MIDI Music Making

Winter, 2009
Course Website

Instructor:

Jon Newton
503-725-3110
Website
Email

Syllabus

Course Site: http://oregonmts.com/mts/courses/winter2k9/mmmW09/index.html
--Course Sites require a password--
Instructor: Jon Newton
Phone: 503-725-3110
Instructor Website: http://www.web.pdx.edu/~jnewton/
email: info@oregonmts.com

Texts: These recommended tests are the same we used laste term.

1) Modern Recording Techniques, by David Miles Huber ©2001 Focal Press

2) Essentials of Music Technology, by Mark Ballora, © 2003 by Prentice Hall

Ordering info here.

Resources: Students are welcome to use the Recording Arts and Music Production website, at this URL: http://www.ramp.pdx.edu. There are many suggestions as to helpful books and applications, as well as support tutorials and Power Point presentations. The MTS password will also allow navigation of this site.

Course Description: Helps students develop an understanding of the science, tools, and techniques involved in the field of analog audio engineering. Topics include acoustics, microphones, mixing board set up and operation, signal processing.

Prerequisites and Individualization: Students are assumed to have basic math, computer, email, and Internet skills. Students may suggest modifications to assignments that support projects in which they are currently involved.

Special Considerations: Students with documented disabilities will be accommodated. Please discuss with instructor during the first week of the term.

Regarding Off-Campus Events: If requirements of this class include class meetings, assignments, and/or performances that will be held off-campus, students/participants will provide his/her own method of transportation to the off-campus location.

Term Schedule: First class meets Saturday, January 13. Last class meets Saturday, March 10.

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Schedule

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Classes

01: Tuesday, January 9:

Getting Oriented

Part 1A: Meet Your Controller

•Locate the MIDI controller at your workstation.

Notice we are referring to the MIDI keyboard on your desktop as a "controller" or "MIDI controller."

•Power it up.

•Plug in headphones to the back of the controller. You will need an adapter.

•Figure out how to get a piano sound.

•Find out how to get a violin sound, then an oboe sound.

Part 1B: Meet Your Computer, Read the Manual

•If necessary, log into the Student account on your computer, using this data:

User: student
Password: start

The Student account is the public account accessible to any MIDI Lab user.

•On your desktop, find the folder Manuals. Double click it to open it, and locate the file PSR 282 Manual.

•Find the icon for Adobe Reader in your Dock. Drag the PSR 282 Manual file icon over the Adobe Reader Dock icon so that the Adobe Reader icon darkens. Release the mouse to open this PDF file.

This is the preferred way to open a file on a Macintosh.

PDF is a universal document file format.

•Examine the PDF manual. See if you can find the reference to "Local Control."

Part 1C: How Your Controller is Connected to Your Mac

•Find the USB MIDI interface plugged into the computer, and examine how it is connected and which connectors are used.

On MIDI Lab machines, the contoller is connected to a MIDI interface via MIDI cables. The MIDI interface is connected to the computer via a USB port.

•Find and click the Audio MIDI Setup icon in the Dock to open it.

You can also find Audio MIDI Setup in Applications>Utilities.

To locate files on your machine, we use the convention shown above. It means "open the Applications folder then find and open the Utilities folder." The Applications folder should be found in your Dock, and also on the main hard drive.

•In Audio MIDI Setup, click the MIDI Devices tab. In the resulting window, notice that the physical setup of your controller and interface are graphically represented here.

•Go Audio MIDI Setup>Quit Audio MIDI Setup.

In this case, we are saying "In the menu bar at the top of your screen, access the Audio MIDI Setup menu, then select Quit Audio MIDI Setup."

Part 1D: Open and Test a Digital Performer File

•Go Desktop>Test Files>Controller Test, and find the icon for the file ControllerTest.dp.

•Drag the icon over the DP alias in your Dock to open the file.

As mentioned, this is the preferred way to open a file. Avoid opening a file by double clicking--you may open the file in an unexpected application or version.

If you don't have a DP icon in your Dock, go Applications>MOTU DP4.6 Folder and find the icon for Digital Performer 5.11. Drag the icon for ControllerTest.dp over this icon to open it.

