CMPN1013: Creative Music Technology

Online listening/viewing/reading activities: Participation in online discussions pertaining to fortnightly listening, reading or video 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, to stimulate discussion and to extend student learning in certain technical areas.

The works you are required to listen to will be listed in Canvas under Discussions. These works will be available via Spotify and/or YouTube. Students will need a free Spotify account to access Spotify. 

If given a listening task, students are expected to listen to a sample of the works listed for the week in question. Before the following week’s class, students are to choose at least 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 short paragraph, 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.

Students will occasionally be given a reading or viewing task in lieu of a listening task, in which case students are expected to read or view the material and then comment/discuss in the same manner. 

Discussion posts are due the week after being set throughout Semester. Late discussion posts will a penalty of 50%. Discussion posts delivered after the end of semester due date will incur a penalty of 100%. 

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 sampling, audio effects, etc.

To accompany the work, record a short video description of your production process (2 mins max.) and upload or link this to Canvas using a video sharing platform of your choice. The video does not need to be of high production value, but should include a brief discussion of your artistic goals, technical process, and some reflections on any challenges you encountered while creating the work. It will be beneficial 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 practising 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, in-class presentation of work and 1-page written description OR 2-minute audio description.

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 between 30-45 seconds in length, with the works tied together by a central theme.

OPTION 3:

Compose a 3 to 6 minute piece for instrument/voice and “tape”. “Instrument and Tape” is the historical term for a work for instrument and pre-recorded electronic accompaniment. 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 by itself. 

APPLIES TO ALL OPTIONS:

• You are expected to deliver a 3-minute excerpt of your work for the in-class listening party in Week 13. This may be a work in progress, but it should be substantial. Accompanying this, you will provide a 100-200 word program note to be displayed on screen while the work is played. This must be delivered to your tutor via submission or email one day in advance of your final lesson. 

• Include a written description of approximately one page OR a recorded audio description of approximately 2 minutes explaining the technical and musical choices you made. Address the following: What was your artistic goal with the piece? What source materials did you use? How did you process this material? What challenges did you face in the production and what have you learned in the process?

• Include your complete DAW project file with all necessary external files included (see below for more information). 

The piece should be an original (not a cover/remix) and is to be created using original source material wherever possible, including but not limited to: instrumental/vocal sounds, abstract sound making devices, sound synthesis techniques, and environmental sound. You may use royalty free samples as part of this work, but please acknowledge which samples are not your own. 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 recordings made yourself, you are encouraged to make use of the Zoom H5 portable recorders available from the Library. If you cannot get access to these recorders, you may use smartphone and/or computer microphone for this task. However do so with care! You may also record straight to computer using the microphones and recording equipment available in one of the Conservatorium sound studios if available for use. If you have your own equipment, you are welcome to use this, however, please discuss this with the lecturer. Where possible, you are strongly encouraged to make use of the facilities available to you at the Conservatorium.

Submission:

All materials 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 stereo files or either, 44.1/48kHz, 24bit .wav or .aiff files – NOT mp3s/m4as.

• All 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.