Basic Recording Resources
Getting Started Recording and Producing
The following set of activities and projects are designed as starting points for you and students to explore recording and producing.
NOTE: Most of the resources can be accessed online and do not need additional software.
You can also have students use the software and applications available to you through the J Dilla Music Tech Grant. FL Studio, Ableton, SoundTrap, and Pro Tools work nicely for this set of activities (though learning the software might get in the way of the more exploratory and playful activities).
Getting Started Producing Music Learning Playlist
This set of learning experiences introduces students to some aspects of what it means to be a producer and how to engage as a producer. This is fairly highly structured and sequenced though it can be used less linearly as you like. This set of activities is more introductory and sets up background and context rather than delving deeply into specific producing or engineering techniques. We see this as a launching point to get things started or as supplemental material to have students work on independently, in groups, or as supplemental activities you can work on in large groups or as an entire class.
Familiarizing Students with Online Communities and Forums
Info: To help students develop independent learning skills, we curated some online communities and forums dedicated to aspects of producing and developed a set of activities that can be completed independently, in small groups, or as a whole class with whatever degree of facilitation makes sense in your setting.
For instance, you could share the webpage with students to complete some or all of the activities on their own as they work independently or in groups at a computer.
Or, you could use the page as a resource to plan some activities for the class to familiarize them with the ways the forums work, scaffolding and modeling and maybe giving some direct instruction on how to look up information and sift through the responses.
Warning: As obvious as it is we’ll state it anyway – these communities and forums are dynamic so you never know what type of content might show up – so consider how that impacts your program.
The main ideas here are to:
- Familiarize students that online communities exist and can be helpful to their own growth and learning
- Familiarize students with typical aspects and functions of online forums and communities
- Help students develop skills to locate resources and information within online communities so they continue working independently outside of class
Recording Music
Background Information for Educators
Recording for Teachers – Site by ASU Alumn, Andrea Henderson
This google site created by an ASU alumn focuses on very basic recording information and is oriented to music teachers. We suggest you go to the “Contemporary” section and check out the CMAS and tutorials section for a set of short introductory videos by students at one of our partner high schools in AZ. The videos could be useful for your students to give a brief overview of some audio equipment and how it functions.
General Introductions for Students
How to Record Your Own Music – Save The Music Foundation, ASU, i am other
3 Introductory Videos with versions in English and Español on basics of getting started making music with J Dilla Music Tech grant equipment
Recording MIDI Music
How do I record sound coming from inside my computer? – Playlist Learning Experience
This is a short set of activities and information focused on helping students record MIDI. It can be shared with students to work on independently or in groups at a computer or can simply be a springboard for your own related assignments or projects. We included some scaffolding in terms of generative questions to encourage critical thinking and so it is more than a focus on technical info.
Recording Audio
This is a short set of activities and information focused on helping students record audio using an audio interface. It can be shared with students to work on independently or in groups at a computer or can simply be a springboard for your own related assignments or projects. We included some scaffolding in terms of generative questions to encourage critical thinking and so it is more than a focus on technical info.
Mixing Music
What does changing levels do to a mix? – Playlist Learning Experience
This is a short set of activities and information focused on helping students get a sense of how mixing levels relates to the sound of the music. It can be shared with students to work on independently or in groups at a computer or can simply be a springboard for your own related assignments or projects. We included some scaffolding in terms of generative questions to encourage critical thinking and so it is more than a focus on technical info.
The Mix.JS portion of the activities provides a very low barrier way of engaging in mixing where the controls are limited so students can focus on the mixing. Some of these ideas can then be transferred to the context of a physical mixing board or DAW.
It could be interesting to work on this learning experience in combination with some experimentation with a physical mixing board.
Note: The “Go further” video goes pretty deep into details in a somewhat dry manner so it is more oriented to students who are interested in the topic since it is a bit dry at first. We’ll work on our own version of videos with this type of info but are more engaging.
What does panning do to a mix? – Playlist Learning Experience
Similar as above but focused on panning – again we set this up so it is a low barrier entry experience. A next step could be exploring similar engagement in a DAW.
