SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 358-4

SOUND TAPE RECORDING: THEORY AND USES

Prerequisites:

CMNS 258-3 with “B” or better and permission of instructor.
Registration will ONLY be by permission of the INSTRUCTOR
Maximum enrollment is 12 students.

This course is designed as an intermediate level studio workshop to develop the student’s skills in the tape medium (both analog and digital) as well as an understanding of the communicational implications of sound when processed in that medium. Although the emphasis will be practical and experimental, all work will relate to a critical understanding of the audio medium as it is now used socially. The workshop may be thought of in the broadest sense as an experimental laboratory in acoustic design and acoustic communication.
The facilities of the Sonic Research Studio will be used, along with the field recording equipment available within in the School. Group meetings in the studio will be scheduled weekly, but the student would expect to devote a minimum of three hours per week of individual working time to be arranged in September.
Each student will be expected to complete a variety of studio projects and one original tape composition, with the exercises and compositions worth 80% of the final grade and a terminology quiz worth 20%.

Weekly topics will include:

microphone recording; tape recorder, computer and mixer usage; filtering and equalization; modulation techniques; reverberation and tape delay transformations; mixing and studio composition; terminology; and tape composition analysis.

Required Texts:

(Available at the SFU Bookstore)
D. Huber and R. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques (4th edition). Sams Publishing.
B. Truax (ed.), Handbook for Acoustic Ecology. CD-ROM, Cambridge Street Publishing, 1999
Reminder: All students, including those who have indicated their interest already
in CMNS 358-4, and those on the waiting list, must declare their
intentions to the instructor and indicate their studio work period
preferences.

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations section).