•When the file first opens, the Device Remap window ill open. It should show My Sunth in the Old Assignment Column, and your local MIDI controller name in the New Assignment column. Hit OK.

•When the file has opened, briefly examine the data.

•On your controller, find the volume control and turn all the way to the left to turn down the volume. With your headphones still plugged into your controller, hit the play button in your DP file, then slowly turn up the volume to a comfortable level.

If you are not hearing music, make sure that your controller is powered up and that you have turning up the correct knob. If you are still not hearing anything, check with your instructor.

•When you are hearing music, hit the Space bar to stop MIDI playback.

•Locate the Transport window in the upper left of your screen, and note the transport controls. Experiment with and familiarize yourself with the Play, Stop, and Rewind controls. Note how the measure counter display changes as the sequence plays.

NOTE: Sequencers often locate to Measures/Beats/Sub-beats. In Digital Performer, 480 sub-beats equal one beat. the measure counter shows the data this way--

This display would represent Measure 2, Beat 3, an 8th note after the Beat, or in musical terms, the "and-of-three" of measure 2.

•In Digital Performer, go Project>Tracks to open the Tracks window.

This window will probably already be open having opened when the project opened. The Tracks window is the main data window in Digital Performer.

•Notice how the data is displayed: tracks, measures, blocks of data.

•Spend a few minutes examining the file in this window--

--Play the file.

--Note where the tracks are output (Output column), and where patches are assigned to the instrument assignments (Default Patch column).

•Click on a track name to select it. Go Project>Event List (or Shift-E) to open that track in the Event List window. Examine the information. See if you can identify what this numerical data refers to.

•Click on a track name to select it. Go Project>Graphic Editor (or Shift-G) to open that track in the Graphic Editor window. Examine the information. See if you can relate this graphic data to what you saw in the event list.

•When you are done, go Digital Performer>Quit Digital Performer (Command-Q) to quit Digital Performer.

DO NOT save the file if you are asked when you try to quit.

02: Thursday, January 11:

Assignment 1 (In class): Create, Backup, Revise, and Turn in a File

Part 1: Create and Save a File

•Log into a class Mac as "student" user (password is start).

•Find the icon for your main hard drive. It will be named MIDILabx where "x" is the number of your workstation.

•Double click your main hard drive icon to open its window. Find and open (double-click) the Applications folder, then find and open TextEdit.

The short way to say this is "on your main hard drive, go Applications>TextEdit."

•An untitled document will open in TextEdit.

•Type in your First and Last Name, plus your email address.

•In the menu bar at the top of the screen, engage the File menu, and choose Save to open the Save Dialogue window.

A short way to say this is "go File>Save." You might also notice that shortcuts for various functions are listed to the right of their name in menus like this.

The shortcut for Save is Command-S. This means hold down the Command (or Apple) key, and then hit the lower-case S key.

Whenever you save a file, you need to provide three piece of information: a name, a location, and a format...

•Next to Save As, give your file the name Info.LastName.FirstName.

For LastName and FirstName, use your own last and first name.

•For Location, navigate to the Desktop.

You can get to the Desktop quickly by clicking on the Desktop icon in the side bar to the left of the window. Generally, always make sure you know where you are saving your files!

•For Format, choose Rich Text Format (RTF).

•Click Save. Look at your desktop, and confirm that you have a file there called Info.LastName.FirstName.

•Quit the TextEdit application (go TextEdit>Quit, shortcut Command-Q).

Part 2: Store a File

•On your Desktop, find the icon for the folder Student Work. Double-click the icon to open its window.

•With the Student Work folder open and active, go File>New Folder to create a new folder.

•Rename the folder: Lastname.Firstname.MTS Work

•Drag your Info file from your Desktop into your new folder to store it.

Generally, you should leave the desktop of a public computer free of your personal files.

Part 3: Revise a File

•If you haven't done so already, open the Student Work folder and find your storage folder.

•Find the Info file you just created and option-drag it to your Desktop.

When you option-drag a file, it makes a copy of the file.

