Survey Day

Today we have a couple things to take care of before you continue on your projects. If you check your BAVC email you will see that you have received two emails from DPaudioA.

One of the emails has a link to a Post-Survey that we need you to fill out today. This survey gives us an idea of what you have learned since the beginning of this course.

The other email has a flyer attached that is for next years Digital Pathways programing. This flyer is for you to pass on to anyone you think may be interested in participating in DP programing next school year.


After you have finished the survey, please continue working on your 3D gaming songs or your personal projects.

Thanks!

Four Weeks Left!

I hope you all enjoyed the field trip to "The Zoo" on Tuesday! What did you think of seeing a professional studio?  


Here is a picture of the Studio we visited:

For those of you who couldn't make it, we also had the privileged of meeting Goapele!  She is a Bay area artist that records in the studio we visited and her record label is in the building as well. Here is a picture of Goapele in "The Zoo" hallway with Mos Def!

Moving on...
I looked at the calendar and after today we only have 8 classes left.  Before the end of the year you will need to finish the following projects:

1. Creative Recording Projects
2. Song for 3D Gaming
3. Making a Portfolio of your work (Details to come)
4. Any other Project you want to do while you have access to Reason, Pro Tools and a Studio. 


3D Gaming Projects:

1. Cyber-Pro: Trance/Electronica SAMANTHA
2. Color the World: BUFFY
3. Food Fight: Horror/Electronica KATYA
4. Nutrition Fiction: DANIKA
5. Bee Game: BREANNA
6. Grocery Store: up beat or calm and relaxing DANIELLE
7. Spaceship: Hip Hop/Trip Hop: BRITTNEE
8. Fisherman's Warf Biker: HANNA

3D Collaboration

Hello!

Today we will begin working on music for the 3D Gaming Class. We will review the games that the gaming students are creating and assign one game to each of you.

When creating music for these games, think about the atmosphere you are creating with your music. Since the songs are going to be repeated over and over as the game is played make sure the music is easy to listen to for a long period of time. Create a song that has a pace and mood that fits the theme of the game.

Try using Pads, Runs, the Matrix Pattern Sequencer or Monophonic Arpeggiator to create a mood and set the pace for the game.

As always, making this song will be a process of trial and error in order to create the atmosphere that you are looking for.

Good Luck!

Welcome Back!

Hello Class! I hope you all had a wonderful spring break.  There are a few things we need to think about as we begin the last 'trimester' of this class....

Final Projects

Today we will continue working on Final projects.  The Studio is available for recording sessions as usual so don't be shy to get in there and make it happen!

 

Collaborating with 3D Gaming 

On Thursday we will begin a collaboration project with the 3D Gaming class. They are each making a video game and need some music to match the mood of their game.  We can help them with that -more details to come on Thursday!

Felice's job Search Workshop

Next Tuesday April 12th Felice will be joining us for a Job Search workshop.  Please be sure to come on time and give her your undivided attention. 

Field Trip

On Tuesday April 19th we will be taking a small field trip to a professional studio in Oakland.  If you are coming from the East Bay we may want to meet you out there.  Please let us know so we can arrange the details.

Last Day of Class?

The last day of class will be Thursday May 19

Graduation

We will be having a final event with all of the Digital Pathways programs that is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday June 1st.  We will showcase some projects from all the classes so please invite your friends and family!

Adding Reverb To Audio Tracks in Pro Tools

Now that we've had some time to learn about recording, let's get into adding some FX to what we've recorded. If you remember, we learned about adding FX inside of Reason. In Pro Tools, it's going to be different. There are different types of audio editing. Commonly used terms are Destructive and Non-Destructive editing. Destructive editing happens when you make edits directly to the audio file. These edits are non-reversible and therefor considered destructive. Non-Destructive editing is editing that doesn't have any effect on the audio file itself. The results of a Non-Destructive editing are reversible, so if you make a change now that you later decide you don't like, you can easily make adjustments without having to worry about your audio file being potentially damaged. Let's look at how we can use Non-Destructive Editing to add FX to an audio track in Pro Tools.


1. Open Pro Tools


2. Open a Pro Tools Session that contains recorded audio.


3. Create a Master Fader Track. This will help us to monitor and make any necessary adjustments to the volume of your session.

4. Notice the Master Fader track on the screen? You can now make adjustments to the overall volume if you hear any distortion in your session. Notice that there is no Mute or Solo buttons on this track.

5. Now that we have the Master Fader, let's create a new track. This track is called an Aux Input. If you want to add an effect such as Reverb, you may want to use a Mono Aux Input. If you want to add Delay, you may want to use a Stereo Aux Input.

6. Notice the Aux Input track has a Solo and a Mute button. Also notice that there is no audio input, indicated by the No Input on the I/O section.

