A325
Advanced Digital Workstations

Summer 2008

Instructor: Michael Stucker
Email: mstucker@indiana.edu
Office: M257A (inside M257)
Office Phone: 856-4987
Office Hours: by appointment

Lecture/discussion meeting times: Tuesday and Thursday 10:30-12:00pm
Lecture/discussion meeting room: Simon Building M354
Class Section number: 12383

This Syllabus may be updated throughout the semester.
For updates check in at the course web page:
http://www.music.indiana.edu/department/audio/academic/U200/U200_Syllabus.htm

Required Text: Pro Tools Manual Set, available on the M354 computer as a PDF or purchase as a hardcopy text.

Grading: Grades for the course will be based on attendance/participation in addition to project and exercise grades. Exercises will be given full credit if they are turned in on time and saved in the correct location. Projects will be graded based on the audio quality of the mixes and editing as well as the general success of the edits/project requirements. Project and Exercise grades with comments will be available through the Oncourse gradebook. There will be no final exam for this course.

Final Grades will be figured as follows:
Exercises (6 total)
Projects (4 total)
Final Project
Attendance and Participation
30%
30%
30%
10%

Exercises: Exercises will be used to guide students through operating certain parts or functions of Pro Tools. They will be “step by step” tutorial type assignments. At the beginning of the semester each student will create a folder inside the A325 folder on the Pro Tools drive in 354 labeled with their first and last name. Each session must be saved inside this folder. These sessions must be named as "Project". Retain the original session name as the project name, then add your first and last name. Sessions not labeled properly will not be graded until the labeling is corrected. These will then be counted as late. Late projects will lose a letter grade (10 points) per week that they are late. All exercises and projects must be saved here for credit.
 

Exercise 1: Rulers and Tempo
Exercise 2: Editing and Looping
Exercise 3: Sound Replacer
Exercise 4: Beat Detective
Exercise 5: Elastic Audio
Exercise 6: Vocal Comping and Tuning

Projects: Projects will give students the opportunity to use their newly acquired skills in real-world situations using existing sessions. At the beginning of the semester each student will create a folder inside the "Student Files" folder inside the A325 folder on the Pro Tools drive in 354 labeled with their first and last name. Each session must be saved inside this folder. These sessions must be named as "Project..." then add your first initial and last name (for example "Project #2_MStucker"). Sessions not labeled properly will not be graded until the labeling is corrected. These will then be counted as late. Your session will be graded exactly as it open on the computer in M354. If there are files that the session cannot find, the session will not be graded until fixed, it will then be late. Make sure to open your session after it has been saved. Late projects will lose a letter grade (10 points) per week that they are late. All exercises and projects must be saved here for credit.
 

Project 1: Give Me Strength- Build song from “bits” given as individual files.
Project 2: Rhythmic Editing on Final Project
Project 3: Vocal Comping and Tuning on Final Project
Project 4: Mixing on final Project

Final Project:- Use Beat Detective and manual methods to edit Drums and bass to “lock”. Create Vocal “comp” using Auto-tune and editing.

A325 Schedule Summer 2008

Week

Date

Class description

Assignment and Reading due

1

June 17

Course overview, tempo and rulers

 

June 19

rex files, looping, region groups, Tick vs. Sample based tracks, TCE editing

Read Chapters 30-33
Exercise 1: Rulers and Tempo Due

2

June 24

Sound Replacer, shortcut keys and keyboard focus

Read Chapter 3 and Plug-ins Guide pages 109-119
Exercise 2: Editing and Looping Due

June 26

Individual time with students: Project 1

Project 1: ready to play for instructor

Rhythmic Editing
3

July 1

More sound replacer and sidechaining effects, listen to Project 1

Project 1: Give Me Strength Due

July 3

Listening for and fixing timing problems, manual rhythmic editing

Exercise 3: Sound Replacer Due

4

July 8

Beat Detective and rhythmic editing, multi-track editing, fades

Read chapter 25 and 34

July 10

Elastic Audio and more rhythmic editing

Read chapter 26
Exercise 4: Beat Detective
Due

Comping and Tuning

5

July 15

Vocal Comping Autotune

Exercise 5: Elastic Audio
Read Autotune manual pgs 1-39

July 17

Individual time with students: Rhythmic Editing on Final Project

Project 2: Rhythmic Editing on Final Project Due

6

July 22

More Autotune, Compression use in mixing

Exercise 6: Vocal Comping and Tuning

July 24

Individual time with students: Vocal comping and tuning on final Project

Project 3: Vocal Comping and Tuning on Final Project Due

Mixing

7

July 29

Mixing techniques  

July 31

Individual time with students: Mixing on final Project
Project 4: Mixing on final Project Due

Project 4: Mixing on final Project Due

8

Aug 5

Stem mixes, mix minuses and student choice  

Aug 7

Listen to Final Projects

Final Project: Due

There is no Final Exam for A325. However ALL assignments MUST be turned in before 1pm EST on Friday Aug 8