Electronic Music Studio Syllabus

1.       Prerequisites: The course has no prerequisites but you need to enjoy messing with computers and have patience with them. Things don’t always work the first time. Don’t get frustrated. Leave yourself plenty of time for undirected work without a time limit.

2.       Samples: I want students to learn how to create original material and want you to learn how to create your own content rather than just copying from elsewhere. If you feel strongly about using samples in a project, they need to also be posted with the project and send me an explanation how you use them. Think of this as being similar to acknowledging sources in footnotes.

3.       Grading criteria:

a.       Unity (does the piece hold together?)

b.      Variety (does the piece hold the listener’s interst?)

c.       Overall effectiveness (does the piece make a clear artistic statement?)

d.      Technical skill (does the piece show good studio technique?)

e.      Inventiveness (does the piece demonstrate imaginative use of the tools?)

f.        Project requirements (does the piece address the specific project topics?)

4.       Grade weighting is 20% for each project and 20% for the final exam.

5.       Final exam is not difficult, just to be sure students are paying attention to digital theory, acoustics, and other technical information we will cover.

6.       Please do not make hardware or software changes in the lab computers, including software installation. If you have any problems/suggestions, let me know.

7.       Use the sign-up sheets. Students who have signed up for studio time have priority.

8.       Grades go down when assignments are late, poorly labeled, incomplete, etc. Don’t wait until the last minute to hand them in. Make leeway for computer glitches!

9.       Your middfiles account will provide network storage for the course. I also recommend personal memory sticks or portable hard drives.

10.   Do not work directly on files stored on the network. First move the files to the local computer, work on them there, then move them back to the network for storage when you’re done. (The network is too slow for music programs so there are likely to be crashes and other problems if you work over the network.)

11.   Always have a backup copy of important files – not just the one file on the local computer.

12.   The Electronic Music Studio has free access (if the door is locked, ask the music librarian to unlock it). Rules are common sense. Leave the studio in better shape than you found it, keep things tidy, don’t make changes in the hardware or software, use headphones (the portable speakers are very low quality and are only used when more than one person wants to hear an example). Rather than rules, we just ask students to use common sense in the studio. Thanks!

13.   Software links:

a.       Ableton Live

b.      Native Instruments (Absynth and Reaktor)

c.       Max