Much of what we do in this course will depend upon your interests and skills. For that reason you will be given a questionnaire which will help me structure things in favor of your interests and needs. It is assumed you have some basic production skills and knowledge of the principles of audio production. We will, nevertheless, go over some of the basics in the first few days. The emphasis in the advanced course will be on more complex projects and more sophisticated recording and production techniques. Students will be encouraged to concentrate on a single area of interest. That could be live concert recording, documentary production, dramatic works, natural history research with field recordings, abstract works, audio installations or whatever strikes your fancy. The whole point of the course is in depth exploration of the field of audio production.

The most important thing you will learn in this course is how to listen. Aesthetic and technical criticism are key aspects of this advanced course. All of your work will be presented in class and you will be expected to provide thoughtful self criticism of your own work.

Lectures:
This phase of the course will be kept to a minimum. Nevertheless, there are some concepts which are best handled through the device of the lecture. I will review the essential physics and psychology of audio, and the basic concepts of sound recording. In addition, short lectures will be used to introduce some of the more abstract and conceptual material for classroom discussion. I may assign reserve or internet readings so that you will be informed and perhaps even challenging listeners. Refer to the posted Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines for details.

Recommended Textbooks (None Required):
1) Alten, Stanley P. Audio in Media, Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999. Alten's book has become something of a standard for production courses in universities. It is required for the course. For a comprehensive look at audio matters it is hard to beat. The fifth edition of this book is the latest. You can order one through the campus bookstore or from one of the online booksellers. It is expensive ($75.00) but worth owning if you are really serious about audio. You could save some money by buying an earlier edition or doing some comparative shopping online. Try Best Book Buys  on the web for some comparison shopping. Some might argue that the fourth edition is more complete. It is bigger.

2) Online texts (Free): There are a number of online sources of information about audio production. Shure has a site with some interesting technical details regarding microphones. One value of the site is the explosion of some microphone myths. The Shure FAQ page is also helpful. Another site (You should consider this one required reading) that can enhance your sense of production in audio is the Noise site.  Noise is a five part series of programs that ". . . will listen to these noises, and try to evoke the new modes of hearing being formed in response to the omnipresence and insistence of noise." Barry Truax's Handbook for Acoustic Ecology is at the very least an excellent annotated dictionary of audio related terms. It should be used as a beginnng point for any new territory of exploration. You can search the text by theme or by alphabet. Many audio examples are included in the site.Yuri's Audiodramatists Lexicon  is another good review of terms related to audio production. It is not limited to terms related to drama. Take a look at the  Rane Professional Audio Reference, an online dictionary of audio and audio-related terms. Bookmark this one for future reference.

There are several other good online sources for the physics and phychoacoustics of sound. One good page on the physical basics of sound is hosted by the UCSC Experimental music program. In fact they have a number of very good, easy to understand technical essays on sound and recording. Please read the online Physics Text that deals with Sound Waves and Music. Modules 37-45 in the Cybercollege online Television Production Text deal with audio. Review that material. Radio College is a developing site that may be useful for persons considering working in Public Radio. The technical tips are basic fare, useful but not overly detailed. It is site that has some potential and is certainly worth a visit from time to time to track additions.

Interested in nature recording? Steven L. Hoop has a good resource page dealing with nature recording and some of the equipment and software required for recording and analysis.

Radio drama? Listening to Radio Plays: Fictional Soundscapes, is Alan Beck's overview of the elements of construction in radio drama. His analysis is really limited to the earliest established conventions (which still work even if they offend us in their simplicity) or radio drama. These conventions, like all such conventions, grew out of a lack of a grammar of dramatic construction in radio. Beck also supplies us with, Is radio blind or invisible? A call for a wider debate on listening-in. In this essay he examines the limiting effects that viewing radio as a blind medium has on the way we use the medium, create for it, theorize it,  and listen to it.

An important part of this course is to help you develop an appreciation of the difference between hearing and listening. Read about the Common Misconceptions about Sound and Hearing. Some more sophistication in understanding listening as opposed to hearing can be found in Garry Fearington's essay, "Keep Your Ear-lids Open."

Arnte's Sound Site is a good general site for sound matters. Rolf Langenbartels has an interesting site called Soundbag in which he presents a new sound art related image every week. The opening page is accompanied by a delightful and peaceful composition by Eric Satie. Not particularly useful for this course but fun anyway.