7. We're going to add an input to our Aux track. Click "No Input" and change that by going to Bus > Bus 1 (If you have mono) or Bus 1-2 (If you have stereo).

8. Now that we have our audio input, we need to Insert an effect. For this demonstration I'll insert a reverb into our track.

9. With our reverb now created, we will take our audio track and send it to our aux input.

10. You should now see 2 things on the screen. One is the reverb effect. On the reverb effect we can control the type of reverb we want, the size of the reverb and a few other settings. On the other small pop-up we can control just how much of that effect do we want on our audio track.

11. Make adjustments to the reverb (or whichever effect you're using) until you feel that you have the sound you're looking for.


Keep in mind the following things:


1. Your Master Fader should ALWAYS be Stereo.


2. Your Aux Input tracks can be Mono or Stereo depending on the effect you want.


3. You can send multiple audio tracks to an Aux Input.


4. You can create multiple Aux Input tracks.


5. Your different Aux Input tracks will need to be assigned to different Buses.

Announcements

Hey Audio A Students,

We've been doing a great job so far working on our projects and recording. There's a few announcements that need to be made for this week.

1. Friday, March 18 - Makeup Lab (also a time to schedule personal recording projects in the DAS...). Chris Runde (of Audio B) will be running this make-up lab. If you would like to use this time to work on any new music, make-up music, or schedule sometime to work on music in the DAS, we must know ASAP so that we can notify Chris.

2. Tuesday, March 22 - Job Readiness Workshop (this is a mandatory class for all Digital Pathways students. If you absolutely CAN'T make it on that day, you must email Felice and ask her how you can make it up - felice@bavc.org)

3. Thursday, March 24 - BAVC is having a Members Event and needs help recording audio for a podcast. This would be first hand experience recording a live event to be broadcasted on the internet. You would be assisting Chris Runde for this assignment. Any students interested should let us know ASAP so that we can notify Chris Runde.

4. March 28-April 1 - Spring Break. No Class! However, if anyone would like to schedule time for recording sessions during the week, talk to me and we'll see what we can work out. The sooner the better - DON'T call me up randomly in the middle of the week and be like, "Can I come through right now?" Chris Runde will be in attendance in this office throughout the Spring Break.


5. After Spring Break we will begin working on a collaborative project with students from 3D Gaming. 3D Gaming is looking for music and sounds for their projects and they'll be needing assistance from us! More information on this project will be available when we arrive from Spring Break.

Projects to work on

 Finish Trailer Project

• Sound Fx
• Dialog Replacement
• Music Score

Start Creative Final Project  

For your final project we want you have a polished creative audio project of your choice.  You are lucky to have access to Reason, Pro Tools and a Studio, so use what you have learned in class and make it happen! Take your time -make this your best work!

Project Ideas:

1. Full Song with recorded Vocals or Instrument
2. Video Post Production
3. Short Story with Sound Fx
4. A Capella or Acoustic Song
5. If you have other project ideas please let us know!

Things to think about as you get started....

• What do you want your project to be?
• Get Organized!
• Figure out what you will need to complete your project 
• Should you find someone to collaborate with?
• Song Arrangement
• Intro, Verses, Chorus, Outro
• Lyrics
• Verses, Chorus
• Mixing
• Panning, Volume, Reverb, EQ, Fx
• Don't be afraid to ask for help and advice!

ALSO...

TUESDAY MARCH 22: Mandatory Job Readiness Workshop

It is during our regular class time so make sure you come on time!

What Makes a Good Recording?

This past Tuesday we began recording vocals inside the DAS. Now, let's talk about what makes a good vocal recording. In some cases this can all be personal opinion, but there are also things we should be looking out for when we're making these recordings. There are things to keep in mind if you're in the seat of either the Engineer or the Talent.

As an engineer it is very important to pay attention to the the sound quality you're getting. You want to pay attention to things such as whether or not the vocals are being recorded too quiet or too loud and if their voice is being recorded to "dark" or "high". With vocals that are too loud or quiet, we can simply adjust the volume on our output or gain. However "dark" and "high" vocals can be from a combination of things. One of these is the type of voice a person has. There may be instances where you will record someone who has a very deep voice (Barry White) or a higher voice (Alicia Keys). Now I used a man and a woman as an example because men more frequently have deeper voices than women. So now that we have established 2 different types of voices, let's consider the different types of studio microphones. Studio microphones, often referred to as Condenser Microphones, come in various styles. However, appearance isn't the only thing different about these mics. What's inside also counts. There are microphones designed for these different kinds of voices. They are designed for these types of voices because of the way they record certain frequencies. They might help add clarity to a voice that has a lot of bass or help make a softer voice sound more "full". Then there's also "transparent" microphones which try to make as little adjustments to the frequency as possible to give you a real "exact" recording. Today we'll experiment with 2 different microphones.

