Eastman Computer Music Center (ECMC)
CMP 225 : Introduction to Computer Music Techniques

Course syllabus for

semester 1, fall 2009

Staff email addresses and phone numbers:
Allan Schindleraschindler AT esm.rochester.edu274 1575
John Liberatorejsliberatore AT gmail.com(315) 730 6849
Steven Rice scr AT riceklang.com(443) 845 3991
Geoffrey Pope gpope AT u.rochester.edu ----
Caroline Marcumcaroline.marcum AT gmail.com ----
Xander Snydersnyder.xander@gmail.com ----

Some "emeritus" staff members who continue to provide valuable expertise and assistance for ECMC concerts and activities, and whom you should get to know:
Paul Coleman (paulcolemanmusic AT gmail.com) ; Matt Barbour (brbrofsvl AT gmail.com) ; and Baljinder Sekhon (sekhonmusic AT gmail.com)

(In all of the email addresses above, delete the word "AT" and the surrounding spaces, and substitute the @ symbol.)
The following course materials are available for your use in room 53 :

Texts for first semester work:

  • Huber, David and Williams, Philip, Professional Microphone Techniques
  • Pellman, Sam, An Introduction to the Creation of Electroacoustic Music ML 1380 .P391 I6 1994
  • Roads, Curtis, The Computer Music Tutorial ML MT56.R628 C73 1996
None of these books should ever leave the ECMC studios!!!!!

Recordings :

    (Available for your listening pleasure on Windows computer fury and Linux computer sound in room 53:)
  • Berio, Luciano, Visage
  • Stockhausen, Karlheinz, Kontakte
  • Risset, Jean-Claude, Songes
  • Lansky, Paul, Idle Chatter
  • Wishart, Trevor Vox-5
  • Saariaho, Kaija, Nymphea for string quartet and electronics
  • Koonce, Paul Pins
Course materials fee of $7 covers the cost of the following items you will be given:
  • One cdr or cd-rw or dvd disc (format of your choice) in jewel case for backing up files
  • Copies of handouts from studio manuals and other documentation
Pay the cashier and bring your receipt to class to receive your materials.
Additional cd and dvd discs and other studio supplies can be purchased as needed any time during the year. Check the price sheet posted outside room 53, pay the cashier on the first floor and bring your receipt to a staff member to receive the item(s) you need.

Course grading: Your semester grade will be based on three evaluations of your work:

  1. Individual test 1 on material convered in units 1 and 2, week of September 29 and October 1 (20 % of semester grade)
  2. Individual test 2 on unit 3 material, week of November 3 and 5 (20 % of semester grade)
  3. Individual (mini-)test 3 on unit 4 material, December 1 and 3 (10 % of semester grade)
  4. Semester compositional (or recording/processing/mixing) project, due Monday, Dec. 14 : (40 % of semester grade)
  5. Class participation (10 % of semester grade)
We have scheduled a concert of works realized in the studios this term on Monday, Dec. 14 in room 120 on the last day of classes.
Weekly assignments for semester 1, autumn 2009:

[All optional assignments -- suggested but not required -- are printed below in brackets and in small type.]

Unit 1 : Analog and digital audio recording and mixing techniques

Week 1 : Sept. 1, 3 : Course overview; analog and digital signals; microphones; mic pre-amps; console mixers

