History and techniques of electronic and computer music. Topics include compositional aesthetics, recording technology, digital and analog synthesis, sampling, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), and computer-assisted composition. Focuses on the creation of finished works to be presented in public concert.

SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS 

By the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. understand and apply aesthetic principles for discussing and evaluating qualities of electronic music compositions
2. use computers and electronic musical instruments to generate expressive, well-crafted, short compositions
3. understand and explain MIDI, the protocol governing most communication among instruments in the studio
4. record and edit digital audio for creative purposes
5. use creatively, understand, and explain differences among major types of electronic music software and hardware
6. explain basic theories of synthesis and sampling and use them to create musically useful sounds
7. understand and explain the aesthetic, historical, and technical background underlying contemporary electronic musical practice

CLASS REQUIREMENTS AND GRADE

1. Homework, participation, attendance	20%
2. Exams	30%
3. Compositions	50%

Save all computer work onto your own hard disk partition with a title and location that clarifies the contents as much as possible. Keep back-ups of all important work on floppy disks, Zip disks, DAT or Hi8 tapes, CD's, or your Storageserver account, as appropriate.

Complete all reading and homework assignments by the day indicated on the syllabus. For composition projects, students may request extensions (due by 9:00 a.m two days later) by submitting work on the due date demonstrating considerable progress toward the project's completion and sending an e-mail to chenet@grinnell.edu indicating what work remains to be done and why an extension is needed.

Except in cases of medical or other problems confirmed by a note from the Health Center or Student Affairs, homework missed because of absences or lateness may be made up only upon arrangement with the instructor prior to the class missed. Absences or lateness, unless cleared in advance with the instructor or excused by a note from Health Services or Student Affairs, will reduce your participation/attendance grade by whatever proportion of class sessions you miss.

The following questions will guide me in my evaluations of your music this semester and might help you in critiquing your own work and discussing the works of other composers:

1. Does the piece begin well? Does it have an interesting idea, well stated, that captures the listener's attention?
2. Does the piece end well? Is there a sense of finality and completeness?
3. If there are contrasting musical ideas, do they seem fresh and interesting and yet consistent with the original?
4. Are elements of contrast sufficient for the length of the composition? Does the piece ever seem tedious and boring? Is it too long for its material?
5. Are transitions compelling and effective? Do they ever seem forced and arbitrary?
6. Are ideas developed adequately? Does the music ever seem to do too many new things too often? Is the length appropriate for the number of different musical ideas presented? Are ideas transformed inventively?
7. Are the notes/rhythms correct? Do they fit together coherently?
8. Are the sounds interesting? Do they fit together coherently?
9. Does the music demonstrate skillful use of the electronic medium? Is its technical quality high?
10. Does the piece have character? Is it memorable? Does it avoid clichés?
11. Does the music fit the constraints of the assignment regarding length, character, vocabulary, technique, etc.?
12. Would you want to hear this work again?

Week 1, Monday, January 20, 2003

Goal: to understand important aesthetic issues and technical developments in the history of analog electronic music, including early electronic instruments, the tape recorder and "musique concrete," the classic studio, and analog synthesizers.

Week 1, Wednesday, January 22

Reading Assignment: Read pages 30-54 and 112-116 from Thom Holmes's Electronic and Experimental Music and section 3, "Postwar Music and the Technoscientific Imaginary" from Timothy Taylor's Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture (pp. 41-71); both are on reserve at Burling.
Listening Assignment: CD1 from "Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music," on reserve at the Burling Listening Room, reading the jewel box insert notes for each piece. For discussion, consider the relations between the pieces on this CD and Russolo's vision of an "Art of Noise"?

Goal: to be able to recount the principal developments in the history of digital electronic music and to explain basic digital electronic music techniques and concepts including digital signal processing, MIDI, sampling, algorithmic composition, and interactive music systems.

