4 DAYS MIDISCHOOL.COM
INTRODUCTION Never has the electronic music scene been so diverse, exciting, and so easy to be a part of. The explosion in the amount of affordable, professional-level home studio kit, and the opportunity to have your music heard by anyone with an internet connection has brought music production to a whole new group of people. JUMP STRAIGHT TO: About the course tutor Course structure, prices and times What you will learn on the course Are you excited about the prospect of writing electronic music, but are unsure where to start? Not sure what kit to buy? Unsure how to get the most out of the kit you might already own? Are you desperate to turn the ideas in your head into a finished track? Our Electronic Music Production course is the ideal starting point. The EMP course is a no-nonsense crash course which will show you exactly what you need to know to start producing tracks in any style of your choosing. You will be using a combination of computer-based sequencing software, virtual instruments, effect processors and hardware. Every element of music production is covered: from how to generate ideas using virtual software/hardware instruments and audio samples, through to the arrangement and mixdown of your finished track ready for upload to the internet or for burning to CD. No previous music production experience, or music theory knowledge is required for this course. It is delivered from a beginners perspective. Our studio 1 EMP course teaching facilities 2
ABOUT THE TUTOR Christophe Bride is the head lecturer at Manchester MIDI School. He has worked on remixes for Skunk Anansie, Erasure, Placebo and Curve, as well as recording and engineering Mercury Music Prize winning band Hard Fi. His credits on the Manchester circuit are second to none. Kid British after signing to Universal enlisted Christophe to record, engineer and produce their debut album. Importantly for our students, he has worked on a broad spectrum of music styles, engineering indie bands Northern Uproar and Sonic Boom 6 s debut albums, producing hip-hop (Wycliffe Jean and Tommy Boy remixes) on DMC, and writing progressive / trance with Blue Amazon. A couple of tracks he did with Six 10 Repeater were licensed for the Pro Evo Soccer game. His current dance pseudonym, Forbidden Planet, are signed in the UK and US Aside from developing new artists, he records with 80s legends Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets), Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny) and New Model Army. Christophe Bride 3
COURSE STRUCTURE Course length: 4 days - Saturday & Sunday over 2 consecutive weekends. Lesson times: 12pm - 6pm Price: 395.00 For course dates, please follow this link Class sizes on this course are kept to a maximum of 4 to ensure the best possible student to teacher ratio. Classes take place in our Mac-based MIDI lab facility where after learning new techniques, you will have ample time to practice, ask any questions and get advice tailored to the type of music you are trying to create. Each student has their own workstation running all the main branded software sequencers together with a large selection of virtual instruments and effects to get to grips with. Apple s Logic Pro is the focus of the course, although students are also introduced to some of the other DAWs on the market to help give a balanced view of what s available to them. Each lesson builds on the knowledge gained during the course: each new technique will add a different element to the track you re writing with the idea being you will leave us with a finished mixdown of your work, and a good idea of what kit you ll need to get started at home, or how best to use the kit you might already have. Our MIDI lab teaching facility The Electronic Music Production Course is an ideal stepping stone towards further studio training. Please feel free to email us on mail@midischool.com with any questions you might have about the course. 4
WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? Day 1: MIDI An introduction to computer-based DAWs and Mac hardware An introduction to the Logic Pro interface What is MIDI? The creation and editing of MIDI Writing drum beats using NI Battery & Ultrabeat Creating drum texture using MIDI-triggered loops Loading and manipulating the parameters of virtual instruments Creating a bassline Hardware - what is relevant to you and what the differences are between synths Breaking down the elements and construction of electronic music Day 2: MIDI Creating depth and atmosphere using effects The difference between, and uses of insert and auxiliary send and return effects Soft-sampling & wave editing Overview of other current pro-studio software sequencers Further synthesis - adding lead and pad elements to your track Adding arpeggiators to generate note patterns How to sequence your ideas into an arrangement Day 3: Audio Importing pre-existing audio samples and loops into a Logic project. The recording, editing and manipulation of audio from an external source or for the purposes of resampling Introduction to Propellerhead Reason and using it alongside Logic via ReWire Further arrangement techniques for building song structure and dynamics in a track Balancing bass, mid-range & high frequency content in your track Session 4: Audio Mixdown workshop: Correctly balancing and panning your mix Using compression to add punch to your mix Sculpting the frequency content of your mix using parametric EQ devices Correctly creating depth in your mix using reverb and delay devices How to render your mix, which file type to use, and at what quality What is mastering? Basic mastering techniques to polish your final mixdown such as multi-band compression and limiting 5