Now there's also your preamplifier. This preamp that we're using is what gives power to our condenser microphone. Some preamps do more than just give power to the mic. They might also give us control over compression or E.Q. to help us adjust frequencies should we need to. We'll take a look at these things in the DAS today.


Now what should you consider on the talent side? It is referred to as Mic Technique. Mic Technique can be considered knowing the right amount of distance to be from the microphone, the right voice intonation to use, speaking clearly, etc. All of the things that give a believable performance. This is important for all who record. Voice actors, performing artists, narrators, etc.






Check out the tips displayed in this video

Intro to DAS

Today we will be learning how to use the Digital Audio Suite, also known as DAS.  We will go through the steps on how to turn on all the equipment and start a recording session.  

Our goal this week is to give all of you a chance to experience what it is like to record someone in the DAS and also what it is like to be recorded. You will need a sample of your own creative writing or an essay to be recorded.  If you have other ideas of something to record let us know so we can make it happen.

Once you are in the DAS, here is how to get started:

Now that the equipment is on you will need to create new Pro Tools session for recording.  Someone will need to be in the vocal booth to make sure the headphones and microphone are set up correctly for recording.

Do D.A.T.

Everybody meet Do D.A.T (Dat for short). Dat has been around in the Bay Area hip-hop scene for many years in a group called The Attik. As a group, The Attik has performed with artists such as KRS-1, E-40, Native Guns, and Zion I. As a solo artist, Dat released an album titled Oakland in Blue. Oakland in Blue is a jazz/hip-hop blend in which every song contains a sample from Duke Ellington. You can find his music at www.revernation.com/dodat.

Now why the promo? Well, Dat will be joining us in our program today to facilitate a writing workshop. Everybody be prepared to work on some writing because these works will become the start of us using the D.A.S. for recording!

Bouncing Video in Pro Tools

To bounce video in Pro Tools you want to do the following things:

1. Make sure that your video is complete. The sounds are in their proper place and your mix is how you want it to sound.

2. Go FILE > Bounce To > Quicktime Movie

3. Set your audio to be Stereo, 44.1, 16-bit. Click Bounce

4. Now choose a destination folder and click bounce. You should now see your movie play in real time for the entire length of it. It will then be ready begin the converting process and turn present you with a Quicktime file in your folder of choice.

Don't Forget Mixing!

Good work so far on your movie trailers! There are definitely great projects in the works! Just a reminder for you all: Don't Forget Mixing! Once you have your sounds in the right places, your dialogue recorded and your music produced, it's time to work on the different audio volumes, panning and FX. If you recorded any live audio and want to make adjustments to the pitch, here's how!




1. Use the Grabber Tool to select the specific audio file.

2. Go to the AudioSuite menu at the top of the screen in Pro Tools.

3. Select Pitch -> Time Shift.

4. Under the Time Shift feature, notice pitch on the bottom right. Adjust the pitch knob to the left for a deeper voice and to the right for a brighter voice.

5. Make sure that you preview the audio so you know it sounds like what you're looking for. After that, click Process.

Editing Tips

Today we will be continuing on the Trailer Post Production project that we started on Tuesday.  On Tuesday you picked a Trailer to work with and began the process of adding sound effects to match the actions in the trailer.  The goal is to make it sound real.  The audio should be a perfect match with the video.  

Remember there are three parts to this project.

1. Add Sound FX

2. ADR- Replace the dialog (mics are available)

3. Add a music score using Reason as an instrument in Pro Tools

In order for you to properly edit the audio for your trailer you will need to use some of the handy tools in Pro Tools.  Lets Review....

The Smart Tool

This is the combination of the Trimmer Tool, Selector Tool and the Grabber tool.  

When Editing with the Smart tool there are several things that you can do.  Watch how the mouse transforms depending on what part of the audio region you place the mouse.

If you put the mouse in the middle of the region.... you should be able to you the selector tool which selects a portion of the region.

If you put the mouse at the bottom of the region you will be able to use the Grabber Tool witch selects the whole region and allows you to move it from one place to another.

If you put the mouse at the end of the region you will be able to use the Trimmer tool.  This will let you trim the ends of the region.

There are also two other functions that you can use with the smart tool. They are Fade in/out and Cross Fade.

If you want the fade out at the end of your region place the mouse at the upper right or left corner begin to make your fade.

If you would like to cross fade, which is a way smoothly blend your regions together, put your mouse at the bottom right or left corner.

These tools should be very useful for you.  Make sure that your audio is believable!