Week 2, Monday, January 27

Listening and Writing Assignment: Listen to CD2 from "Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music," on reserve at the Burling Listening Room, reading the jewel box insert notes for each piece. Write a short essay (up to three pages) that presents a way of thinking about the relationships and differences among the 13 works on the CD by sorting them into two or three groups or along a spectrum according to one aesthetic or technical criterion that seems relevant to you. Possible criteria include the types of tools used in creating each piece; the types of sounds that dominate (environmental sounds, noise-like sounds, electronic sounds); whether rhythm, pitch, or timbre seems predominant; whether the composer favors chance or control in organizing the materials; specific emotional impressions or moods the music seems designed to evoke; the degree to which the music seems nostalgic (harkening back to older styles of music) versus revolutionary for its time; the music's form or shape; etc. Give brief observations about the pieces that clarify your reasons for categorizing them as you do. Write in traditional essay form, organizing your paragraphs and the overall structure of the essay to present a unified framework for thinking about relationships and differences among these pieces of music.

Goal: to understand the basic physics of sound and how the parameters of sound are modelled in the electronic medium.

Week 2, Wednesday, January 29

Reading Assignment: Roads "Digital Audio Concepts" (pp. 7-47) and "Psychoacoustics" (pp. 1051-1069).
Goal: 1. Understand frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, and envelope and apply basic formulas relating these parameters.
2. Understand and be able to interpret time- and frequency-domain graphs of sound.
3. Describe the 4 main subjective characteristics of sound and understand what they correspond to in time- and frequency-domain graphs.
4. Understand the concepts of harmonics, partials, beating and how complex sounds can be broken down into harmonic or partial components.

Week 3, Monday, February 3

Reading Assignment: Roads "System Interconnections" (pp. 1019-1048).
Listening and Writing Assignment: Listen to CD3 from "Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music," on reserve at the Burling Listening Room, reading the jewel box insert notes for each piece. Choose one track to focus on. Listen to it repeatedly and critically, thinking about its structural coherence, aesthetic values, expressive qualities, and shape in terms suggested by the 12 questions for critiquing work given above. Write your answers to the questions for the piece you selected, supporting your answers with specific observations about the music. You may organize these answers either as a numbered list or in traditional essay format, but in either case please type. Some of the pieces may not seem to fit well with the criteria suggested by the questions, because the composers' aesthetic aims in those pieces were different. If you choose such a piece, answer any questions that seem relevant and explain why other questions from the list seem irrelevant to you for that piece.
Goal: to gain a basic understanding of entry procedures, how to route audio signals, mixing, and effects processing in the Grinnell College electronic music studio.

Week 3, Wednesday, February 5

Reading Assignment: Roads "Sound Mixing" (pp. 349-385).
Studio Assignment: Also, enter and sign-in on the EMS logbook. Set up the Yamaha O1V mixer, patch bays, and other necessary devices to complete the following tasks:

• On the Korg N1 MIDI keyboard, press the [GLOBAL] and [UTILITY] keys simultaneously to enter demo mode, use the cursor keys or [INC+][DEC-] to select one of the two demo songs, and press [EDIT] to start the sequence playing. Monitor the sound on the back pair of speakers to confirm that you know how to use the mixer and patch bay to route sounds to speaker destinations. When done, press [EXIT] to stop.
• use the Marantz CDR500 to play track 15 from the "Skipped Stones" audio CD and write down what you hear.
• apply an 01v preset effect to the microphone signal. Then edit its settings to something significantly different that you find interesting. Save this new effect in the user program slot assigned to you. Refer to the 01V manual pages 119-158 (Chapter 12: "Effects") as necessary.
• record a single-sentence continuation of the story contained on the "Class Work" DAT tape, which is located either in the DA-30 or on the shelf between the computer monitor and the mixer. First, listen to the tape to hear the story so far, and position the counter at the end of the recorded portion. Precede your continuation of the story with your name, or incorporate your name somehow into the sentence you add (examples of each in my first two sentences). Listen to what you've recorded, and re-record, if necessary, until you are satisfied that the recording is clear and fee of breath pops, clicks, or other noises. Be careful not to erase the other students' contributions.