Tues: Course structure; lab times; goals of this course; usage of the studios ; acoustic, electronic, magnetic and digital signals and signal paths; microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers ; microphone placement; microphone and speaker fields; types of microphones; mic polar patterns; characteristics of large condenser mics
Thurs : setting mic signal levels on the Focusrite Voicemaster pre-amps some basic acoustical properties of sound: frequency, amplitude and timbre; distortion and noise; introduction to the Mackie 1642-VLZ3 mixer: input channels, preamps, faders, panning, stereo buss and monitoring; the Totalmix application on the Windows and Macintosh computers; the Blue Sky BMC controller; the Coleman A/B (Mac/PC) switcher
Reading assignment:
  1. Pellman : the sections on
    • The Science of Sound (pages 1 through 9, up to Phase)
    • Transducers (pages 14-19)
    • mixing, pages 102 through the bottom of 108
  2. Roads, Digital Representations of Sound, pages 22-36; and Dynamic Ranges of Digital Audio Systems, pages 38-41 (up to Oversampling)
  3. Huber and Williams, pages 9 (Frequency Response) through 15
  4. Focusrite Voicemaster handout
  5. Mackie 1642-VLZ3 handout : pages 14 and 15
Labs and individual studio work:
Practice micing various types of mono acoustic signals (not just your voice) with the studio Audio Technica large condenser cardiod microphones through the Voicemaster pre-amps, monitoring these signals over headphones and, through the Mackie mixer, over the Genelec speakers. (Be careful to avoid feedback when monitoring mic signals over loudspeakers.) Strive to achieve good signal quality and hot (but never distorted) levels. This week you will you will get a lot of help from your TA. By the end of next week you should be able, without such assistance, to set up and control the entire recording signal path -- the microphone, the Voicemaster preamp and the Mackie mixer..

Week 2 : Sept. 8, 10: Signal paths; amplitude, levels, gain staging and compression; equalization (EQ); fundamentals of digital audio

Tues : Amplitude compression, equalization (EQ), filtering and de-essing with the Voicemaster pre-amp and the Mackie mixer
Thurs: Digital (computer) representation of audio signals; digital sampling rates, bit depths, signal levels, clipping points and quantization noise; digital recording procedures; more information on micing techniques for recording specific instruments; introduction to the ECMC MIDI studio Windows workstation and the Windows desktop; the ECMC web site
Reading assignment:
  1. Mackie 1624 VLZ3 handout: sections 32, 33 and 34, pages 16-17
  2. Roads, Dynamic Range Processing, 390-394
  3. [Pellman : Pages 61 through the middle of page 64 (up to Digital Recorders)]
  4. [Roads, Mixing consoles, 362-367 (up to Hybrid Consoles]
Labs and individual studio work:
Continue to practice micing and pre-amplifying various types of acoustic signals. With a friend, practice using two mic sources and mixing these sources on the Mackie mixer. Using the Voicemaster, practice applying dynamics compression, EQ and de-essing to these mic signals. Make sure that you understand the basic operation of Totalmix, and of the BMC bass management controller for monitoring and adjusting listening levels.

Listening assignment: Berio, Visage

Unit 2: Digital modification ("effects" processing) of signals

Week 3 : Sept. 15 , 17 : Introduction to Windows system igor; making and editing digital recordings; "effects" processing; delay lines

Tues: the ECMC web site (http://www.ecmc.rochester.edu); the sflib collection; playing audio files with MediaPlayer or Winamp; recording and simple editing of soundfiles with Audacity
Thurs : routing signals to external signal processing devices; the 1642 VLZ3 AUX SEND and return circuits; the Effectron digital delay line; common delay line "effects": comb filtering, flanging and phasing; spatial ambience, distance cues and reverberation; room acoustics and sound reinforcement systems; musique concrete and the early history of electronic music (1945-1960)
Reading assignment:
  1. With the Audacity soundfile editing application open, click on Help --> Contents in the upper right corner of the Audacity window to open the quick reference manual. Read through the tutorial on using various menus and tracks.
  2. From the ECMC sflib page at http://ecmc.rochester.edu/ecmc/docs/sflib/sflib.html, read through the descriptions of some of the sflib folders, including Overview of the ECMC SFLIB directories
  3. Mackie 1642 VLZ3 handout: AUX SEND circuits, sections 35-54, pages 17 - 22
  4. the Effectron manual handout

Labs and individual studio work:

  1. Learn how to use and find your way around the Windows desktop
  2. Review your RME Totalmix class handout and make sure you fully understand how to route signals through TotalMix
  3. Learn how to access the ECMC web pages (especially the MIDI Studio section of the Online DOCs page) with the Firefox (or Chrome or Opera) browser
  4. Beginning this week, and over the next few weeks audition soundfiles in many of the folders of the sflib collection. These sound sources should prove useful to you in your work in the studios this year.
  5. With Audacity, practice recording microphone signals into soundfiles, importing sflib soundfiles, applying simple edits (e.g. trimming) and DSP effects to these soundfiles and saving the edited versions to your own folder.
  6. Learn how to use
    • the Mackie Aux. Send circuits
    • the Effectron digital delay line

