MUSA125-20S1 (C) Semester One 2020

Music Technologies

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2020
End Date: Sunday, 21 June 2020
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 28 February 2020
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 29 May 2020

Description

Development of knowledge of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and the fundamentals of using computers for digital sampling, mixing and editing. Developing skills in the use of computer-based music notation technologies.

Music Technology 1 introduces essential concepts and competencies in computer-based music production and composition. The course would be of special interest to: Aspiring home studio or “bedroom” producers; Composers of electronic music who want to hone their production skills; Composers of film music wishing to gain greater technical competency; Professional composers who want to learn how to produce high quality demo recordings; anyone with a broad interest in digital music making. Topics covered include:

• Fundamentals of digital audio recording and editing
• Efficient and creative use of industry standard DAWs including Logic Pro, ProTools and Ableton Live
• Creating music with MIDI and Virtual instruments (VSTi)
• Essential microphone techniques
• Managing signal flow and analogue to digital conversion
• Principles of digital audio mixdown
• Best practices for monitoring in home and professional studios
• Optimal audio configuration in the Mac OSX operating system

Learning Outcomes

  • Knowledge of best practices and awareness of current trends in digital music production
  • Acquisition of fundamental skills in industry standard DAW operation
  • Fluency in working creatively with audio and MIDI content
  • Practical understanding of signal flow and analogue-to-digital conversion
  • Ability to configure and optimize small digital music production studios
    • University Graduate Attributes

      This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

      Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

      Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Restrictions

MUSI 125, DIGI125

Timetable Note

Student workload (150 hours) will be allocated to:
• 24 hours attending lectures;
• 12 hours attending laboratories;
• 46 hours preparing for in-class assessments;
• 68 hours working on creative assignments.

Course Coordinator

Hamish Oliver

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Assignment 1: MIDI Editing 20% Create drums, bass and sampled parts, using quantising and automation. (Ableton Live)
Demonstration Task 1: Basic Music Production Skills 15% Simple manipulation of audio and MIDI in DAW context (ProTools)
Demonstration Task 2 - Song Mix 15% Simple manipulation of audio and MIDI in DAW context (Ableton Live)
Assignment 2: Mash-Up 20% Creatively combine two pieces of music with each other and with your own work (Ableton Live)
In-Class Written Test 30% Covering all lecture material and the essential skills learnt in assignment work.


There are two assignments, two demonstration tasks and one in-class written test for this course.

All practical assessments are due by 5pm on the specified date, and should be submitted through the LEARN system.

Please check the course LEARN page for further details and updates.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $867.00

International fee $4,000.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Humanities .

All MUSA125 Occurrences

  • MUSA125-20S1 (C) Semester One 2020