Setup for listening to keyboard:

• 01v: faders 1/2 and Stereo/Master up
  Monitor Out level up (or Phones level up if monitoring over headphones)
• N1: check that volume slider is up; start playback

Setup for listening from CD:

• DigiPatch Source 6 to Target 3 (or choose Program 03)
• 01v: HOME faders 13/14 and Stereo/Master up
  Monitor Out level up (or Phones level up if monitoring over headphones)
• CDR500: press play

Setup for listening from DAT:

• DigiPatch Source 2 to Target 3 (or choose Program 00)
• 01v: HOME faders 13/14 and Stereo/Master up
  Monitor Out level up (or Phones level up if monitoring over headphones)
• DA-30: Cue tape to desired position; press play

Setup for recording to DAT:

• DigiPatch Source 3 to Target 2 (or choose Program 01)
• DA-30: position tape at end of current recorded portion
  Check that Input switch is set to "Digital" and Digital Input to "Coaxial"
  Press and hold Record followed by Pause until both light up
  First time recording?: Press "Auto ID" and check to see Auto ID lights in display
  Redo recording?: Press "Auto ID" to turn it off so as not to write another start index #
• 01v: fader 13/14 and Monitor Out knob down to avoid feedback
  Raise faders 12 and Stereo/Master while speaking into mic until meter readings on DA-30 peak at somewhere above -12 but less than 0 dB. You may need to adjust the gain on 01v input 12 to boost the signal, but check 01v HOME page 1 to make sure the gain is low enough to prevent clipping.
• To listen to your recording, remember to turn fader 13/14 and Monitor Out level up
  

Goal: to be able to import audio from a CD into ProTool, process digital audio data within ProTools, and apply basic ProTools editing techniques for regions, volume, and panning.

Week 4, Monday, February 10

Reading Assignment:  Chapter 5 "Non-Narrative Formal Systems" from Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (New York: McGraw, 1996); and Roads "Basic Concepts of Signal Processing" (pp. 390-450), "Sound Spatialization" (pp. 451-458), and "Reverberation" (pp. 472-476).
Studio Assignment: Spend one hour in the studio beginning work on a one- to two-minute long ProTools session based on a "remix" of one of the first 7 tracks from the CD recording of Skipped Stones, read by the suthor Harvey Hess. Create a new ProTools session, save it on your hard drive partition, import one track from tracks 1 to 7 on the CD (see below for procedure), and begin creating regions and arranging them in audio tracks and editing them with ProTools. Use the region editing, volume, and pan features; any of the commands from the Edit menu; and/or the following plug-ins from the AudioSuite menu: Normalize, Reverse, Time Compression Expansion, or Pitch Shift. Feel free to use as little or as much of the source CD track as you desire. Refer to Basic ProTools Techniques for a cue sheet on on accomplishing some basic functions.
Video Project Assignment: View experimental short films shown on the Cultural Film Series in ARH 302 at any of the following times: 8 p.m. Fri or Sat or 2 p.m. Sun. View the film Koyaanisqatsi, on reserve under Will Pergl's name at the Burling Listening Room.

There will be an extra meeting with the Sculpture class this week to discuss the aesthetics of film.

Procedure for importing audio from a CD into ProTools:
Movie --> Import Audio From Other Movie
Maneuver to "Audio CD 1" and select desired track number
Click Convert
In Save dialog box, click Options and set SR=44100, Size=16bit, Use= Stereo, OK
Specify name and destination (current session's "Audio Files" folder)
Track Import Window: click OK to confirm tracks to import
Create audio tracks and drag one of the regions from Audio Regions List pop-up to track

Goal: to understand effects, equalization, and dynamics processing and know how to use ProTools plug-ins and automation to implement them.

Week 4, Wednesday, February 12

Studio Assignment: Make a version of your Skipped Stones remix using at least one plug-in whose values change under automated control. Record a version of the result into a separate ProTools stereo track, and make a back-up copy of the result on a DAT tape.

