Recording Project_Who Are You (pt.1)

Today we are going to shift gears in this class and get into the world of recording and working with audio. But what the heck is "audio" anyway? There are a few definitions. According to Wikipedia:

"Audio may refer to:

• Sound that is capable of being heard
  
  • Sound recording and reproduction
  • Natural acoustic audio
  • Audio frequencies "
    

So, generally we're talking about sound. But more specifically, for the purposes of this class, when we talk about audio, let's say that we're mainly referring to sound recording and reproduction. OK, so how do we actually record and reproduce sound?

That's actually a very big question that we will be exploring throughout this class. But let's start with this: Pro Tools.

In this class, we will be working a lot with a certain piece of software called Pro Tools. Pro Tools is made by a company called Digidesign. There are two versions of Pro Tools: Pro Tools HD (the professional version) and Pro Tools LE (the consumer version). They work in basically the same way, there are just some advanced features that are available in HD that are not available in LE. All of our workstations are LE versions.

Pro Tools is an example of what is called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). A DAW is a piece of software that gives you the main functions of a recording studio on your personal computer:

• It lets you record
• It lets you edit
• It lets you mix

Pro Tools is currently the most widely used DAW on the market. It is not the only one, though. Logic, Nuendo, Cubase and Sonar are just a few examples of other DAWs that many peope use and some prefer over Pro Tools. They generally all do the same things, just in slightly different ways. Later in the course, we will be getting into using Logic Express just to see what other types of software are like.

There are a couple of pieces of equipment that we are going to be working with today. I would like for you to know these four terms before you leave today:

1. Microphone (Audio Technica 2020)- a device that turns sound waves into an electrical audio signal.
2. Hardware Interface (Mbox2/Digi 003) - a piece of equipment that converts electrical audio signals into digital information that the computer can work with, and converts digital information into audio. Think of it like this: all sound going in or coming out of the computer must go through the interface.
3. DAW software (Pro Tools 7.4.2) - software that lets you record, edit and mix audio.
   
4. Monitors (Sony headphones, Genelec 1030A) - equipment that allows you to listen to ("monitor") your audio.
   

So, for our first recording project, everyone will get the experience of being both in front of the microphone and acting as the engineer running Pro Tools. This project has a couple of different steps, so please pay attention and ask questions if you are unclear about everything.

Part 1

1. Look on the Shared Media drive in the Class Materials folder and find the files called Who Are You_writing assignment.odt and Who Are You_sample.odt
2. Copy these files to your folder on your computer.
3. Open the file Who Are You_writing assignment.odt
4. Type up the your answers to all the questions. Please use complete sentences, since you are going to be recording yourself reading these answers. If you aren't sure what to write, open the file Who Are You_sample to get some ideas.
   
5. When you finish typing, go to File>Save As and save the document to your folder. Call it: your name_Who Are You
   
6. Once it is save, please put a copy into the folder with your name on the Shared Media drive.

Part 2
Have someone record you reading your "Who Are You" statement. Chris will be calling you up in pairs to work on this. Be ready to read and engineer!

Part 3
Compose an original beat in Reason to go along with your statement. It should go along with the feeling of your statement. This is meant to be a soundtrack that reflects who you are, so put some thought into it and use all the things you've learned about making beats so far (structure, major/minor key, FX, etc.). This beat should be approximately 2 minutes long.