Listening assignment: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kontakte, excerpt from part 1

Assignment for Test 1, due September 29/October 1:
  1. Record 10-20 seconds of a dry acoustic vocal signal into a Windows soundfile with Audacity
  2. Record 10-20 seconds of a dry acoustic instrumental or concrete signal into a Windows soundfile with Audacity
    These 2 soundfile recordings will be evaluated not only on technical (audio) quality, but also musical inventiveness.

Week 4 : Sept. 22, 24 : Reverberation and spatial ambience; modulation; (intentional) distortion techniques

Tues : Reverberation, sound localization and spatial ambience; the architecture of the Lexicon PCM70 digital reverberator and "effects" processor; altering the PCM70 presets and storing your own programs
Thurs : distortion and ring modulation techniques using the Roland Boss GT-3 guitar effects processor; using processing devices in combination; placing and "choreographing" sounds in a mix
Reading assignment:
  1. the PCM70 manual handout
  2. Boss GT-3 manual handout
  3. Pellman, The Science of Sound, Part II , pages 81 through 90 (up to the bottom paragraph), and pages 108 to the top of 113
  4. [Roads, Fixed Delay Effects, 435-440]
  5. [Roads, Reverberation 472-478 (up to Unit Reverberators)]

Labs and individual studio work: Learn how to use

  1. the PCM70
  2. the GT-3 stompbox

Listening assignment: two works:

  1. Paul Lansky, Idle Chatter
  2. Jean-Claude Risset, Songes
Assignment for Test 1, due next week :
During your appointment next week you will be asked to set up one or two mic signal paths that include common "effects" processing, such as
  • dynamics processing and EQ
  • echos (Effectron or PCM70)
  • reverberation (PCM70
  • ring modulation and distortion (Boss GT-3)

Week 5 : Sept. 29, Oct. 1: TEST 1 on basic recording and signal processing techniques

No regular classes or labs this week. Individual appointment tests covering material in units 1 and 2.
In addition to your prepared soundfiles and effects processing (see week 3 and week 4 assignments), I also will ask you a few questions on
  • the studio equipment covered so far
  • the reading assignments
  • the Berio, Stockhausen, Lansky and Risset listening examples.

Week 6: October 6, 8 : Using external media (cds, dvds, flash drives)

Tues. University holiday. No class.
Thurs: Playing and ripping audio compact discs; the ECMC library of cd sound samples; burning audio and data to cd-r, cd-rw and dvd discs with Nero Burning; DVD formats; using flash drives; printing files to the HP printer in room 53.

Reading assignment:
    Nero Burning class handout

Labs and individual studio work:

  1. Learn how to create both audio and data cdr and cd-rw discs, and data DVD discs, with Nero Burning, and also how to rip tracks from audio compact discs into hard disk soundfiles.
    Throughout the rest of this course be sure to back up all of your important files promptly to cdr, cd-rw or dvd discs or to a flash drive so that you can restore these files in the event of a system disaster, or if they are inadvertently deleted or become corrupted.
  2. [Recommended: Over the next couple of weeks sign out and listen to portions of two or three of the ECMC library of sound sample audio compact discs, and make note of any sound sources you might want to include in your semester project.]

Listening assignment: Trevor Wishart, Vox-5

Unit 3: Computer hard disk recording, editing, mixing and signal processing

Week 7 : Oct. 13, 15 : Introduction to Cubase

Tues : Introduction to Cubase 5: the project window; recording and importing soundfiles; viewing and editing soundfiles and tracks in various Cubase windows; "destructive" and "non-destructive" editing procedures; simple track mixing in the main project window
Thurs: Cubase: regions and markers; punch-in and punch-out recording; mixing in the mixer window; dynamics processing, EQ and "effects" processing
Reading assignment:
Cubase class handout, pages 5-58 through 5-67 (Introduction) and pages 7-81 through 7-94 (recording)

Labs and individual studio work:

  1. Practice recording into microphone signals into soundfiles with Cubase, and importing soundfiles from the sflib folders
  2. Practice editing soundfile recordings in Cubase and mixing tracks in the project window. Also practice creating regions and markers and adding EQ, compression and "effects."

