chapter 4.

·         Week 4: Exercise in simple audio recording.  Read Schroder, chapter 1.

·         Week 5: Exercise in other editing techniques (looping, alternating sections).  Read Savage, chapter 4.2, chapter 5; Schroder, pp. 187-188.

·         Week 6: Introduction to dynamic effects (normalizing, compression and limiting). Read Savage, chapter 2.6; Schroder, chapter 11.

·         Week 7: Introduction to time effects (delay, reverberation). Read Savage, chapter 2.5 and 2.7; Schroder, chapter 11.

·         Week 8: Exercise in using effects.

·         Week 9: Introduction to multitrack mixing and editing. Read Savage, chapter 4.3, chapter 6; Schroder, chapter 9.

·         Week 10: Exercise in multitrack techniques.

·         Week 11: Advanced effects (equalization, filters, time and pitch shifting). Read Savage, pp. 146-152; Schroder, chapter 12.

·         Week 12: Discussion of final projects and selection of appropriate platform. Read Savage, chapter 7; Schroder, chapters related to project.

·         Week 13-15: Production of final projects.

·         Final examination: Critique of final projects by instructor and fellow students, followed by a public presentation (and possible Web posting) of the projects.