Listening, Playback

This program begins Sunday July 21, and ends Saturday July 27. The fees listed at right include lodging and all meals (except “Commuter”, which includes a Commuter Meal Plan).  An additional sliding scale Course Fee is required.  For more information on our pricing, see our Pricing page.

There is so much sound we ignore. And there are so many instruments not yet played.

The woods of the Guild are an idyllic place to venture into the world of field recording- the practice of recording found sounds. When you put on a pair of headphones and start hearing the world through a microphone, everything is on an equal playing field- the car driving by, the rush of the river, the crunch of your feet and the sound of your breath, the bird in the distance. When we take the time to listen in this way, we start to appreciate the click of a latch on a gate, the sound of a pinecone on a tin roof, and the rustle of wind in the grass. Minutia ignored becomes magnificent, and the clippings of our collage.

This course aims to introduce you to the basics of recording found sounds, and how to assemble them into landscapes of their own, discordant compositions, or simply polish them brighter than before. We will split our time between refining the recording process, building our own highly sensitive microphones, and learning the basics of manipulating audio in a digital audio workstation (DAW, such as Garage Band, Cubase, Ableton, or such).

Students will need to bring a laptop and should feel comfortable using it (including the process of installing new software). They will also need a pair of wired headphones, with a 3.5mm connector (the connector you used to be able to plug into a phone or CD player). Students will also receive a basic recorder (Zoom H1n) and parts for building a microphone- both of which you will keep at the end of the class.

If you already have a field recorder, let us know and we will let you know if it’ll work for the course.

Other items that students should bring to class:

A computer that meets or exceeds the requirements to run Cubase (listed here: https://www.steinberg.net/system-requirements/), wired headphones, practical shoes for exploring outdoors, a sketchbook of your choice, and (optionally) any digital music-making tools you already own (midi controller, audio interface, etc.)