Procedure for using plug-in inserts in ProTools (manual p. 358):
• Display --> Edit Window Shows Inserts View
• Select plug-in insert from pop-up menu appearing when you click on an insert bullet
• Operations --> Loop Playback
• Start playback (transport window > or Spacebar) and edit insert settings as desired
• From the down-arrow next to the plug-inÕs pop-up window, select "Save Settings As" and name
• Edit settings further and "Save" to alter current preset or "Save Settings As" to create a new preset. Switch between presets by calling them up from the pop-up menu.
• Work with various settings until you think you understand the impact of each editable parameter

Automation (manual p. 283)
Windows --> Show Automation Enable window
Highlight desired item(s) to enable (red text with white button)
Deselect other items
Select Automation Mode from track's pop-up menu: off, read, touch, latch, write
Click play and edit desired automated parameter
Alternatively: Select automation type from pop-up window at bottom L of track display
Write automation data with pencil or grabber tool

Procedure for recording onto a new stereo track in ProTools

Procedure for recroding from ProTools to DAT

Goal: to understand how to use a portable DAT recorder and how to record from a microphone or DAT source into ProTools.

Week 5, Monday, February 17

Studio Assignment: Make final version of your Skipped Stones remix
Video Project: Extra meeting with Sculpture class to focus collaboration. Each group should come to class with a brainstorming list of words or phrases encapsulating possible organizing concepts or approaches to your video, with at least two possibilities for each of the non-narrative formal types from the reading: categorical, rhetorical, abstract, and associational. In addition, you should write two paragraphs developing more fully your ideas for two of these possible concepts or approaches; choose two that represent different non-narrative formal types rather than two of the same type. View last year's Art 242/ MUS 219 Collaborative Projects.
Procedure for recording from DAT to ProTools:
1. Use DigiPatch to route S/PDIF digital audio from DAT to ProTools
2. Launch ProTools: File --> New Session --> Name: Ad and save to your partition --> Bit depth = 16
3. Setups --> Hardware --> Sync mode = Internal
Digital Format = S/PDIF (other option: AES/EBU)
Ch 1-2 Input = Digital (other option: Analog)
look at lights on 888i/o to check current hardware setup status
4. Set up file and display options:
File --> New Track --> 2 new audio tracks
Display --> Show Edit Window (if not already showing)
Display --> Edit Window Shows i/o view
Windows --> Show Transport Window (if not already showing)
Display --> Transport Window Shows Counters (only)
Rename each track by double-clicking on the track name ("Ad Left", "Ad Right")
Set the i/o for each track using the pop-up menus
Set Pan for each track using the pop-up menus
5. Record:
Enable REC button on each track
Start playing DAT from a location several seconds before the start of your material
Click REC (circle) and Play (>) in the ProTools transport window in time to catch the start of your material

Goal: to listen to and discuss Skipped Stones projects, including studying plug-ins used, musical qualities of projects, and ways of improving (multiple playlists for experimenting, saving plug-in presets, using the multiple tool selector); and to understand the use of Ionizer for noise reduction and the portable DAT deck for audio recording.

Week 5, Wednesday, February 19

Studio Assignment: Begin planning and gathering source materials for your video project. See March 5 (due date) for assignment. By Saturday of this week, you should have your source materials videotaped and recorded.

Goal: to understand the process for composing music using ProTools

Week 6, Monday, February 24

Video Project: See March 5 (due date) for assignment. Extra meeting with Sculpture class to present a 5-minute progress report.

Goal: to reinforce editing and composing techniques with ProTools; and to understand the history and basic concept of MIDI, the MIDI specification, general MIDI, and the interpretation of MIDI implementation charts

Week 6, Wednesday, February 26

Reading Assignment: Roads "MIDI" (pp. 972-1016).
Video Project: work on video project. See March 6 (due date) for assignment.

Goal: to understand the various types of MIDI devices and the ways of connecting and routing signals among them

Week 7, Monday, March 3

Video Project: Work on video project. See March 5 (due date) for assignment.

