Course Preparation

I'm glad to see you here, ready for an awesome class. We are creators, inventors, thinkers, makers, changers, and do-ers. You will get a chance to do that in this class.

Please make sure you have a copy of the syllabus (linked above). Contact me if you have any questions.

Miss something? No problem! Make friends in the class and share your notes :)

Class Resources

Here are the resources you will need for this course.

Get a pair of over-the-ear headphones

Purchase a set of professional over the ear headphones and bring them with you to class.

Try looking for something like this.

Create an account at Soundcloud.com. You will use that to submit all of your work this semester.

We will be using Gobbler to backup and share our sessions.

Sound for Music Technology

There is a fantastic iTunes U course (free) on the theory of sound in music technology. We will use this book to cover our audio fundamentals.

This book is provided by the Open University. Check out the course on iTunes U for more information.

Download a copy of the ePub book. This is a zipped file. Double click to unzip.

Q: How do I read an ePub book?
A: On your desktop, you can use the free reader Calibre.
A2: Copy the file to your computer and open in iBooks

Audacity is a free audio editor. Download Audacity. We're going to use it.

May 6th, 2013

You've done very well this semester. We started our discussion with the question "What is Sound?" and carried on through the multi-media-verse of audio recording, the web, and video editing. Time to put it all together.

See me in class to review your current grade and homework status. If your work isn't on my spreadsheet (whether you emailed it or not) it's a zero.

Final Project Due 5/20/13

You will write, record, edit, score, and publish a 2 - 3 minute PSA about Golden West College. You will choose to either work alone or in a group of not more than 3 people.

No late work accepted on this one. Get it in on time.

Golden West College PSA

A PSA is a Public Service Announcement. Your PSA can be "real" or make-believe but must be about the campus or campus related activities. You can choose to be funny or serious. Mocking or supportive. Please keep it family-friendly though.

Part 1 - Outline

Choose a topic and write an outline of your PSA. This can be bulleted points or written out. Make it long enough to get you through 2 - 3 minutes of content. Please feel free to discuss your topics with me if you would like to.

Include your outline in the body of the email when submitting your final project.

Part 2 - Video Recording

Record your video clips on and around campus. You will have time during class on 5/6 and 5/13 to go outside and record. You may record with your mobile phone, DSLR, or borrow my Flip camera if needed. You may choose to speak on or off camera as you choose. Whatever makes sense for the content you are creating.

You will have class time to edit your project as well. You may use any video editing software that you choose to and have access to. In class we have been using Final Cut Pro X.

Given that we do not have access to professional video equipment, do your best with the sound quality. Overdub is necessary.

Part 3 - Editing

You will edit your PSA to include a title graphic that includes the name of your PSA and the names of the group members. Make a transition to the content.

Edit your recorded content to be between 2 and 3 minutes long including the title and credits. Please use any kind of editing cuts / transitions / keyframes / photo-montages that fit well with your PSA.

Your PSA will include a final credits page. The credits page will include the group members' names, the date, and the course.

Part 4 - Score

Your PSA will have a custom audio track. You may use Garageband (or any DAW of your choice) to create/compose intro and outro music. Use loops and samples as needed. You may do the score work in garageband, logic, or your video editor as you see fit.

Part 5 - Bonus for Groups

Group projects will include about 30 seconds of outtake footage after the credits have rolled. This may be bloopers, your own commentary, etc.

Part 6 - Publishing

Upload your finished product to your youtube account. Each member of a group must do this as well.

Embed your PSA on your class website

Part 7 - Submitting Your Project

Send me an email with your name that includes the following:

Link to your class website that has the embedded PSA
Link to PSA on Youtube
Text of your outline or script pasted into the email message body
Confirm with me in class that I have received your email and marked it on my spreadsheet

April 29th, 2013

Bring your phone / camera / tripod / filming equipment / etc. We are going to go outside for some more filming. This we will work on our intro and outro effects and transitions.

April 22nd, 2013

We will continue our discussion of online video. Please be prepared to discuss the questions from last week (I know they posted late).

Homework

Part 1

Do this for class discussions - don't send anything in.

This Week in Youtube is a new podcast on the TWiT network. The content is very appropo. Watch two episodes with the following in mind:

What kind of money do they say people are making doing only YouTube videos?
Are those people (making money) independent or part of a network?
How much money does YouTube make off of your videos?
Could you do any of those videos that they feature?
What type of equipment are they (the twit folks) using?

Part 2

Go outside with your phone or camera and film something interesting or funny. Then upload it as a private video to your own youtube channel. Utilize the built-in effects to customize the look and add sound as demonstrated in class by the skating vs. biking video.

Be prepared to share the URL in class if you want to show off your work.

You can watch these two episodes or go to the TWiYT site and choose two others.

TWiYT Episode 0

TWiYT Episode 1

April 15th, 2013

Today we are going to talk about online video: Youtube & Vimeo

By the end of the class you will have a basic understanding of how each video service works and why you may choose one over the other.

Homework / Labwork

Explore Youtube and Vimeo with a focus on the "help" and "how-to" sections. Create an account on each service. If you have a mobile device, you may want to connect your account to it for easy uploading. Find or create a video of your own content and play around with the upload and share features.

Try to answer the following questions for class discussion next week.

