How do we make music with minimal resources and even minimal “musical” ability? What does “musical” ability even mean in a world filled with sampling, remixes, and generative techniques? In this class, we will explore music production in the Ableton Live software. We will not be focused on playing or recording instruments, but rather on how we can use sampling and assistive tools to create music without the need for virtuosic ability, expensive hardware, or fancy studios. How far can we get with just a laptop (and maybe a half decent pair of headphones)? To supplement our practice, we will also be tracing a lineage of music that has centered around sampling (Hip-hop, Jungle, IDM, Dubstep etc.) and explore the pioneers who have informed the techniques we use today (Lee “Scratch” Perry, J Dilla, The Avalanches, DJ Screw). As we move into the modern day, we will explore the giants of contemporary sound design (Arca, SOPHIE, Four Tet, Oneohtrix Point Never) and see how older sub-genres have come back to life as they have mutated and changed over the past 20 years (in the guise of people like Skrillex, Pinkpantheress, and Bandmanrill). This history will be explored through materials that students will listen to, read, and watch. To a lesser degree, we may cover field recording techniques, analog audio formats, and musical hardware. Students need not have musical training or prior experience with digital audio workstations.
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DM-GY 6013 Production Studio Seminar
This course will be an intensive orientation to the technical tools and skills required to design and produce interactive and real-time media for performance, installation, broadcast, and other formats, with a conceptual emphasis on the ways in which computer software and hardware can be used as a tool. We will explore the ways in which cyber-physical systems that combine real-world inputs (microphones, cameras, sensors), computational resources (3D engines, databases, machine learning), and outputs (screens, loudspeakers, physical outputs such as lights) can be combined into novel combinations. Along the way, we will make brief sketches in a variety of formats towards a final project. We will be working in a hybrid toolkit using Max/MSP as well as tools such as Ableton Live, Touch Designer, and the Unreal Engine.
Instructors: Luke DuBois, Todd Reynolds