Listening assignment: Kaija Saariaho, Nymphea (Listen especially for the real-time processing of the instrumental sounds.)

Assignment for Test 2, due the week of November 4, 6:

Create two sequencing "projects" with Cubase, each about 20 seconds in duration. One of these mixes should be in stereo, the other in 5.1 surround format (covered next week). Within each of these mixes:

  1. Use at least four sound sources. At least two of these sources must be soundfiles you have recorded with a mic from acoustic sound sources. If you wish, the others can be sounds from the ECMC sflib collection, from the ECMC CD sample library, or from some other pre-recorded source
  2. Apply some signal processing techniques to modify these sound sources, using DSP effects available in Cubase (e.g. EQ, noise gating, time compression and expansion, pitch shifting, room simulators and reverberation, using only regions of longer soundfiles, and so on).
Your sequences will be evaluated on musical as well as technical criteria. Use a variety of signal processing techniques, but don't go overboard. (I hope to hear some unique and thoughtful musical ideas and threads, not merely a catalog of "special effects" and echos.) Perhaps you will be able to incorporate some of this assignment into your semester project.
During this appointment you also will be asked to edit one of your Cubase project files, applying temporary changes.

Week 8 : October 20, 22 : Further work with Cubase

Tues: Automation procedures; multichannel recording and playing; "surround sound" formats; possibilities and problems with "surround sound" playback; creating 5.1 mixes in Cubase
Thurs: Syncing video to audio in applications such as Cubase; lossy and lossless audio and video compression codecs (mp3, quicktime etc.);
Discussion of some possibilities for your final projects;
Introduction to MIDI and basic MIDI resources of the studio; MIDI interfaces; MIDI controllers: the Fatar keyboard controller; MIDI control messages, including velocity sensitivity, aftertouch, pitch and modulation wheels and foot pedals pacing and timing; static and goal-oriented designs; notation ; planning a composition
Reading assignment:
  1. Cubase handout: pages 10- 124 thru 10-139
  2. In working with the Cubase topics covered this week you probably will want to refer to portions of the hardcopy or the online versions of the Cubase Operation Manual
    (A link to the online version of the Cubase manual is available from the ECMC web site Documentation page)

Labs and individual studio work:

  1. In Cubase, practice using automation
  2. Practice making 5.1 mixes with Cubase.

Listening assignment: Paul Koonce, Pins

Final project assignment :
Begin planning your semester project. For most of you this will consist of a short (2-5 minute) composition, using a variety of acoustic sound sources and signal processing techniques. If you wish, these sound sources can include sounds copied sflib or from the studio CD library of sampled sound sources as well as microphone signals. Eventually you will also be able to incorporate, if you wish, some sounds from the Kontakt software synthesizer or the k2000 hardware synthesizer (both to be covered in coming weeks), but you should concentrate primarily on acoustic rather than on MIDI sound sources.
The format for your project can be either

  • Stereo, recorded to an audio compact disc, or else
  • 5.1 surround, played from hard disk
  • realtime performance (e.g. involving the GT3 or live mic processing)
We will discuss your project ideas during individual appointments next week.

Week 9 : October 27, 29 : Individual Appointments

No regular classes or labs this week. Individual appointments to discuss your ideas and sketches for a semester project.
PROJECTS ARE DUE MONDAY, DECEMBER 14. However, if your project must be copied to one of the ECMC laptop computers for live playback during the class concert, all files to be copied are due SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13 at noon.

Week 10 : Nov. 3, 5 : TEST 2 covering Cubase sequencing

No regular classes or labs this week.
Class time will be devoted to individual appointments in which you will play your prepared Cubase sequences (see week 7 assignment), and to make some temporary edits and changes in these "project" files. In addition to this prepared portion of the test, I will ask you a few questions on the Wishart, Saariaho and Koonce listening examples.

