I have been teaching at Illinois Institute of Art since September of 2009:
-Sound Design and Synthesis I
-Sound Design and Synthesis II
-Introduction to Music Theory I
-Production Audio I
-MIDI Systems I
Student Work
Sound Design & Synthesis II
The new work form this class has been very exciting. As a class, we performed a live sound design to an issue of Spawn the comic book. This performance married animatic video of the comic book issue performed on a live video mixing platform, pre-recorded sound design, foley, and ADR, as well as live foley and MIDI triggering. The class was composed of 7 upper-level students.
The process included:
1. As a class, choosing a comic book from a table of approximately 30 options.
2. Separating the cells/pages by the number of student in the class.
3. Assigning a cue sheet of each sound present within the panel, as well as suggestions for technique of how to achieve those sounds.
4. Assigning a complete sound design for each individual student’s assigned cells/pages. This must be done within a group however to preserve a unified aesthetic and treatment.
5. A linear comparison, critique, and file share for all sound designs.
6. Assigning an animatic version of their cells/pages and having the work reset in time.
7. Removing at least 3 sounds from the sound design and recreating them for live performance.
8. Perfecting transitions form one student’s work to the next using a live video mixing platform.
9. Practice and dress rehearsals.
10. Performance.
Show Music
Within the short time that the quarter allows, we also managed to create pre and post show music using advanced synthesis techniques such as formant synthesis, additive and subtractive synthesis, and FM vocoder modulation synthesis.