Goal: to understand in detail the operation of the Korg N1 MIDI keyboard and the basic concepts of sequencing

Week 7, Wednesday, March 5

Video Project: (soundtrack due today, completed video due Friday, extra meeting with Sculpture class to present a near-final draft.) Working in a group with one or two students from Will Pergl's Sculpture class, create an experimental video 1 to 3 minutes long for which you compose the soundtrack using ProTools. In collaboration with the sculpture student(s), create source material based on a thing, concept, or category of your own choice documented with the aid of the portable DAT recorder and digital video camera. Because of the requirements of DV-video, record and process the DAT source at a sampling rate of 48K. From the audio that you record, select a segment up to 15 seconds long (or up to three shorter segments) from which to derive all your sound materials using the techniques available in ProTools (plus the 01v effects, if desired).

You may record much more than 15 seconds of potential source material, but base your soundtrack on a brief excerpt from the source material or on up to three non-contiguous excerpts adding up to no more than 15 seconds. Use material that is not consciously musical in its raw state (i.e., no excerpts from a CD or a live recording of a student ensemble, etc., although a recording of single notes played on instruments would be fine.) For comparison and documentation purposes, retain the up-to-15 seconds of source material in the Audio Regions List, named "source.L" and "source.R" (or source1/2/3.L and source1/2/3.R if you use multiple segments), even if you don't use the unprocessed source directly in the composition. Using ProTools, develop as many variations on this material as you wish, and layer and assemble them into the finished soundtrack. As you work on your soundtrack, keep in regular communication with your sculptor collaborator(s), viewing their video and sharing your audio, seeking to merge your visions into a coherent project.

Your end result will be a QuickTime movie created in Adobe Premiere. The sculpture students will import your soundtrack into their video project files, and you should work together on their coordination. To transport your files into the computer/keyboard lab where the sculpture students will be working, save them in interleaved stereo AIFF format in your folder on the EMS main hard drive and use file sharing to access them from the computer/keyboard lab station assigned to your group.

We expect to show your projects in a performance on Wednesday, May 7, in Sebring-Lewis Hall, as an adjunct to the electronic music class concert scheduled for that day. You will receive separate grades for the technical/aesthetic quality of your soundtrack and for the group's project as a whole (determined in collaboration between Will Pergl and me.)
Goal: to understand sequencing techniques

Week 8, Monday, March 10

Reading Assignment: Roads "Musical Input Devices" (pp. 613-658) and "Sequencers" (pp. 661-677).
Studio Assignment: Refer to the handout Introduction to Digital Performer for basic information on using the sequencer. Complete two of these Sequencing Exercises, saving them on your EMS hard drive partition as "Seq Exercise #".
1. Begin with either the melody pattern from last class or a similar melodic pattern you create that loops back on itself smoothly. Repeat the pattern a number of times after the original. Choose two musical parameters such as timbre, pitch, duration, loudness or tempo and alter them gradually in the copies so as to build a sense of mounting energy and excitement.
2. Begin with either the melody pattern from last class or a similar melodic pattern you create that loops back on itself smoothly. Repeat the pattern the same number of times as the number of notes in the pattern. With each repeat of the melody, change the patch used to play one melody note until each note has its own timbre. Strive for an effective juxtaposition of diverse types of timbres, ranging from instrumental to percussive to sound effects to electronic.
3. Create a sequence of events that proceeds gradually from dissonance and tension to consonance and stability.
4. Create an interesting motive (short, distinctive melodic or rhythmic pattern), and develop a set of variants on it. Then arrange them in such a way that the original seems to emerge gradually from the variants.
5. Create two melodic patterns with the same overall duration and number of notes. Turn one into the other by gradually changing pitches, durations, loudnesses, and timbres.
6. Create two sharply contrasting musical ideas and present them in a way that first emphasizes and gradually reconciles the contrast between them in some way.
Goal: Reinforce understanding of MIDI and sequencing. Review for midsem.

