This course is designed to give students of the digital arts an understanding of the workings of sound, not only in traditional musical roles but also as a medium that is used in many different artistic practices. Four main areas concern us. First, how sound behaves in the real world and how it is represented electronically. Second, how and what we hear when the air moves. Third, sound technologies: computers, microphones and speakers, musical instruments. Finally, sound and its artistic uses.
Although there are online course notes, much of the content of the course is presented in class, so it is essential to attend regularly. In general, the course notes cover technical topics and classes cover aesthetic and practical ones.
There are 8 lab assignments that use the Pure Data programming environment, which you should download. You can get it from https://msp.ucsd.edu/software.html. You will also need this Pd library for acoustics. Each lab writeup should fit on a page (or two at the most) and be uploaded in PDF format (just the report; there's no need to upload your patch). Students choosing contract C (see below) also do a ninth lab as their final project.
There are also two assigned projects. Each project can take the form of a soundfile, a video, or (for the second one) a writeup of a technical project. In the case of an audio or audiovisual project, the project should be accompanied by a paragraph-long explanation of what the project aims to achieve artistically. You will be required to check in every week with an instructional assistant to describe what you're doing and how it's going, and to get whatever help and advice you need.
The 20 lectures will be recorded and uploaded here. (That's a public site, so don't say anything you'll be sorry for later).
More about project #1. The prompt for this project is these two short recorded sounds: the original laugh track from the TV show Ozzie and Harriet, and the famous Wilhelm scream. (The Wilhelm recording has six versions; the fourth is the widely used one). Project 1 may be any artistic use of sound that refers to, or reacts to, these two recordings. (If you can't figure out a meaningful way to pull them both in, it's OK to just use one, but it will be far more interesting if you can connect the two of them somehow.) You may use any production tools you want, although in class we will only be using the Pure Data acoustics library and Audacity. Those two by themselves should give you plenty of different possibilities.
About contract grading. This course uses a form of contract grading, in which students, instructional assistants, and the professor agree in advance on each student's grading objective. For some background on the idea, see for instance https://oberlinreview.org/tag/contract-grading/. You may contract for a C, a B, or an A. In considering what to contract, remember to plan for the amount of time you are committing to spend on your projects. Please turn in your proposed contract by class time on Sep. 30. You and your instructor should have agreed to your contract by class time, Oct. 5. Here are three sample contracts.
C Contract: Turn in all the 8 weekly lab assignments, by their due dates, and a final lab assignment by Tuesday of finals week. There is no artistic creativity needed; you only need to gain some facillty using the Pure Data environment and the acoustics library, and carry out a series of psychoacoustical and acoustical eperiments, turning in a short (1-page) report for each.
B Contract: Turn in the labs as described above, but instead of the ninth one (the final lab), turn in the two projects on their due dates. along with a paragraph-long description of what your artistic or scientific goal was and what you achieved. Check in with your IA every week to report on your progress.
A Contract: Turn in each of the projects early (Oct. 19 and Nov. 16), and on the following scheduled IA meeting, discuss with your IA how the project went. Turn in revised versions (still with explanatory paragraph) by the regular due date.
Schedule at a glance:
Detailed contents:
Part 1. digital sound recording
Sep. 23, 28. Recording and playback.
Theory: Amplitudes, frequencies, and samples.
Practical skills: Learn to use a sound editor (Audacity) and the
Pd library for acoustics.
Course notes: chapter 1
Lab #1 is due Oct. 5.
Project #1: Exploratory project featuring Ozzie and Harriet laugh track and/or
the Wilhelm Scream. Proposal
due Sep. 30. "A" contract: first draft due Oct. 19, "A" and "B" finished project due
Nov. 2.
related class: 174.
Sep. 30, Oct. 5. editing and montage.
Theory: levels, gains, and superpositions.
Practical skills: sound editing using Audacity
Course notes: chapter 2
Lab #2 is due Oct. 12.
related class: 173
Part 2. deeper into the sound
Oct. 7-12. sound and vibration, pitch and loudness.
Theory: spectra and filtering.
Practical skills: Additive and subtractive synthesis.
Course notes: sections 3.1 - 3.3
Lab #3 is due Oct. 19.
related classes: 171, 175
Oct. 15-19. hearing and psychoacoustics.
Theory: Critical bands, loudness and timbre
Practical skills: balancing sounds in a mix
Course notes: section 3.4
Lab #4 is due Oct. 26.
related class: 175
Oct. 21-26. tonality and the overtone series.
Theory: Helmholz theory of consonance; just and tempered intervals
Practical skills: polyphonic synthesis
Course notes: chapter 4
Lab #5 is due Nov. 2.
related classes: 101 (prerequisite 2), 106, 114
About final projects: your final project proposal should explain not only what you want to do but what you hope to learn from it. It doesn't need to be more than a couple of paragraphs long, but as before, you and your IA should agree up front that your idea is suitable as a final project for the course. Here are some final project ideas.
Oct. 28, Nov. 2. sound in space.
Theory: frequency, wavelength, and superposition
Practical skills: panning, reverberation
Course notes: chapters 6 and 7
Lab #6 is due Nov. 9.
related class: 176 (Prof. Yadegari)
Part 3. applications to music and visual arts
Nov. 4-9. audio synthesis.
Theory: applying nonlinear functions to sounds
Practical skills: frequency modulation
Course notes: chapter 8
Lab #7 is due Nov. 16.
related classes: 171, 172
Nov. 11-16. the voice.
Theory: vocal production, phonemes, language, speech and singing
Practical skills: using the voice in music and sound art
Course notes: chapter 5
Lab #8 is due Nov. 23.
related classes: 174
Nov. 18-23. sound art; sound studies
Theory and Practice: reviews and topics as needed
"C" contracts only: Lab #9
is due Dec. 8 (Wednesday of finals week).
related class: 176 (Prof. Hankins)
Nov. 30, Dec. 2. compositional algorithms.
Theory: throws of the dice and permutations
Practical skills: arpeggiators
related class: 177
Project #2 is due Wednesday, Dec. 8.