Tag Archives: sound

class, elective, undergrad, undergrad-elective-s25

DM-UY 2113 Sound Design for Media

This course explores sound design, primarily within visual contexts. The course will focus on the use of sound within visual and interactive media, including film, video production, interactive user experience, web design, and gaming. Students will create weekly studio assignments in all of these areas, with an emphasis on developing a strong competence in integrating digital audio techniques into other media. Final projects could include novel sound design developed for film, video, web, applications, or games.
 
Prerequisite(s): DM-UY 1113 or MPATE-UE 1001
Instructor: Hideki Kato
class, elective, grad, grad-s25-studio, s25

DM-GY 6113 Sound Studio

This course introduces IDM students to contemporary techniques and issues in audio, sound and musical research. The class covers digital and analog signal processing, synthesis, musical informatics and interaction design as it applies to contemporary music production, post-production and live performance. The course will focus on work in Max/MSP for a variety of contexts (including web audio and embedded systems), as well as the use of the analog synthesizers in the IDM audio lab and the multi-channel audio and media presentation system in the 370 Jay Street media commons. Students are expected to achieve competence in a number of technologies and to create brief studies based on them.
Instructors : Sam Tarakajian, Luke Dubois
elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Analog Heaven

Analog Heaven is an experimental sound class that looks at the history, theory, and techniques behind using electricity to make sound. We will be working with technologies ranging from simple analog circuits to professional-quality synthesizers, as well as digital systems inspired by – or designed in contrast to – these circuits. Along the way we will talk about the ways in which these devices are used to make music across the globe. Students will make a lot of sounds as well as design simple physical circuits, microcontroller interfaces, and digital software using Max/MSP, as well as doing design research into historical music-making and recording technology. Some experience working with sound and knowledge of digital audio recording and editing is strongly recommended for this course.

Sample Syllabi

class, elective, f24, special topic, undergrad

DM-UY 4913 Bedroom Beatmaking

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.

elective, f24, undergrad

DM-UY 3113 Contemporary Techniques in Sound Art

This course explores sound as an art form and technical practice in its own right. Topics include contemporary techniques in composition, sound art, and interactive installation. Students will produce sound with narrative elements that evoke social, cultural & critical-thinking. Their final projects can be experimental podcasts, music (performance and/or recordings), multi-channel audio installations, or multimedia projects.

Prerequisite: DM-UY 1113 Audio Foundation studio or MPATE-UE 1001

Sample Syllabi

class, core, undergrad

DM-UY 1113 Audio Foundation Studio

This course is an orientation to the essential concepts and practices of digital audio. It is a creative and theoretical foundation studio that combines an orientation to sound and listening with fundamental techniques of digital audio production: recording, editing, and mixing. The course covers topic areas such as microphone and field recording techniques, recording studio best practices, audio editing, DAW (digital multi-track) production, and mixing.

class, elective, f24, grad

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