Week 8, Wednesday, March 12

Assignment: Study for midsem exam.

Week 9, Monday, March 31

No homework for today. In class work on the tutorial "Recording MIDI" from the DP3 "Getting Started" manual (pp. 115-122.) If you complete that, try adding volume controller, pan, and pitch bend to the result.

Wednesday, April 2

Studio Assignment: create a sequence at least 30 seconds in duration consisting of one to twelve notes (MIDI note on messages) played at the beginning of the sequence, although not necessarily audible at that point, and continuing for the sequence's entire duration, at which point all notes end. Feel free to use more than one note of the same pitch if you desire (allows for different timbres on the same note). Shape the time dramatically and effectively by using volume controller (#7), pan controller (#10), modulation controller (#1), and/or pitch bend data only. You may want to record each note on a separate track to allow for independent control of its volume, pan, modulation, and pitch bend data. Use sustaining or repeating instrument sounds from the N1 keyboard. Try to make the result sound as little like stereotypical cheesy MIDI music as possible. Save your sequence as "continuous_data_composition" on your computerÕs hard drive, and save a copy of your finished sequence to your EMS hard drive partition.

Week 10, Monday, April 7

Reading Assignment: Roads "Sampling Synthesis" (pp. 117-133).
Studio Assignment: Work on MIDI composition. See April 9 (due date) for assignment.

Goal: to apply aesthetic criteria in evaluating student compositions

Week 10, Wednesday, April 9

Studio Assignment: Compose a MIDI piece at least one minute long that establishes and explores a mood or idea summarized by the music's title and evidences a satisfying, well-built musical structure. Write a paragraph explaining your conception of how you evoked and developed the mood or idea in your music. Use Digital Performer and the sounds available on the Korg N1 keyboard. Set initial modulation controller (#1), volume controller (#7), pan controller (#10), pitch bend, and program change (patch) settings for each MIDI channel. Use humanization, volume, pan, etc. to enliven your music and minimize the mechanical quality that makes MIDI music often sound "cheesy." Do housekeeping with your Digital Performer file: delete unused tracks; name tracks appropriately; change around the order of tracks; open windows that will be most interesting to look at while your sequence plays; add comments to give background, explain the role of each track, and indicate how you developed the material, etc.; To stimulate your thinking about ways to develop your musical ideas, read exercises 12.1 to 12.10 on pages 217-223 of Robert Adams's Electronic Music Composition for Beginners, and try out any that seem interesting to you.

Goal: to know how to make samples, create loops, dopplerize, assign samples to voices in a preset, create keyboard and velocity crossfades, and save samples and presets in a bank on the E-mu E4X Turbo.

Week 11, Monday, April 14

Studio Assignment: Begin planning final composition. See April 28 (due date) for assignment. Also, create your own sample based on you singing "Ahhhh" as indicated on pages 59-62 of the EOS Version 3 software manual. Make two copies of the sample (p. 189). Add a loop to the first copy, making the loop as smooth and natural-sounding as possible and naming it "Ah loop" (pp. 224-231). Dopplerize the second copy, naming it "Ah dopp" (pp. 253-255). Assign the three samples to three separate voices in a single preset, layering, splitting, or cross-fading between the samples on the keyboard as you desire (pp. 331-338; assignment can be done using the Place function at sample-creation time, see p. 205, or edited later in the Voices Main window, see pp. 321-323). Name this preset as "Ah" (p. 262). Save the preset in a bank named "YOUR LAST NAME" in the "Grinnell EMS" folder on the "Quantum FIREBALL" drive (p. 389).

Goal: to understand concepts and techniques for adding modulation and effects to voices in presets on the E4X

Wednesday, April 16

Studio Assignment: Work on final composition. See April 28 (due date) for assignment. Create 5 new presets based on your "Ah" preset but with different modulation routings, effects, and sample edits. Save these new presets in the "YOUR LAST NAME" bank that already contains "Ah."