Unit 4: Introduction to MIDI ; hardware and software synthesizers, samplers and controllers

Week 11 : November 10, 12 : MIDI synthesizers and samplers

Tues : how hardware and software samplers and synthesizers work; playing preset "programs" on the Kurzweil k2000 synthesizer ; accessing K2000 "programs" (sounds) within Cubase; recording and editing MIDI data in Cubase
Thurs: Using sounds from the Kontakt software sampler in Cubase sequences
Reading assignment:
  1. k2000 class handout
  2. Kontakt class handout
  3. The pages on MIDI recording and editing from your Cubase handout

Labs and individual studio work:

  1. Play through many of the preset sounds on the K2000 synthesizer, and, while doing this, try using the various controllers on the Fatar keyboard
  2. Learn how to use Kontakt both as a standalone sampler and as a Cubase plugin
Assignment for Test 3, due December 2 or 4 :
Create a short (ca. 20-40 second) Cubase sequence using ONLY sound sources from the K2000 or from Kontakt. Include at least three different timbres.
This mini-project doesn't have to be complicated or fancy -- just competently and musically done in terms of using sound samples from Kontakt and/or the K2K. You should be able to do the whole thing in a couple of hours.

Week 12 : Nov. 17, 19 : MIDI percussion controllers; acoustical and psychoacoustical properties of sound

Tues: the dk10 MIDI percussion controller; the Marimba Lumina controller
Thurs: In preparation for our work with synthesis techniques next semester we will discuss some important acoustical and psychoacoustical principles; properties of instrumental and vocal tones: amplitude and pitch envelopes; vibrato, tremolo and beating
Reading assignment:
  1. the dk10 manual handout
  2. the Marimba Lumina manual handout

Labs and individual studio work:

  1. Practice playing the Marimba Lumina and using the dk10 controller to trigger percussive sounds, both in live performance and within Cubase sequences. As part of your mini-test on December 2 or 4 I will ask you to play one of these controllers.
  2. Continue work on your semester projects

Week 13 : Nov. 24 : Acoustical and psychoacoustical properties of sound (concluded)

Tues: timbre, formants and other acoustical and psychoacoustical properties that will be important in your work with synthesis techniques next semester
Thurs : No class. Happy Thanksgiving.
No labs this week.

Week 14 : December 1, 3 : Mini-TEST

No regular classes or labs this week. Individual appointments will include:

  1. Playing of your sequence using sounds from the K2000 and/or Kontakt.
  2. I will ask you to play the Marimba Lumina, or else to use the dk10 to play sounds from either Kontakt or from the k2000
  3. Discussion of your progress to date on your final project.

Week 15 : December 8, 10 : Wrappin' it up

Tues: Preparations for our end-of-semester concert; introduction to Macintosh system wozzeck and to OSX and the Mac file system; playing soundfiles, burning and ripping compact discs and DVDs; running Cubase, Kontakt and other familiar applications on the Mac
Thurs: Class will not meet, but I will meet with many of you to help you finish your semester project.

Labs will not meet, but the TAs will post office hours during which they will be available to help you complete your semester projects.

If your project is on a cd, this disc is due by noon on Monday, December 14.
If your project is a multichannel or realtime work that must be played from hard disk, make certain it is on the Windows users' partition and ready to be copied to one of our laptops by noon on Sunday, December 13.

We will present a concert of works produced in the studios this term on Monday, December 14 at 6:00 in room 120. Setup will begin earlier, at a time to be announced in class. All of us will participate in setup and teardown after the concert.

Projects will be graded within a few days of their presentation on the class concert, and can be picked up in the Composition Department office anytime afterwards.

Before leaving:

  • Back up all important soundfiles and other files you may wish to use in the future onto data cds, a data dvd or a flash drive.
  • Delete most of your soundfiles, including all large soundfile mixes, and also large Cubase "project" files, unless you will be continuing to work with some of these files during the semester break or at the very beginning of next semester. If you definitely will be using these soundfiles for further work during the next few weeks, let a staff member know of your plans. Otherwise, we likely will delete these files in late December or early January.
Happy semester break!