Your original file is still in your storage folder. Any revisions you make will be made to this new copy on your desktop.

•On the desktop, rename the copied file Info2.LastName.FirstName

Electrons are cheap. It's common practice to save and rename a project file each time you revise it--it gives you backups of each step of your project.

•Open the file and add some information regarding your musical focus: education, performance, composition, production, etc.

•Save the file and quit TextEdit.

•Drag your new file to your storage folder. You now should have two files in your storage folder, Info.LastName.FirstName and Info2.LastName.FirstName.

Part 4: Turn in a File

•Open the Drop Box on the MIDI Lab Server

Instructions here

•On the Public volume, drag your Info file in this folder: Drop Box>MTS MIDI MUSIC MAKING>Assignment1.Info

You have now "turned in" your assignment for instructor evaluation.

Don't ever remove files from the Drop Box. If you want to hand in more than one version of an assignment just leave the second version a different name and leave both there.

•If you are finished working, make sure your Desktop is clear of any files you created.

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03: Tuesday, January 16:

Intro to MIDI Part 1: Sound Modules

•Powerpoint Presentation on MIDI Basics

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04: Thursday, January 18:

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05: Tuesday, January 23:

Intro to MIDI Part 2: The MIDI Spec and MIDI Controllers

•Powerpoint Presentation on MIDI Basics

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06: Thursday, January 25:

Assignment 6 Part 1: Create a Bass Line

Assignment 6 Part 2: Create a Drum Part

This assignment is linked here.

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07: Tuesday, January 30:

More Fun with Digital Performer

Grid
Mixer
Automation
Changing Patches
Transpose by interval
Quantize--swing
Menu options in region edit windows
Scale time
Add/delete track options
Commands window

Standard MIDI Files

Web Definitions

A Site with Free Renaissance MIDI Files

When you click on a web link to a MIDI file, your browser will probably play it in a new window, usually a plug-in player like Quicktime or Windows Media Player.

You can usually download the file to your desktop by Option-clicking the link, or Control-clicking the link and selecting Download Linked File from the contextual menu.

Download a Standard MIDI File (SMF) from the Internet, and open it in Quicktime, Digital Performer, and Finale.

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08: Thursday, February 1:

Review Assignment 5 Mascharada

Assignment 6 Part 3: Add Additional Tracks

Assignment 6 Part 4: Mix

This assignment is linked here.

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09: Tuesday, February 6:

Notation in Digital Performer

Creating a Standard MIDI File

Assignment 7A Part 1-3

This assignment is linked here.

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10: Thursday, February 8:

Setting Up a File in Finale

Assignment 7B Part 4

This assignment is linked here.

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11: Tuesday, February 13:

Review for Mid-Term

Concepts Covered

•Sound Modules
•MIDI Spec & Controllers
•MIDI Sequencing

12: Thursday, February 15:

Mid-Term 1

Location: LH 219

•No notes, please bring pencils.

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13: Tuesday, February 20:

Inputting & Editing Data in Finale

Assignment 7B Part 5-6

This assignment is linked here.

Create a Tutorial

Assignment 7B Part 5-6

This assignment is linked here.

14: Thursday, February 22:

Editing Data in Finale

Assignment 7B Part 5-6

This assignment is linked here.

Please have all notes and Smart Shapes entered. We will start with lyrics.

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15: Tuesday, February 27:

Editing Data in Finale

Assignment 7B Part 4

This assignment is linked here.

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16: Thursday, March 1:

LAB

•This class will be a supervised lab to allow completion of the previous assignment.

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Saturday, March 10:

Indispensible Applications & Books

•Quickeys
•Transcribe
•Sibelius
•iTunes
•Audacity
•Toast
•Graphic Converter
•iChat
•Database Software (Appleworks)
•Garageband
•Versiontracker

Getting Help

•MOTU Online
•Finale Online

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Saturday, March 17:

Career Development

Tools:
Resume
Reel
Business materials ready (business card, letterhead, invoices
Website
Data base
Online presence

Find clients (Free-lance vs. employer-based work)

Making contact (mail, email, phone, in-person)

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