Online listening/reading activities: Participation in online discussions pertaining to weekly listening or reading tasks

Assessment Detail:

This component of the class is designed to give students a broad overview of the historical context of creative approaches to the use of new technologies in composition, and to stimulate discussion.

The works you are required to listen to each week are listed in Canvas under Dicussions. These works can be listened to via the following Spotify link: http://bit.ly/MUED1002. Students will need a free Spotify account in order to access this content.

Students are expected to listen to all works listed for the week in question. Before the following week’s class, students are to choose one work from the list and write a brief forum post or comment reflecting on any aspect of the piece. These discussion posts need only be a few short sentences, and may be based on your experience of the work itself in its historical context. You could either comment on something interesting in the work, ask a question about it or reply to a comment by one of your peers.

Formative skills assessment: One-minute sound piece using samples provided, and accompanied by a video description of your process.

Assessment Detail:

Using the samples provided (samples will be available by the end of Week 4), create a short sound work of 1-minute duration displaying skills learned so far this semester. Your work may be in any style, but should show knowledge of basic audio editing, arrangement and mixing, MIDI sequencing, audio effects, etc.

To accompany the work, record a short video description of your production process (2mins max.) and upload/link to Canvas using either ‘Arc’ or a video sharing platform of your choice. The video does not need to be of high production value, but should include brief discussion of your technical process, and some reflections on any challenges you found in creating the work. It may be useful to show some vision of your project file in the video to illustrate your work, using either screencast software, screenshots or by simply filming your screen.

The overall aim of this task is to get you practicing your skills by working on a small creative project, as well as reflecting upon your process and challenges you have encountered in its production.

Creative audio assignment: Original creative audio work of 3-6 minutes, written description, and in-class presentation.

Assessment Detail:

Students choose from one of the following three options for this assessment task:

OPTION 1:

Compose an electroacoustic sound work of between 3 and 6 minutes in length.

OPTION 2:

Compose six miniature electroacoustic pieces of exactly 30 seconds in length, each one based on a single descriptive word.

OPTION 3:

Compose a 3 to 6 minute piece for instrument/voice and “tape”. Submission of this option should include:

• the full score (with notation of both instrument/voice part and the “tape” part cues)
• a recording of the piece being performed
• the “tape” part.

APPLIES TO ALL OPTIONS:

• Present your work to the class in Week 13
• Include a written description (about one page) explaining the technical and musical choices you made. e.g. what source material did you use? How did you process this material?

The piece should be created solely using original source material including but not limited to: instrumental/vocal sounds, abstract sound making devices, sound synthesis techniques, and environmental sound. These must be sounds that you have recorded yourself. You are allowed to use MIDI to trigger/sequence your audio samples. Process your sound using the various techniques examined throughout the semester. You may use any software for editing and mixing your audio, including Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Cubase, Reaper, Pro Tools and others.

For your recordings, make use of the Zoom portable recorders available from the Library. Please DO NOT record material using your smartphone and/or computer microphone. You may also record straight to computer using the microphones and recording equipment available in one of the Conservatorium sound studios. If you have your own equipment, you are welcome to use this, however, please discuss this with the lecturer. You are strongly encouraged to make use of the facilities available to you at the Conservatorium.

Presentation: In the final class, each work will be played to the class and students should talk briefly about their piece, and should be prepared to field questions on the work. We will proceed in alphabetical order by surname. This is a compulsory part of the assignment.

Submission:

All materials audio are to be submitted to the assignment page of the CMPN1013 Canvas site. Students are also welcome to provide links to external file sharing services (Dropbox/Google shareable link), for these media files instead of uploading to Canvas. If so this must be linked to in your written documentation. Please DO NOT provide links to timed download services such as WeTransfer, etc. – files must be accessible for marking at any stage after submission.

• Your audio works should be submitted as rendered, 44.1kHz, 24bit .wav or .aiff files – NOT mp3s/m4as.
• Scores and written work should be uploaded in .pdf format through the assignment Dropbox.
• A zipped copy of your DAW project file needs to be included in the submission. This must include dependencies (such as necessary audio files) – so include the project file and all related folders

Notes:

• If you are submitting multiple documents (Assignment Option 2, for example), please zip these files into a compressed .zip archive before uploading.
• If you are using your own third party plugin resources, please be aware that these may not be accessible by the lecturer for marking. If you are unsure, discuss with the lecturer prior to submission.