Sound Production and Engineering 1-2

Mr. Robert Kaechele 1.858.748.0245 ext. 5305 email: rkaechele@powayusd.com

About

Grade Level: 10-12 
Prerequisite Courses: Freshman English

• This is a 2 trimester course. The continuum courses are Digital Media Production 1-4 and advanced.
• This course is A-G UC approved and meets the UC/CSU "F" requirement and the Poway Unified School District's computer literacy requirement.
• This course is a career, technical education (CTE) offering.
• At PHS, this course qualifies as a visual performing art, practical art and fine art.

Sound Production & Engineering is an introduction to basic MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) concepts, sound boards and recording devices, performance production and techniques. Topics include sound board engineering, keyboard programming, sound modules, sequencing, and electronic music production. Student will also gain a working knowledge of the equipment, including computer equipment performances to help prepare for their recording experience. Students will gain experience in mixing down and outputting source music projects by working with analog and digital mixing technology.

Course Objectives

Through this course, students will:

• Demonstrate the ability to complete all of the required project steps from start to finish.
• Learn and develop an audio design process that will help them expand their ideas and create a final design with effective audio communication.
• Understand the skills and language of sound production in order to critically evaluate audio tracks created by influential and contemporary sound producers and engineers.
• Understand sound travel pathways through line cabling, consistency, and continuity.
• Understand how historical and cultural movements influenced sound production.
• Demonstrate and understand the "Elements & Principles of sound Design" within course projects and critiques.
• Discover how the knowledge and skills acquired from Sound Production & Engineering 1 & 2 are relevant to other art forms, subject areas, and careers beyond Sound Production & Engineering.
• Gain valuable communication and intrapersonal skills needed to express their ideas in any work environment.
• Understand the historical contributions and cultural dimensions of the visual arts in past and present cultures throughout the world, noting human diversity as it relates to the visual arts and artists.
• Identify similarities and differences in the purposes of art created in selected cultures.
• Identify and describe the role and influence of new technologies on contemporary works of art.
• Identify and describe trends in the visual arts and discuss how the issues of time, place, and cultural influence are reflected in selected works of art.
• Discuss the purposes of art in selected contemporary cultures.
• Connect and apply what is learned in the visual arts to other art forms, subject areas, and careers.

Assignments

This course is centered around a project-based cirriculum. Students will perform and receive both peer and teacher-based assessment and will arrange, mix, and bounce each final mix to disc. The key assignments are:

• Creating and Recording With Percussive MIDI Instruments - In GRID mode, students create four loops with a variety of MIDI instruments to set up a grid for arrangement that is rhythmically sound and mathematically correct to the Tempo.
• Major Scales and Chords of the Same Key Signature - Students will create a Pro tools and Ableton project and program a MIDI piano, cropping a 16 bar loop and recording the C major scale and its matching arpeggio.
• Harmony - Students will use previous information and new knowledge about music notation as it applies to harmony to compose chords of the same signature.
• Listen and Identify - Students will open Pro tools and Ableton, investigate a list of instruments in the MIDI library, and listen to their properties, documenting their findings and noting each instrument's ideal role in musical compisition.
• Recording a Cover Song - Students must listen to a song and accurately transcribe all aspects of the melody, including rythm, pitch, and tempo and add to it their own percussion that compliments the original melody.
• Being the DJ - Students will perform a structured set that includes programming skills, beat-matching skills, sequencing skills, and selection skills for performance-based standards.
• Atlantic Records and the recording industry - Students will investigate the differences between major and independent labels in America from the 1930s to the present day, answering questions about the recording industry and Atlantic Records's choices in signing African American artists and how these events affected the Civil Rights Movement.  We will also expand about the copyright laws of music and how they pertain to the recording industry.
• Audio Recording in the Control Room - Students will identify different recording components and how they are involved in the signal flow process, and the teacher will monitor them as they record a song following the connecting of every step of the signal flow process

Late Work Policy

• We run our program like a music studio. As with all music studios, there are deadlines.
• All projects (or any parts of them) that are received after the deadline are valued at 50%.
• All late projects are only accepted within the 6 week grading period in which they are assigned. After that point, no late work will be accepted.
• Plan wisely and don't procrastinate.

Students Need...

• An optional lab fee donation of $30.00 per student per semester for software updates, music licensing, studio project video drives, repair of equipment, and replacement of lost and expendable items in the studio like sound board cables, mics, headphones, and misc. cabling.

Classroom Rules and Citizenship

• HONESTY - Be truthful and don't remove equipment without signing it out.
• EFFORT - Come to class prepared, do your best, and involve yourself in your group.
• RESPECT - This pertains to the people in the class and all the equipment that we are responsible for maintaining and utilizing.
• ATTENDANCE - In adhering to the policies of Poway High, a student is late if they are not in the classroom when the bell rings. Detentions will be assigned for any unexcused tardies. Tardies and absences will affect the citizenship grade.
• PROJECTS - Projects are worth approximately 70% of your overall grade. Projects are primarily based on team assignments and the effective completion of the "idea to final product" formula.
• ETHICS - Poway High enforces an ethics policy. Any student caught cheating will receive a zero on the assignment, be given a referral, receive a "U" in citizenship and be on probation for the remainder of the course. Parents will be notified.
• TUTORIAL PERIODS - If a student falls below 70% they should come in for additional help/work during tutorial time. It is up to the student to make arrangements with me if they can't make it on the designated date. Tutorial days are generally scheduled for Wednesdays and Thursdays after school in the classroom. Students may also drop in at break and lunchtime if they make an appointment with me ahead of time. All students are encouraged to come in for additional help when needed.

The citizenship grade is affected by poor behavior, poor attendance, leaving messes, coming to class unprepared, behaving unproductively, or recieving a socially responsible behavior (SRB) violation.

Contact

Robert Kaechele 
Poway High: (858)748-0245 x .5305 
Email: rkaechele@powayusd.com

Student Resources