Also remember you can zoom in and out in order to be precise with the timing of your sound so they are in sync with the actions in the Trailer.

Post Production Part 1

This week we're going to take a look into the world of audio post production.


What is post production?

Post-production is part of the filmmaking process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures,television programs, radio programs, advertising, videos, audio recordings, photography and digital art. It is term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work.

Post-production is, in fact, many different processes grouped under one name. These typically include:

• Editing the picture / television program
• Writing, (re)recording, and editing the soundtrack.
• Adding visual special effects - mainly computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital copy from which release prints will be made (although this may be made obsolete by digital-cinematechnologies).
• Sound Design, Sound Effects, ADR, Foley and Music, culminating in a process known as sound re-recording or mixing.
• Transfer of film to Video or Data with a telecine and Color grading.
• 
  

Typically, the post-production phase of creating a film takes longer than the actual shooting of the film, and can take several months to complete. (Wikipedia)

Here are a couple of videos that give an example of the job(s) someone would do during post production.





This week we're going to begin working on our own post production work. In the Audio A folder you will find a Videos folder with 6 files in it. Choose one of the video clips that you would like to work with. Once you have the video clip that you like, we're going to import it to Pro Tools and begin making our own versions of the trailers. Let's take a look at the step-by-step process that we'll be using.


1. Go into Audio A Folder. Watch trailers. Pick which one you would like to work with.


2. Create a folder on your desktop labeled "yourname_trailer"


3. Open Pro Tools. Create a new session titled "yourname_trailer" and save it inside the folder you just created.


4. Once Pro Tools is open, let's import the video clip. Go to File > Import > Import Video File. Find your video file and import it. You should now have a video track on Pro Tools with an audio track under it.


5. Watch the video and analyze it. What sounds are being used? How is the timing on the sound fx?


6. Mute the audio.


7. In the Audio A folder you'll see a folder labeled Hollywood Edge. In this folder are sound fx and different audio clips that can be used for post production. Drag it to your desktop.


8. What sound FX will you be needing? Go to the Import Audio section of Pro Tools and check out the different sounds in the folders. Import the sound FX that you'll need for the video clip.


9. Next, let's work on using the grabber (hand) tool to place the sound fx where they need to be. Does it need to start at the beginning of the trailer? Play at the end? Play throughout the entire trailer? Place the sounds where you feel they need to be.

Frequency, Amplitude and EQ

Today we will be learning some fundamental elements of sound.  First of all, what is sound?

Sound is vibration that we detect with our ears.  When we hear sound, we detect different Frequencies.  


When looking at a sound wave, the frequency of the wave describes how frequent the wave cycle is.  The image above depicts waves that are different frequencies.  The top red wave has a low frequency and the bottom purple wave has a high frequency.

So what does Frequency mean to our ears? 
High Frequency sound waves are higher in Pitch
Low Frequency Sound waves are lower in Pitch.

 

What is another way to describe sound?  Sound can be High and low in Pitch, what else can you notice about sound?

Sound also has a Volume level.  When looking at a sound wave a louder sound would have a larger Amplitude.

You could say that Amplitude is how tall the wave is and Frequency is how long the wave is.
For your ears, Amplitude is how loud the sound is and Frequency is how high or low in pitch it sounds.

 

 

In Music the instruments that we love have Frequency Ranges.  For instance the Flute would have a higher range then the Bass Guitar.  Here is a chart showing the frequency ranges of instruments and the human voice. 

 In order to understand this chart we need to know how frequency is measured.  Frequency is measured in Hertz, Abbreviated Hz.  This Chart ranges from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. This is also the range of human hearing.  Dogs for instance can hear higher frequencies than humans.

Hearing test!

SO how is all of this information useful for us as we work with music?  

Well.... we will be using what is called an Equalizer.  This is often called EQ.   When we use an equalizer what we are doing is changing the volume at a specific frequency. 

You may have seen this on a stereo.  For example many stereos have to option of boosting the BASS.  What that means is they are using EQ to increase the volume of the low frequencies in your music.

Today we will be using EQ in Pro Tools in order to Effect the Guitar or Vocals that you recorded earlier this week.

Assignment

1. Open up your "who I am" Pro Tools Session

2. Go to the window menu to display the mixer

3. Find the inserts on the vocal or guitar track that you will be working with

4. Insert -> multichannel plug-in -> EQ -> EQ 3 7-Band (stereo)

5. Take a look at the EQ

6. First, experiment with the EQ. See how cutting or boosting the volume at different frequencies effects the sound. 

To EQ the vocals and guitar, the yellow green and blue sections will effect your sound the most.


7. Usually when using EQ it is a subtle effect but today feel free to experiment and see what you can do with the sound. 

ps. check out the Presets!