Goal: to understand concepts and techniques for controlling envelopes in sampled presets on the E4X and for using the digital audio features of Digital Performer

Week 12, Monday, April 21

Studio Assignment: Work on final composition. See April 28 (due date) for assignment.

Goal: to understand the creation and use of custom sequencer consoles for controlling volume and effects, basic operation of the proteus/2xr sound module, and how to manually set program-to-preset maps and use these in conjunction with Digital Performer.

Wednesday, April 23

Studio Assignmentt: Work on final composition. See April 28 (due date) for assignment.

Goal: to understand sysex messages, the purpose and operation of patch editor-librarian software, and how to use both to control the setup and presets of a sample-based sound module

Week 13, Monday, April 28

Studio Assignment: Composition 3 due.

Compose a piece of at least 2 minutes duration using any of the resources we have studied this semester. Include at least two contrasting sections. Base one of these primarily on a sampled sound bank created by you with a prominent role for at least one preset created from scratch (your own sample recordings made either in the studio or with the portable DAT). In another section, feature either digital audio soundfiles or N1 or Proteus 2/XR instruments most prominently. You may use sounds from the N1 and Proteus sound banks or digital audio soundfiles freely throughout, provided the sampled sound is most prominent in at least one section. Document all sampled sounds and digital audio source recordings, describing how you made or where you got each sound, in your Digital Performer Tracks window Comments column or in the ProTools file's information window. Include patch, volume, and pan initialization settings at the beginning of each MIDI track and volume and pan controllers at the beginning of each digital audio track so that playback initializes properly. In addition, initialize the patch (Scene) for the 01V so that the file plays back with the same balance of volumes you heard as you composed. Include a title for the piece and the name of the sample bank (if any) to load into the E4X in the Digital Performer Conductor track's Comments column or in the ProTools information window. Rename each track to something appropriate for the track's function or sound. Delete unused tracks.

Save your composition as a Digital Performer or ProTools file under the name TITLE.YOUR INITIALS in a folder named COMPOSITION 3 on your hard drive partition. The COMPOSITION 3 folder should also contain any necessary supporting files (digital audio soundfiles, etc.) but nothing else. Keep a backup copy of all files on your own Zip disks, CD, and/or your Storageserver folder. Create a DAT or CD recording of the entire piece in its final version.

Write a brief essay of less than a page explaining your concept of the piece -- what you were trying to express or explore; how you gathered, selected, and developed the material; and how you conceive of the musical shape or structure.

Consider incorporating a live performance component into your piece, from among the following possibilities or your own ideas:

• perform live on an acoustic or electronic instrument with sequenced accompaniment
  
• coordinate your music with a lighting design, choreography, mime, etc. created by you or a friend
  
• read or perform a chosen text as part of your piece
  
• coordinate your sequence with video clips or graphics played as QuickTime files or through SMPTE and MIDI Machine Control
  
• locate objects that complement or relate to your music and might be placed on stage and focussed on with lighting effects

If your piece includes a sound-generating live performance component as part of its basic conception, record on DAT or CD a sample rendition of the piece including the live performance component along with the sequenced component so that I can evaluate the complete work.

Start working EARLY. One-day extensions will be granted only to students who follow the policy spelled out on the syllabus and who have spent at least 6 hours per week in the studio for the two weeks before the assignment is due (as reflected on the sign-in notebook).

Goal: to understand the processes for preparing audio for the Web

Week 13, Wednesday, April 30

Studio Assignment: Annotate your ProTools or Digital Performer final composition file with comments documenting the sample you made yourself (how and when you made it and processed it) and giving citations to any samples you took from other sources. By Saturday, prepare all of your compositions from the semester for CD burning by recording or bouncing down to a stereo file or two mono files named identically except .L/.R or .1/.2 extensions. Save or copy these files to the "CD" volume in the appropriate folder for each assignment.

