H85.1003 Required Production 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Nick Sansano
This course provides students with the creative skills and theoretical information to work successfully with artists in the recording studio toward the conceptualization and completion of a short EP or full-length LP. By the end of the course, students have the necessary skills to communicate with and produce excellence from musical performers in the recording studio. To that end, this course instructs students in the selection of appropriate musical material, arrangement of the material, the construction of the sound in the studio, and the artistic ensemble of the recorded sound on the completed album. Working first in small groups and then individually, students gain practical experience by recording and mixing sound with professional artists in the studio, under careful supervision. In preparation for the third year, students are asked to consider possible distribution modes for the final product and a range of identifiable publics. This class also arms students with a working knowledge of the recording techniques of specific genres of popular music. We analyze the recorded repertoire of a diverse range of genres—such as rock, pop, R & B, hip-hop, jazz, blues, country, and electronica—as time permits and according to student needs. Students are asked to purchase a number of “classic” albums in the genre in which they intend to pursue their work, and they deconstruct those albums for aural clues to imagine how they might have been put together in the studio. As time permits, we also visit creative producers in the recording studio to monitor how they work with artists and develop recorded material.
