Music & Computers for Musicians

An online course helping Musicians Get on Top of Technology, from ASSR

Course Overview

A hands-on course–using lecture videos plus supporting Assignments and Projects–for musicians to get comfortable with current digital technologies, including recording on a digital audio workstation (using the free PreSonus DAW, Studio One Prime), MIDI, score-writing, music production, mixing, basic synthesis and more.  

Lifetime Access to all Course Materials, including:

• 7 Lecture Modules (each inclusive of video lectures, keyword glossaries, quizzes, and hands-on assignments)
• 3 Project Modules
• 2 hours FREE Access to Professor Office Hours online with the faculty for feedback and Q&A 
• Bonus materials
• MP3s and Studio One Project Files
• Extra royalty-free video (“Monty’s Snack”) for soundtrack development
• Extra Studio One Project Files
• Drums Around The World (world music MIDI drum library with 100 MIDI loops)
• Foundations Of Music (educational MIDI pack)
• 25% Discount on PreSonus Studio One Artist or Professional

About The Course Author

Dave Bristow was born in London. He graduated from university with a BSc in Psychology but has worked as a professional musician and in the electronic music industry for most of his life. Dave played a central role voicing the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and is internationally recognized as one of the important contributors to the development and voicing of FM synthesis, co-authoring the text-book "FM Theory and Applications” with Dr John Chowning. After touring the world as a professional musician, synthesizer demonstrator and educator, Dave spent three years at Pierre Boulez's research institute, IRCAM in Paris. In 1995 Dave joined electronic music company Emu Systems, Inc. on product development for "Morpheus" and Emulator 4 keyboard. Dave re-joined Yamaha in 2002 as an electronic music and synthesis consultant, focusing on the support of their SMAF audio chip series for cell-phones and mobile devices on new ringtones and system alert sounds. After directing a non-profit community music school on Bainbridge Island, he has been an instructor at Shoreline Community College for 10 years since 2011, teaching electronic music production and synthesis, but still finding plenty of time for composing and playing piano with his jazz quartet RedShift.

Course Level / Suitability

Beginning computer / intermediate + musician, 18+

• Regular musicians (not producers or audio engineers) nervous or skeptical about music technology, who feel they might have missed the boat
• Creatives looking to generate music for video / podcasts, compose ringtones, collaborate
• Music teachers, who need to keep up with technology
• Worship leaders / choir directors wishing to streamline, and improve their performances
• PreSonus Studio One owners who’ve not yet taken the plunge!

Course Content

Lecture Modules *

Computers & Music: How We Got Here From The Past To The Present

Digital Audio Recording: The Process

Exactly What Is MIDI & Why Do We Need It?

Recording Basic Audio & MIDI On Your Computer
Production & Mixing 

All About Synthesizers: The Heart & Sound Of Electronic Music Production

Practical Applications For Music Technology: Things You Can Do With It

Project Modules

Creating Your Own Personal Ringtone

Creating And Integrating A Soundtrack For Video

Adding An Arrangement And Orchestration To A Song

Assignments

Exploring the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

Recording Audio

Exploring Sample Rate and Bit Depth

Manipulating MIDI chunks

Recording MIDI

Experimenting with Quantization

Recording Audio and MIDI tracks

Mixing Practice

Basic Synthesis Exercises

Experimenting with perception of Minor and Major Chords

 * Each Lecture Module comes with its own unique Keyword Glossary. 

Discounts

• 25% Discount on an upgrade to a PreSonus Studio One Artist or Professional
• 25% Discount on the ASSR Fundamentals of Recording & Music Production Course