There are three other books I want to list. Neither of them is a required text. But I list them with the recommendation that you consider owning them. The recommendation is especially intended for those of you with a real interest in sound. During the semester, I will draw on some readings from these edited works for classroom discussion. These readings have little to do with the skill of audio production and everything to do with the theory, aesthetics, ideology, and even the politics of audio production. This stuff is almost as much fun as cutting tape or clicking and dragging audio segments!

3) Strauss, Neil (Ed.). Radiotext(e), Semiotext(e) #16, Volume VI, Issue 1, 1993. This collection of readings has been required for a couple of my courses in the past. It is accessible and fun to read. The readings help expand one's notions of the audio enterprise and the potential of the medium. Though the focus of the text is nominally on radio, you will find an unexpected richness in these simple readings. These will form the basis of a couple of our class discussions. I have seen it at the Bulls Head and at the Regulator in Durham. It is a required text for the Audio Theory and Aesthetics course (COMM 141).

4) Kahn, Douglas and Gregory Whitehead (Eds.). Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992. This text could be viewed as Radiotext(e) taken to another intellectual plane. The readings are rich and complex but well worth the digging. It is a required text for the Audio Theory and Aesthetics course (COMM 141).

5) Weis, Elisabeth and John Belton (Eds.). Film Sound: Theory and Practice, New York: Columbia University Press, 1985 This is another recommended text especially for those of you who want to understand the practice of audio production as it relates to film and video. It is a good basic reference. some of the material covered in this book is also covered in Alten. Still, they are very different texts. This is a good addition to your library.

6) Finally, please review the "Care and Feeding" document. It is a gentle reminder about your contribution to the wellbeing of our production facilities. I consider everything in the document to be fair game for exams at any time.

Supplies:
Each student is responsible for supplying his own media for use during the semester. DAT tapes will be supplied for the first group project. If you need additional tape or Minidiscs, you will have to arrange to purchase it yourself. You may check out a Jaz Diskette for temporary storage of large digital projects.

Personal Recorders:
You will also need access to a good quality portable cassette, open reel, MiniDisc or DAT recorder. The Department has a few analog cassette machines, several DAT recorders, and two portable MiniDisc recorders available for checkout. These machines get heavy use during the semester. They are sometimes not available because they are checked out or because they are in maintenance. It is therefore advisable that you develop some other options for doing field recordings. The Department does support Cassette, DAT, and MiniDisc through the inclusion of  decks in the audio production areas.

I strongly recommend that you consider the MiniDisc format over Cassette if you are thinking about buying an affordable portable recorder of your own. Just remember, MiniDisc is not the same as DAT. It is a compressed format that discards audio data in order to save storage space. For unprocessed playback and simple editing it achieves excellent fidelity. Many audiophiles say it is virtually indistinguishable from CDs. If you anticipate doing heavy signal processing or scientific analysis of MD recordings, expect to see severe compression artifacts and data loss. For more information on MiniDiscs check out the MiniDisc Community Page.  This is an incredibly comprehensive site covering any and everything related to MD technology. If you are even mildly interested in MD, go to this page but do not expect to make a quick exit.

Headphones:
Finally, I recommend (actually, I insist) that you invest in a pair of good quality headphones. They can make production work much more precise and clean. They are absolutely essential for work in the new lab. The workstations do not have speakers associated with them.  Buy real headphones! Not the little things you stick in your ears to listen to your Walkperson. We can discuss some of your options in class but in the interim, do some research. You should also have enough adaptors and splitters to allow you and a partner to share a workstation.

The Headwize page has a good overview of headphone technology. as well as a FAQ page that answers questions about which headphones to buy.   You may want to spend some time "listening" to what other people have to say about headphones but ultimately your choice will turn on your own preferences for comfort, acoustic isolation, price, and performance. Headroom is another site that deals with headphones. It is a bit slicker and has a somewhat different approach. One of the more comprehensive sites for head mounted speakers is hosted by Michael Hoffman. It deals with both earbuds and headphones.

Most of the work in the PC and Mac Labs will be done using headphones or the small tabletop speakers. Headphones are problematic in some ways. Please read the Art of Monitoring and Mixing with Headphones for a good discussion of some of the important considerations. A somewhat more technical discussion is in Thoughts . . Mixing with Headphones.

