Free audio workshops at the Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale
by Emmanuel Quartey
Photo from the Yale School of Music website.
Are you a Yalie who enjoys making music? You’ll want to know about this.
The Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale is a “multimedia facility created to establish connections between traditional art and the computer age.” In addition to making high quality equipment available for rent, the Center also organizes workshops on a range on topics, and the next few session revolve around audio and music recording. This is the email from Anna Loar, Technical Specialist at the DMCA.
Hello,
The DMCA will be hosting a range of audio and music recording workshops in the coming weeks. These are open to all users, but space is limited for these workshops, so please RSVP if you plan to attend so that we can ensure there is enough space and supplies to accommodate all attendees.
Wednesday, February 1st 3pm-5pm: An Introduction to Logic (room 108)
The workshop covers:
- Setting up your project - an introduction to sample rates, bit depth, and what they mean for your recordings
- An introduction to the arrange window and basic tools
- How to set up your first audio recording (with a microphone)
- How to set up your first software instrument/midi recording (with a keyboard or other midi device)
- How to export your audio for editing in a film editor (Final Cut, etc.), for making an audio CD, and for making an MP3 file
- Please RSVP to: anna.loar@yale.edu
Friday, February 3rd 3pm-5pm: Audio Cable Building/Soldering (room 108)
The workshop covers:
- How signal travels down balanced and unbalanced audio cables
- The US and European standards for wiring ground/hot/cold
- How to use a soldering iron
- How to build/repair the connections in various types of audio cables and connectors
- Each student will have the opportunity to solder the connections on both a TRS and XLR connector.
- For a small fee (to cover supplies) attendees can choose to keep the cables they build during the workshop. Attendees who do not wish to keep their cables may attend free of charge (RSVP required).
- Please RSVP to: anna.loar@yale.edu
Wednesday, February 8th 3:30-5:30pm: Microphone Techniques for Studio Recording (room 108)
The workshop covers:
- The differences between dynamic and condenser microphones and how both types of microphones work
- How to set appropriate gain levels to achieve the highest quality recordings
- How to select the appropriate microphone for your sound signal source (various instruments, singers, speech, etc.)
- Techniques for multi-mic drum recording and live concert/performance recording
- Please RSVP to: anna.loar@yale.edu
Friday, February 10th 2:30-4:30pm: Advanced Signal Flow - learning to record in “Holst”, the DMCA’s advanced recording studio (room 108)
This workshop is mandatory before access can be granted to work in our advanced recording studio and covers:
- How to set up audio and software instrument recordings in the advanced sound studio
- How to route microphone signals from the main studio space into the recording booth
- How to calibrate the preamps, DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), and interfaces to work seamlessly together
- How to set up headphone mixes
- How to set up the studio for either stereo or 5.1 mix configurations
- A basic understanding of digital audio theory and a basic knowledge of at least one DAW is a prerequisite for understanding this workshop. If you have any questions about whether this is an appropriate workshop for your skill level, please contact: anna.loar@yale.edu
- Please RSVP to: anna.loar@yale.edu
Additional workshops in sound are also available, and will be scheduled based on user interest. Topics include “Logic: exploring software instruments, plugins, and mixing/editing techiniques”, “Making a Live Performance Video: Syncing audio and video recorded separately”, “Ableton Live: an introduction” and others. If you are interested one of these workshops, or anotherworkshop in audio that you don’t see here, submit your inquiries to: anna.loar@yale.edu.
Have to say, though: the DMCA website could do with an update.
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