Electronic Music I 2011

Terry Pender

tmp17@columbia.edu

This class will focus on three aspects of contemporary art: the combination of sound and image, interactive performance and modern compositional techniques and styles. This is a “tools” class where we will explore and use many software applications and will focus particularly on Cycling 74s MAX/MSP and Jitter software as well as Apple’s Logic Pro, Reason, Ableton Live and the Audacity audio editor. We will cover the basics of all of the software needed to create these works.

In general we will be working with MAX/MSP for interactivity, Jitter for video work, Logic and Reason for sequencing, sampling and synthesis. We will use Amadeus or Audacity as an audio editor and either Quicktime Pro, iMovie, or Final Cut Pro for video editing.

Classes will meet in the Computer Music Center’s main classroom, room 320H as well as the Recording Studio in room 320H Prentis Hall. Class meets once a week on Tuesdays from 3:10 to 5:00.

Tentative Schedule

Sept. 8 How to create a simple collage/movie. Sources for public domain content. Tools: Using Quicktime Pro for simple video editing. This first silent, short movie. less than a minute in length, will be due and shown in class on Sept 22.

Sept. 15 Adding sound to a movie. Tools: Working with audio and MIDI in Logic Pro. Add original sound to your movie from the last assignment or start a new project that contains both an audio and visual component. New film to be shown in class on Sept. 29.

Sept. 22 Foley and background sound. Working with sample disks, doing field recordings, editing sound in Amadeus or Audacity. Synchronizing sound to motion.

I will give the class a film clip that needs a sound track. Add a sound track and present you work in class on Sept. 29.

Sept. 29 How to play movies in Jitter, control playback speed, and how to use Quicktime effects. Using a controller to manipulate movie playback. Create a Jitter patch to play one of your own movies. Use at least one QT effect.

Oct. 6 The psychology of sound, how to use psychoacoustics to create movement in sound. Everyone will be given the same film clip to score – a score that uses Equalization, panning, volume and reverb to create the sound of a car coming from the distance. Everyone will play their clip during the Oct. 5^th class.

Oct. 13 Using visual data to create a soundtrack through data mapping. Algorithmic control of music and data. Filtering data to create useful numbers. Create a non-narrative movie where the visual images create the soundtrack.

Oct. 20 Creating color space – How to create moving recreations of Josef Albers Color Studies in Jitter. Create a moving color study to present in class on Oct. 27

Oct.27 Creating moving text and signage ala Jenny Holzer. Creating Text in Jitter.

Nov. 3 Campus Holiday – no class

Nov. 10 Creating works that have more than one screen. Superimposing and moving images in Jitter

Nov. 17 Mapping movies as textures to 3D objects.

Nov. 24 Create 2 different soundtracks for the same visual scene. This will be representational with actors. Change the psychological reading of the scene through the use of sound. I will make the scene available and we will all create variations on this same scene to see how many different ways sound can pull an image – due Nov. 30.

Nov. 30 Using MAX with Rewire to control the synths, samplers and drum machines in Reason or Logic.

Dec. 9 Final Project due. An interactive audio-visual work of your own design that you can perform or present in class. This should be a longer more complete work of art.

Class resources:

The website for Cycling'74, makers of Max, MSP, and Jitter.
The website for Processing.

Some helpful texts:

Auditory Scene Analysis – Albert S. Bregman

Computer Music - Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse

Computer Music Tutorial – Curtis Rhoads

Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound – Perry Cook

Elements of Computer Music – Dick Moore

Capturing Sound, How Technology Has Changed Music – Mark Katz

Mastering Audio – Bob Katz

Notes From the Underground – Heinrich Taube

Master Handbook of Acoustics – F. Alton Everest

Audio-Vision - Michel Chion

In The Blink of an Eye – Walter Murch

Point and Line to Plane – Wassily Kandinsky

Interaction of Color – Josef Albers

Mixing Engineer’s Handbook – Bobby Owsinski

Good Vibrations, A History of Record Production – Mark Cunningham

TapeOp, The Book About Creative Music Recording – Larry Crane

Old Masters and Young Geniuses – David W. Galenson

Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-century Art – David Galenson