Personal Software:
Gold wave audio http://www.goldwave.com/
Cool Edit home page http://www.syntrillium.com/cooledit/index.html

Attendance and Participation:
Ok, lets get this out of the way. Come to every class. Participate in every discussion, especially evaluations of student work. Spotty attendance will result in full letter grade reductions regardless of the quality of the rest of your work.

Grading:
This is a production course. Consequently, your grade will depend largely upon the quality of your production work. Eighty percent of your grade comes from production projects. There will be several written exercises done in conjunction with evaluation of class projects. They will count 10% of your grade. I do want you to be fluent in the language of audio production and criticism. The exercises will test your mastery of any lecture material, assigned readings, studio problem solving and critical listening. Bring writing materials to class each day. Another 10% of your grade will come from "Proposals" you submit to the Audio Genre Development Foundation .

Five Projects:
1. Project One is a group project. Prepare an audio work of no more than five minutes length (3 minutes minimum) in which you create a mood, tell a story, offer a description, or otherwise present a "picture" to the listener. Use no dialogue or any readily understandable human language. The recorded material should be original and the final product should incorporate some manipulation of the recorded material. You may not use any prerecorded material in this assignment. Work together and use this project to acquaint yourself with recording devices and to learn your way around the studio and/or work stations as you prefer. (10%) (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines)

2. Project Two can be either an individual or a group project. It must be four to six minutes in length. In this one you may use some prerecorded material and spoken words. Nevertheless, at least twenty five percent of the material used must be original recordings you have made. The objective is to present a complete work that shows a variety of recording and production techniques. Like all subsequent projects, this one can be about anything and take on any form you choose. (10%) (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines)

3. Project Three: Two Snapshots. Record a single (discrete) acoustic event of no more than five seconds duration for each snapshot. Use that recording as the sole basis of a 2-5 minute production. You may work in either analog or digital domains. If the sound you chose is from a repeating pattern such as a clock ticking, use only one instance of the sound (a single cycle of "tick tock"). Otherwise, there are no rules. Do not spend a lot of time on this project. You need not have both pieces ready at the same time. End each snapshot with a two second pause followed by the original (unaltered) recording of the acoustic event you chose. This is an individual project. (10%) (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines)

4. Project Four is individual effort. It must include at least some originally scripted spoken material (not a transcript). Provide a typed copy of the script. If you have some compelling artistic reason to not include scripted material in the body of your project, see me. We can arrange for you to do a small addendum to the project that would meet the scripting criterion.. This project is five to ten minutes long (timed exactly to the minute]. By this time you should be able to use more complex techniques. I expect your production to reflect all of the complexity demanded by your artistic vision. (20%) (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines)

5. The Project Five (Final)  may be a joint or individual project. It is up to you. You may work alone or with one other person from the class. Clear the partnership with me before you begin. This is where you show what you know. Each piece must be 5-10 minutes long (exactly on the minute]. A detailed handout concerning this project is on the web. Please take note of the writing requirements associated with this project and the added "mini production". (25%) (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines)*

The 4-5 Option:
In exceptional cases it is possible to combine projects four and five into a single major project to be presented at the end of the semester. This option is not available to teams, only individuals. It is intended to encourage a highly focused effort on some relatively complex project in which you have a strong interest. It could be a project involving research, numerous interviews, extensive field recordings, multiple complex studio sessions, or some other complicating factors.  If you are interested, see me after we get through the first project. Do not even think about proposing the 4-5 option as a way of shifting deadlines to the end of the semester! The project has the same guidelines as project five except for the length. The 4-5 option must be at least 15 minutes long. (45%) (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines)

6. The Spot is a thirty second production intended to convey a message to a mass audience (although it may be targeted). It may be commercial or service oriented in nature. It may integrated into one of your other projects or submitted as a separate item. Thus, it may be turned anytime during the semester. (5%)

The Audio Genre Development Foundation:
The Audio Genre Development Foundation is a fictitious funding agency that exists to encourage the exploration of new ways to use the audio medium. It "supports" audio projects ranging from new radio programs to concerts and audio installations. A Request For Proposals (RFP) is available on the web. It is not too early to check it out. (Comm 130 Schedule of Readings and Deadlines) The Foundation Center's Proposal Writing Guide is helpful. If you are also taking Comm 141 this semester (Spring 2001) see me before you get started on the proposal.