Digital Audio Workshop

Objectives

The aim of the course is to provide students with the tools necessary to edit, manipulate, build, and experiment with sound, either to create a professional product from the point of view of technical and aesthetic creation or strengthening experimental sound and music.

Within the corpus is essential that students learn the fundamentals of sound as part of audiovisual products, especially digital audio, focusing on web interactive multimedia online and/or offline. Know which formats are most appropriate for each distribution channel.

At the same time, it is intended that students get the ability to create a soundtrack for any audio-visual production and/or digital, combining properly environments, effects, music and voiceover.

Learning outcomes

The student:

• Knows the basics of sound in general, specifically digital audio, and masters the basic instruments of sound.
• Elaborates a coherent sound discourse and a complete soundtrack for any audiovisual production.
• Knows how to solve complex situations or those that require the development of new solutions.
• Develops correctly in the general use of ICT and especially in the technological environments of the professional field.

Competencies

General skills

• Acquire skills in project design and management by making appropriate decisions and using problem solving strategies.
• Demonstrate interpersonal skills and be able to adapt to new situations and work under pressure.
• Organise and plan tasks related to professional performance through proper time management and timing of these tasks.

Specific skills

• Master audiovisual and multimedia technology and apply it to the different stages in the creative process and thus be able to adapt to different work environments.
• Operate in a variety of computer and digital environments for traditional communication disciplines, in written and audiovisual formats, and also in new contexts online.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.
• Students have developed the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of independent learning.

Core skills

• Display professional skills in complex multidisciplinary contexts, working in networked teams, whether face-to-face or online, through use of information and communication technology.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Introduction
   • Introduction to the course. Programme
   • Fundamentals of sound. The digital audio
   • The analogue-digital world. Visualisation of sound in the time domain. Units and rules, time, amplitude dB meter and % levels.
2. Sound editing
   • Digital signal processing
   • Amplitude process. Basic operations
   • Dynamic range process. Compressors, limiters, expanders
   • Effects on frequency. Equalizers, transposition, pitch bend
   • Effects based on the delay. Reverb, flanger, phaser, wah-wah, chorus
   • Advanced processing techniques. Pitch shift and time shift. Noise reduction
3. Digital audio formats
   • Coding. Compression. Formats. File types
   • MPEG audio (MP3)
   • Film and TV formats
   • High-resolution formats
4. Narrative sound and music
   • Codes and genres
   • Music and sound as narrative elements. Useful music
   • The soundtrack: dialogues, ambient sound, music and sound effects. Foley sound

Evaluation

Project (50%) and individual tasks (45%) must be completed successfully in order to pass the course. Attending and active participation will be also considered (5%).

• Attending and active participation: 5%
• Individual tasks (4): 45%
  1. Audition Task 10%
  2. Trailer Task 10%
  3. Post Task 20%
  4. Post Presentation Task 5%
• Final Project: 50%
  1. Report 5%
  2. Submissions (2) 20%
  3. Guided Sessions 10%
  4. Pitch in class 5%
  5. Final submission 10%

Methodology

Classes will combine theoretical and practical sessions.

The course is divided into two sections:

1. Presentation of theoretical and practical basics.
2. Tutored sessions for the final group project.

Bibliography

Key references

• Fries, B., Fries, M. (2005). Audio digital práctico: Claves fundamentales para el tratamiento integral del audio y la música digital. Anaya Multimedia. Digitales y Creatividad.
• Katz, Bob (2002). Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science. Focal Press.
• Phillips, Winifred (2017). A Composer's Guide to Game Music. MIT Press.
• Rumsey, F., McCormick, T. (2009). Sound and Recording: An Introduction: 6a edició. Retrieved from http://biblioremot.uvic.cat/login?url=https://www-sciencedirect-com.biblioremot.uvic.cat/science/book/9780240521633
• Sinclair, Jean-Luc (2020). Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design: Sound Design and Audio Implementation for Interactive and Immersive Media. Focal Press.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.