EMF 265 Audio Production I Course Description: Theory and practice of audio production and its relationship to other aspects of media production. Course Objectives: At the end of the course, the student should be able to: 1) Critically listen 2) Be comfortable in a recording studio environment 3) Comprehend basic audio terminology and concepts 4) Demonstrate appropriate microphone usage and placement 5) Understand and demonstrate Digidesign for digital audio recording and editing 6) Record and edit single and multiple audio tracks 7) Demonstrate creative and functional application of sound and audio with and without accompanying visual media. Required Textbook: Alten, Stanley. Audio in Media, 8 th edition. Thomson Learning, 2007. Required Materials: 10 CD-Rs ** It is the policy of the EMF Department to require all EMF students to purchase an external Firewire hard drive. See the bulletin board outside the EMF Office for details. If you do not purchase an external hard drive, you are still responsible for saving all of your files off of the lab computers. USB jump drive (at least 1 GB) Recommended Materials: External Firewire hard drive OR 5-10 DVD-Rs Audio Labs: The audio labs are located in Van Bokkelen Hall, Rm. 106. It is required to use the audio labs for all assignments. Students can also use the systems in the VML, although they do not have microphones or speakers, in other words, those systems can be used solely for mixing and editing. Students can sign up for 4 hours in the audio labs as well as an overnight key, per week. Sign up for equipment and/or lab time for any lab at the VML. Make sure that you save all of your files onto an external drive and/or writeable CD or DVD. Assume that your files will not be there the next time you use the computer. We will talk more about the labs in. Course Policies: 1. Incompletes: A grade of Incomplete is not given unless you are unable to complete the work required in the course because of verifiable medical reasons or documented circumstances beyond your control, as stated on page p25 of the current Undergraduate Catalog. 1
2. Disability Statement: Any student who may need an accommodation because of a disability, please make an appointment to see me during my office hours during the first week of. A memo from Disability Support Services authorizing your accommodations will be needed. 3. Repeating the Course: Students may not attempt this course for a third time without prior permission from the Academic Standards Committee. See the TU policy on Repeating Course on page 26 of the current Undergraduate Catalog for further explanation. 4. Academic Conduct/Plagiarism: While this is not a writing per se, plagiarism and academic dishonesty are not tolerated in this room. Please review the plagiarism statement for the Department of Electronic Media and Film and Towson University s Academic Integrity document which can be found at: http://wwwnew.towson.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/academicintegrity.html 5. Attendance/Absence Policy: A student with more than three (excused or unexcused) absences will be penalized one full letter grade. Students who miss more than five es will be given an F in the. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of. 6. Lateness Policy: It is expected that each student arrives punctually. Students who are more than 5 minutes late will be marked as such on the attendance sheet. A student who is late more than three times will be penalized one full letter grade. Course Procedures: In order to identify and assess skill level and to maintain a balance of hands-on, theoretical, and creative applications of audio, this course will incorporate assignments, a final project, as well as two tests. All assignments and projects must be completed and turned in by the due date. Assignments turned in late will be penalized 15 points per week up to two weeks. Assignments turned in later than two weeks will not be accepted and will be given a grade of F. It is possible to redo an assignment that has been marked as such by the instructor. The student has two weeks to fix and turn in the assignment for additional points. The final project may not be turned in late and will be given a F and will not be evaluated if turned in after the due date. Grading: B+ 87-89 C+ 77-79 D+ 67-70 A 93-100 B 83-86 C 71-76 D 63-66 F 0-59 A- 90-92 B- 80-82 D- 60-62 Tests 2 @ 15% each 30% Assignments 2 @ 5% each (#1,4) 10% 2 @ 8% each (#2, 5) 16% 2 @ 10% each (#3, 6) 20% Final Project 14% 14% Class Participation 10% 10% ------------------ 100% 2
Assignments: Detailed information on each assignment will be given out at least two weeks before it is due. Assignment #1 Field Interview Week #3 Assignment #2 Studio Project (Recording/Editing) Week #5 Assignment #3 Audio Story (group) Week #9 Assignment #4 Script & Sound List for Final Project (group) Week #11 Assignment #5 Music or Audio Doc (group) Week #13 Assignment #6 Sound for Video (group) Week #15 Final Project Radio Drama (group) Week #16 (Dec 11) 3
Reading: The chapters and topics discussed in are listed on the syllabus, but can change. It is the student s responsibility to read the assigned chapters. Tentative schedule Week # Lecture Hands-on Reading 1 Ears Hearing Sound Basics Macintosh MD Chapters 1, 2 Intro to 2 Basic Editing Acoustics Minidisc Basics Sound Basics Cont. 3 Monitoring Microphones Recording Basics (cont) Assignment #1 due 4 Consoles Control Surfaces Digital/Analog Intermediate 5 Effects Signal Processing Assignment #2 due 6, Studio Review Test #1 7 Studio Production Dialogue, Voice-over Field Production 8 Dialogue Sound Effects Story/Narrative & Sound Adv. Effects with 9 Music Underscoring Radio Drama Story/Narrative cont. Assignment #3 due 10 Music Production Audio Documentary 11 Interactive Audio Mixing & Rerecording Assignment #4 due MD Studio Microphones Control surfaces -Digi 002 Editing & Mixing Exercises w/ Effects Boom mics Voice-over exercises Radio drama exercise in Radio drama exercise in Chapters 3, 4 Chapters 5, 6 Chapter 8 Chapters 9,10 Chapters 12, 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Handout Music recording in Chapters 16, 19 12 Sound Design Sound Design exercise in Chapters 7, 11 Chapters 17, 18 13 Sound Design Sound Design exercise in Handout 4
Advanced Editing Internet Audio iweb 14 Sound Design Advanced Editing Work on group projects in Assignment #5 due 15 Work on group projects in Assignment #6 due 16 Final Project due Test #2 (hands-on) (these are scheduled individually) 5