Courses

In this course students will learn creative sound design and production techniques that will help develop their voice as an electronic music producer. Building on skills learned in the EPD core, students will learn creative workflows using their computer as an integrated production environment. Using Ableton Live and a variety of Max for Live devices and third party plug-ins, students will integrate creative sound design techniques into the composition and production process. Students will analyze the work of current producers and create sound alike and original work. Emphasis will be placed on developing the skills needed to work in a variety of contemporary electronic genres, with a special focus on producing club music.

Building on the concepts learned in EP-223 and EP-322, this course further develops a student’s understanding of signal flow, sound design, and compositional techniques available within a modular synthesizer. This course focuses on advanced synthesis, composition, live performance, and patch dictation. Students will learn how to work with the modular synthesizer as a tool for composition by creating systems of individual modules that work together to create unique implementations of sound design and musical ideas. Using modular synthesizers like the Buchla 200e and the Make Noise Shared System, students will expand their knowledge of synthesis techniques, electronic compositional methods, and format-specific functionality.

This course will support special development or collaborative projects that require multiple class meetings per week as well as a commitment to additional time spent out of class. 

Projects will be approved by the chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department and department head of any entity involved in a collaboration in consultation with the division dean.  

In this class, students develop the basic electronics skills necessary to do creative circuit-bending, to modify and rewire sound-making toys, and to build custom performance interfaces using game controllers and a wide variety of sensors. Students breadboard and build a custom analog synth. They develop sensor-based controllers using the Arduino and program them using the Processing language. They design and program their own interactive games and audio/video remixers. Using these skills, students will develop strategies to control a range of hardware and software synthesis systems. By the end of the course, a student will have developed their own expressive MIDI and audio control system.

This course will support special development or collaborative projects that require a single class meeting per week as well as a commitment to additional time spent out of class. Projects will be approved by the chair of the Electronic Production and Design department and the department head of any entity involved in a collaboration in consultation with the division dean.

Practice-based research (PBR) is a school of thought that questions the ontological precedence between scholarship and the arts by asking: what comes first, an artistic contribution or a theoretical framework? Instead of adhering to a hierarchical division, PBR approach is circular and posits that knowledge can be produced both for and from the arts. In this course, students will be introduced to PBR and form creative reflections on the sonic articulations and implications of identity. Although they are personal, identities are always a part of a wide network of relations. As such, they are subject to various forms of audibility; some result from agency and self-determination, while others are imposed. Thinking alongside sound studies, media studies, queer studies, and critical race theory, we will destabilize the line between creative and scholarly work to gain an interdisciplinary understanding of identities and their appearance in the sociocultural sphere. The course will be DAW agnostic, allowing the students to utilize the technical and creative skills they already have in order to focus on the development of a critical and personal approach in their practices. Students will be required to propose two projects that engage with course themes and develop them in two periods: project 1 will be due by midterms, and project 2 will be due on finals week. Potential projects include: 2-3 track EPs, Multichannel Composition or installation, game design, and stand-alone compositions, among other possibilities.

A precursor to EP-491, Advanced Seminar combines master class and private lesson settings for the electronic production and design major. Master class topics include group assessment of each student's portfolio work, group critiques, and technical instruction as needed. Assessment and analysis tools are provided to discuss music composition/production as well as the integration of music and sound design for picture and games. Business and career preparations will also be discussed. The private lesson component allows each student to develop skills and musicianship with direct mentoring from the instructor.

This course provides a hands on approach to developing and integrating audio assets for immersive environments such as virtual reality games, movies, simulations, and installations. Students will gain a fundamental understanding of capturing and designing 360 degree sound environments using Ambisonic recording techniques and sound design techniques for sound localization. Projects will be designed around the use of VR headsets as well as a 10.2 multichannel speaker system.

In this course, students learn innovative production, remixing, and compositional uses of new spectral and time-based digital signal processing techniques. Students will use, adapt, and mutate sounds in unique and unusual ways that are fresh, new, and ideal for a variety of professional sound design projects. Students will also use these new spectral tools to compose and produce in a variety of musical styles from cutting-edge, DSP-based audio art to innovative pop songs.

A practical exploration of digital signal processing music and sound design projects, including composition, remixing, and mastering, with emphasis on key techniques of DSP and their applications in audio production. The class explores the implementation and application of common DSP functions in software applications, and how they are effectively applied in these projects.

This class provides students with the opportunity to create original audio-visual installations and performances using TouchDesigner, focusing on foundational skills in real-time, interactive design. Students will learn to create dynamic visuals that respond to audio and explore basic node-based programming, MIDI and OSC integration, and simple audio-reactive animations. Weekly assignments include reading, programming exercises, and small live demos, leading to a final project that can be a performance or installation using original TouchDesigner software.

This course explores the creation of sound effects for linear and interactive media using real time synthesis models and prototypes. Through the use of techniques ranging from subtractive synthesis to physical modeling students will gain a better understanding of the physical and acoustics of various types of common sound effects. Students will build audio models and sound effect engines using real time tools such as MAX as well as software synthesizers such as Sculpture. Throughout the course, students will also work with a number of DAWs and audio implementation tools such as Wwise and Fmod Studio, producing sound designs for both linear and interactive media.