MUS 14A, Fall 2022

Introduction to Music Technology

LIU • LIU Post • Department of Music

Mixer

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Textbook Website

An Introduction to Music Technology

Classwork & Assignments ⇕

Class Notes
Syllabus (Revised)
Course Questionnaire
Audio Exercise 1 (Editing Audio)
Best earplugs for musicians 2022: protect your hearing from the practice room to your next gig
Audio Exercise 2 (Creating a Ringtone)
Completed Ringtones (To date. Great work!)
Audio Exercise 3 (Editing Voice)
Follow-up Video for Editing Voice Exercise (Created for a previous class)
Creating a Fade-In (Follow-up video, created for a previous class)
Optional Audio Exercise 4 (Creating a Music Loop)
Soundtrack Project (Soundscaping in a Multitrack Environment)
Quiz #2 Word Bank
Foundations of Music Technology _ Vocabulary
Quiz #3 Word Bank
Synthesis Vocabulary (Word Bank for Nov. 7 quiz)
MIDI Vocabulary
Building a Quick Song Template in GB-Logic
Creating a Sampler Set
Audio Production Exercise (for those who don't read music, not doing the music notation exercises)
Get Finale (30-day free trial version for remote students doing the Music Notation exercises)
MuseScore Tutorials (for remote students using MuseScore for the Music Notation exercises)
Finale Demonstration Videos (Require Flash)
Help Resources for Finale v26
Finale QuickStart Videos: MAC | WINDOWS
Handbook for MuseScore 3
GarageBand User Guide (Recent version)
Logic Pro User Guide (Recent version)
Making Your MIDI Sequences Breathe
Final Projects
Step Input Recording in Logic Pro X
Step Input Keyboard Key Commands in Logic Pro

Miscellaneous Links ⇕

How-To Stuff (Updated 10/7/20. If you have a good one, send the link to JM)
Lab Equipment Manuals
The Harmonic Series
Leonard Bernstein on the Harmonic Series
The most mind-blowing concept in music (Harmonic Series)
Instrument Ranges
What is General MIDI
The Distortion of Sound (A documentary about the decline of sound quality and how technology has changed the way we listen to music)
Comparing Sample Rates (requires Flash)
GarageBand for Mac: Edit notes in the Piano Roll Editor
Sites where you can find multitrack audio stems or MIDI files:
- TELEFUNKEN
- Cambridge Music Technology
- Remix Packs
- Ultimate Guitar
- Google Search for Remix Packs
- vanBasco's Search for MIDI Files (Some are good, some aren't)

Electronic Keyboards and Synthesizers ⇕

Differences between Electronic Keyboards and Synthesizers
From Wikipedia: Electronic Keyboard and Synthesizer
History of the Synthesizer (before 1900)
The M-Audio Oxygen

Notation Software ⇕

Finale and Sibelius (two popular notation applications)
Notion (notation application with a version for IPads)
Finale NotePad (free version of Finale you can install on your computer. Windows only)
MuseScore and Lilypond (two free notation applications)
StaffPad (a Windows 10 application that allows you to write music with a stylus)
Noteflight (an online notation application)

MIDI and Desktop Music ⇕

Desktop Music Handbook
Exploring MIDI (especially Connecting MIDI Studios in MIDI Connections)
Nine Suggestions for Improving Sequences

Other Free/Inexpensive Software ⇕

(To install on your computer)
ACID XPress (free version of ACID. Windows only. Link coming soon)
Audacity (free audio editing application. Windows and MAC)
GarageBand (MAC only)
Cakewalk by BandLab (Windows only)

Latest News

Sep 7 — Welcome to the Fall 2022 semester. May it be a good one – and a SAFE one. If this is your first semester at Post, welcome!

Sep 14 — Don't forget!! Quiz on Sep 21.

Sep 18 — Don't forget to bring an audio file which contains an excerpt you want to use as a ringtone in Audio Ex. 2 this coming week.

Oct 5 — Today's class will be held in Zoom. Check your email for more info.

Oct 5 — No class Monday Oct 10 due to the holiday.

Nov 5 — Reminder! Quiz this Monday, Nov. 7. Study the vocabulary from the Synthesis Vocabulary list. These terms were originally found in the Foundations of Music Technology vocabulary list so you should already be familiar with them.