ARTDM-130 Introduction to Digital Audio 

Instructor: Matt Volla

mvolla@dvc.edu

Tues 7-10:15 pm, Lab from 5:15-7 pm

When reading the manual, disregard any passages that are indicated for "Cubase only" (we are using "Cubase studio")

Week 1:

-Introductions and what you want from this class

-What is sound, perception, audio art, a very brief history of sound in the 20th century (Stravinsky, Orson Welles, John Cage, John Oswald)

-digital audio on the web: freesound

*assignment 1:download 10 random sounds from freesound

* read "getting started studio.pdf" p. 14-18, p. 34-41

Week 2

-Brief history of digital audio

-Audio Basics & Digital Audio
-Intro to cubase: opening, saving, device set-up, inputs and outputs, import, editing, fades

*assignment 2: download 15 sounds from freesound in order to recreate the sound from your house, import into cubase, and organize the sound clips as though the audience is walking through your house

*read "getting started studio.pdf" p.65-67

*read Michel Chion from Audio-Vision

Week 3

-Listen to projects

*discuss Michel Chion

-Cubase basics: exporting, locators, audio mixdown, markers, history, snap,viewing options, device-setup, the pool, splitting, glue

-audio recorders

*assignment 4: record 15 sound events and arrange them in cubase to tell a story

*read "getting started studio.pdf" p. 24-32

Week 4
-Listen to projects

-Perception, memory and hearing

-Vito Acconci "Body Building in the Great Northwest"

-Cubase: microphones and recording 

*assignment 5: narrate an event and add sound effects

* read "getting started studio.pdf" p. 59-65

Week 5

-Listen to projects

-Cubase: effects

*assignment 6: use your sound from assignment 5, use effects to make the original unrecognizable, make 10 individual events,

  find 10 images that could (in a very abstract way) create the sound of your 10 events, each event should be of a different duration

*read "Operation Manual" p. 389-393

Week 6

-listen and look at assignments

-sound for moving image

-examples from cinema

-Cubase: importing movie clips , editing for image

*assignment 7: download a short movie from archive.org and import into cubase; create a soundtrack for the image

Week 7

-watch movies

-exquisite audio corpse group project

-Cubase: advanced editing techniques

*assignment 8: Tell a story in sound; include 3 main characters, 3 locations and 3 different endings

*read: "Sound and the Social Organization of Space"

*read "getting started studio.pdf" p. 43-50

Week 8

-Listen to projects

-Introduction to MIDI

-Cubase: MIDI and music 

*assignment 9: compose a piece of "music" to mix into assignment 8

*assignment 10: go to archive.org/audio/music and arts/other minds archive: present a report on an interview or documentary about

   a sound artist or musician

Week 9

-Listen to projects

-Listen to contemporary sound projects from archive.org