Is my video private or public?
Can I share my video with specific people? Friends, family, coworkers?
How can I embed a video from Youtube or Vimeo? Can I keep in private / restricted / unlisted?
How can I password protect a video?
Is it possible to record video using my webcam? How?
Can I share video to specific circles on Google Plus? (Hey what's that?!?)
Can I broadcast live video on youtube?
What is a google hangout?
What is google on air?
What does any of this have to do with me making money?

April 8th, 2013

Guest Speaker: Andrew Cohen

Andrew is an award-winning film maker with a long history of interesting projects. Check out his site and come prepared to ask lots of questions.
DCA Productions
Aquarium Videos
Vimeo

April 1st, 2013

Guest Speaker: Jimbo Marshall - Hell Yeah Studios

Check out his videos on Vimeo.

Video A - Home Video Tips from Jimbo from Jimbo Marshall on Vimeo.

Spring Break - No Class 3/25/13

Week 8 - 3/18/13

Customizing Your Web Site

We spent the class talking about web sites, privacy, and went through the options on Wordpress.com for your own customizations. We also used the built-in contact form. If your site is on Wordpress.com you should consider using the contact form on your contact page.

Make your site look good so you are happy with it. We're going to use it for the rest of the semester. If you don't like it, feel free to make a new one.

No homework over the break.

Week 7 - 3/11/13

The Web

double you tee eff? why the face?

We talked about the web, what it is, basically how it works, and even discovered some hacked DNS entries. That got the attention of IT. We also created a simple html page, connected to a local web server, and then made sample wordpress sites at wordpress.com

My demo wordpress.com site is The DM Dude.

Homework due 3/18/13

Create a basic website that includes the following pages: Home, About, Contact

You can use one of the free services mentioned in class: Wordpress.com, Blogger, or Tumblr. You can also use your own hosting account if you have one.

The contact page should not include your email in plain text. Use the contact form in wordpress or do the "craigs list" thing and put "me at gmail dot com".

Send me a link to your site.

Week 6 - 3/4/13

DAW Time: GarageBand

Learn about Garageband

The Workflow

Create a project and save it somewhere
Export to uncompressed Audio of final version to disk (i.e. the Desktop)
Upload final audio to Soundcloud
"Share" the file from Soundcloud to get the URL and email that
Open up Gobbler (if you haven't already), Scan the disk for your new piece, choose Backup

Homework due 3/11/13

Using GarageBand, or another DAW or your choice, create a completed audio composition and upload the uncompressed audio to soundcloud.

1 minute long
8 distinct tracks

At least 1 recorded audio (using a microphone)
At least 1 midi track that you play the keyboard on

At least 1 track must have volume automation
At least 1 track must have panning automation

Links of Interest

How to make money on Youtube

Week 5 - 2/25/13

Turn in your soundcloud link to me by the end of class. Come up and see me after lab hours and make sure I have your URL in the spreadsheet.

Microphone Week!

We are going to talk about microphones today. Here are some resources for you. Please download these and have them open on your computer during class.

Heil Mic Primer

If all you had was this single reference, you would be good.

My Microphone crib notes

Every book and reference always comes down to these basic facts. This single cheat sheet has all the info consolidated from many sources.

Renah's placement handout

You gotta know where to put that mic. This is a good cheat sheet.

Microphone types sample audio from Modrec.com
Download the Carnegie Frequency Chart
Checkout eqchart.com for frequency reference.

Week 4 - 2/18/13

No Class on Monday the 18th. Have a nice holiday.

Week 3 - 2/11/13

Homework for 2/25/13

Finish reading Sound For Music Technology.

Create an account on each of these three services: Spotify, MOG, and Rdio. Choose three songs that are available on all three services. Listen those songs on each service separately (total of 3 listens per song). Sign up for the free accounts only.

Record a 1 minute analysis of your experiment answering the following questions:

Which service did you like best?

Did you listen on the desktop or mobile clients?

Where you able to find the songs on each service?

What was the music quality of the three songs? Where they the same on all three?

Some tips on recording and submitting your homework. Make sure you say your name. "Hi, this is Sable Cantus and this is my listening assignment response."

Using Audacity:

Hit the record button and speak your response, make sure it's about 1 minute
Under the Effect menu choose Normalize... to bring the total volume up
Go to File » Export and export as an AIFF file
Upload to soundcloud.com and send me the link

Using a mobile phone:

With the mobile app installed, hit the big orange Record button and speak your response
Log into the desktop site and send me the link to your recording

Using the "submit your work" button:

Click on the submit your work button and either upload your response (from audacity above) or hit the record button in the browser

I will leave a comment on your response when I have listened to it. If you aren't sure how this works, bring your uncompressed response file to the next class and we will walk through it.

Listening

One of the ways we become better engineers is by listening. Critical listening is a skill that we can learn, practice, and develop. We take a few minutes of focused time in a good listening environment with either headphones or quality monitors and listen to a song or album.

Links of interest

Air Music Ignite. Check it out on YouTube.

Face the Facts Album Listening Party in Long Beach.

Week 2

Homework for 2/11/13

Continue reading chapters 3 - 6. They're short and they go into more detail from our lecture.

Bring your headphones to class, with the stereo mini to 1/4" adapter.

Week 1

Homework for 2/4/13

Read Ch. 1 & 2 of Sound for Music Technology. Take a mental note of the sounds around you when you are reading. What are they?

DM G100 Digital Media, Introduction