Goal: to prepare for the final concert and to apply aesthetic criteria in evaluating student compositions

Week 14, Monday, May 5

Studio Assignment:
By Saturday midnight, prepare all your final composition for CD burning by recording and/or bouncing down to a stereo interleaved file (or two mono files named identically except .L/.R or .1/.2 extensions). Save or copy the file as ÒSamp_YourLastName_Title.aifÓ on the "Test" volume in the Ò2002 ProjectsÓ folder.
By class time Monday, use Jam software to create an audio CD archiving your three compositions from this semester plus any other students' works from the Ò2002 ProjectsÓ folder. Your works should be the first four tracks on the CD in the order in which you composed them. Leave sufficient silence at the beginnings and endings of tracks so that the transitions seem right.

Goal: to practice for final concert.

Week 14, Wednesday, May 7

Concert Assignment: do a sound test and set up any MIDI-controlled lighting effects you want in Sebring-Lewis Hall for your piece on the concert.

Goal: to confirm learning of key concepts in the aesthetics, physics, and technique of electronic music, digital audio, MIDI, and sampling

Wednesday, May 7: 7:30 p.m. Electronic Music concert: Sebring-Lewis Hall

Attendance required 7:15 p.m. to completion of equipment strike (est. 10:30 p.m.)

Thursday, May 15, 9 a.m.-noon Final exam.

Access to the Studio

• Use of the Studio is restricted to music faculty, the music department technician, the arts curricular technology specialist, and students taking Music 219. Noone else is permitted to be in the Studio for any reason except as outlined in #2.
• Students who have completed Music 219 and students in advanced courses who need to use specific studio facilities for an academic project may petition the Studio Director for access to the Studio. These students must send the Studio Director a summary of goals, anticipated results, estimated time needed, and equipment they intend to use. After the time needs of Music 219 students are met, time will be allotted to students whose projects are approved.
• The Studio key will be kept in a locker in the basement of the Fine Arts Building. Authorized students will receive the combination to this locker.
• Students may reserve a time for themselves in the Studio by signing up on a sheet to be posted outside the Studio door before class each Monday. Students may reserve two non-contiguous, 3-hour slots each week. Students who are more than a half-hour late for their reserved times may forfeit them to any other students waiting to use the Studio.
• The Studio will be closed during breaks, holidays, and exam periods.

In-Studio Regulations and Procedures

• Each Studio user must sign in and out on the studio logbook. Report any problems with the equipment in this book. REPORT URGENT PROBLEMS IMMEDIATELY TO PAUL NELSON (x3069, home: 236-6649) or JON CHENETTE (x3065; home: 236-7190).
• Never leave the Studio open and unattended. If you leave for a snack or a break, take the key along.
• No drinking, smoking, or eating inside the Studio except for water in a covered container. Leave food outside the door or in your backpack.
• No equipment may be borrowed from the Studio for any purpose whatsoever.
• No outside equipment may be moved into the Studio or stored or used there without the permission of the instructor.
• No student is to attempt any repairs or maintenance of any kind on any equipment in the Studio.
• Any equipment or software which has not been explained in class may be used only upon prior consultation with the instructor.
• Leave the Studio clean and remove all personal belongings when you depart. Anything left in the Studio may be discarded at the Director or Music Technician's discretion.
• Save all your computer work onto your own hard disk partitition, and keep backups of all your important work on your own Zip disks, DAT tapes, Hi8 tapes, CD's, or the Storageserver. Anything left on the Macintosh hard disk may be discarded at the instructor's discretion. Anything left on your own hard disk partitition after the end of exam week this semester will be discarded.
• Turn off the main power switch to all the equipment when you leave.

Irresponsible use of the Electronic Music Studio or violation of the above rules will be considered grounds for immediate failure in Music 219, revocation of Studio privileges, and a fine for damages. Loss of the Studio key is a serious matter, requiring installation of a new lock. Be prepared to bear the cost.

January 20, 2003

I have read the rules for use of the Grinnell College Electronic Music Studio, and I agree to abide by them.

Name_________________________________________

last revised 4/10/03 by Jonathan Chenette