Environmental Sound challenges the principles of studio-based music composition by using natural and built settings as stimuli for multi-channel sound creations. The course encourages students to explore the foundations of conventional composition, such as rhythm, harmony and melody, and investigate the concepts of space as it relates to sound. Students apply these concepts to their own compositions using recordings captured during the session, to create immersive audio experiences that reference and compliment the world around them. Students explore the concept of aleatoric sound, and are prompted to listen to, and capture, the ‘silence’ around them using mobile recording devices. Individual and group activities will include critical listening and evaluation of conventional and abstract audio sources, with the intention to build and diversify the shared vocabulary for expressing their emotive responses to sound. Taught using a modular, scalable, roving multi-channel audio playback system, students learn technical setup, multi-channel digital composition, plus audio recording, processing and sequencing. The course will be taught using digital audio workstation (DAW) software Reaper and Ableton Live. No music theory or composition experience is needed. Students will need a laptop computer (Mac or Windows).

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective