Recording & Sound Design Course Outline

Recording & Sound Design Training Program

Hands-On Recording & Sound Design Training

More Hands-On Training for Recording & Sound Design

The Recording & Sound Design (RSD) program is 44 weeks (11 months) in length, composed of eleven 4-week modules. Each module makes available a minimum of 80 hours of classroom, practical instruction, and supervised Hands-on lab/studio time. Attendance is five days a week, four hours each day.

You’ll divide your learning time between recording sessions in one of our three recording studios, curriculum-based projects at a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), and lectures & workshops.

Every module features a recording or sound design industry guest speaker. Learn tips, techniques, and some heads-up advice from working professionals.  A special series of information sessions specifically targeting the business side of the music industry is a highlight of the guest speaker series.

Recording Studios

Studio participation starts in your first module and is equitably distributed between students. A variety of live talent records at Columbia Academy, including: rock bands, world music performers, hip-hop and rap artists, choirs, jazz artists, and country musicians.

In the Post Production Sound studio, independent producers, directors, filmmakers, and video production students provide RSD students with feature-length movies, documentaries, short films, commercials, and corporate video projects to work on. RSD students often receive professional editing credits for their work on these projects.

Digital Audio Workstation Projects

In the DAW Music Production projects, you'll learn to record, create, and manipulate audio samples. Over the 11 modules, the projects range from the introductory to the very complex - all based on real world editing situations.

You'll work with drum loops, music loops, multi-track recordings and electronic music using ProTools® or Reason®. Learn to position and edit audio information relative to bars & beats (for music and electronic music production), minutes, seconds & frames (for post production), and with sample accuracy. You'll also learn how audio is represented visually in terms of amplitude and frequency.

The Post-Production Sound projects mimic the situations found in today's Post-Production environments; focusing on the editing and manipulation of sound effects, dialogue, and ambience or 'BGs'. Using ProTools®, you'll learn about editing, positioning, and processing Foley, SFX, SPFX, dialogue, BGs, and music for film and television.

Curriculum

The Recording & Sound Design program is divided into eleven modules of Hands-on and theoretical instruction.

The modules each have a specific area of focus, which is reinforced through lectures, workshops, assignments, and practical exercises presented throughout the month.

All students begin the program with one modules of comprehensive audio fundamentals training in Recording and Post Production Sound for Film & Television.

At the end of the first module, students choose their preferred area of specialty training, either:

Recording Arts          - or -         Post Production Sound

Students remain in their selected stream for the remainder of the program, building an extensive skill set in their chosen field.

Recording Arts Stream

After progressing through one module of generalized audio fundamentals training, students may choose to enter the Recording Arts instructional stream.

In this stream, students divide their time between working on Hands-on projects in two recording studios, and on Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) projects, and, if they choose, on electronic music creation using Reason®.

Each module will contain lectures or workshops based upon the focus of that particular module, namely:

• Pre-Production
• Microphone Types & Techniques
• Recording/Production
• Dynamic Processing
• Effects
• Mixing
• Mastering
• Home Studio Construction

Twelve or more of the 20 total module days will be set aside for studio production and instruction.

Recording stream students are required to spend a minimum of 25 hours per module in the studio, accumulating at least 225 studio hours over the duration of the program.  More hours are encouraged.

In addition to studio training, students work extensively with ProTools®, developing an in-depth knowledge of this industry-standard software program by completing a series of music production-related DAW projects.

Modern Recording Techniques (Huber & Runstein)
Columbia Academy Career Planning Workbook^©

Post Production For Film & Television Stream

After progressing through one module of generalized audio fundamentals training, students may choose to enter the Post Production instructional stream.

In this stream, students divide their time between working on Hands-on projects in the Post Production recording studio, and on Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) projects.

Each module will contain lectures or workshops based upon the focus of that particular module, namely:

• Studio Signal Flow
• Film Sound History
• The Human Ear
• Post Audio Employment
• Digital Audio Formats
• Microphones
• ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement)
• Scoring
• Film Mixing & Surround Sound Formats
• The Business of Post Production

Twelve or more of the 20 total module days will be set aside for studio production and instruction.

Post Production students are required to spend a minimum of 20 hours per month in the studios, accumulating at least 180 studio hours over the duration of the program. More hours are encouraged.

In addition to studio training, students work extensively with ProTools®, developing an in-depth knowledge of this industry-standard software program by completing a series of Post Production-related DAW projects.  Logic® and Reason® are also used.

Course Materials Include:

Audio Post Production for Television and Film by Hilary Wyatt and Tim Amyes
Columbia Academy Career Planning Workbook ^©

To learn more about our Recording & Sound Design training program or to arrange a tour of the Columbia Academy's Recording School facilities and studios, Contact Us. Or, if you're ready to Apply Now, click here.

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