Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music: Final Project

Final Project

The Final Project consists of music you produce using techniques learned in the course. There are no stylistic or content restrictions. The goal is to come up with something you like and is the result of a strong effort. This can't be done well in a couple of afternoons.

Your grade will depend on your fulfillment of the technical requirements listed below, on my acceptance of a project description by email, and on my evaluation of your musical accomplishment — taking into account your level of experience when you entered the course.

Your piece of music should last at least two minutes, and must not exceed four minutes. Seriously, if it's getting longer than 4:00, you need to edit it down. Excessively long pieces will lose some grade points.
Use the tools that best suit the music you want to make. Here are some possibilities.
1. MIDI tracks playing sounds on the Korg, as in Assignment 1
  (You will use audio tracks in the course of recording your synthesizer output for conversion to MP3.)
2. MIDI tracks combined with audio tracks, as in Assignment 4
3. MIDI tracks playing Reason (with the required aux track feeding audio back into Digital Performer), combined with Korg and/or audio tracks
4. Audio tracks alone
5. Tracks recorded using the Reason sequencer alone, without Digital Performer. If you do this, you must use Reason effects in an extensive way to make up for the much easier route to producing a final mix file (File > Export Song as Audio File). See me for more details if you want to use Reason alone.
Do not rely heavily on finished sound recordings or MIDI files made by others. If all you do is take finished music from someone else and play chunks of it in your piece with a few changes, this won't be adequate. I need to feel that the piece is yours, not somebody else's.
In particular, it will take a lot to convince me that music ripped from CDs of complete performances by other people, and dropped into your own sequence, represents enough work on your part. If you are unsure whether your idea fits into this category, please ask me.
You must cite sources (in your project description, explained below) for sounds you haven't made yourself, just as you would do for quotations in a term paper.
Your sequence must be completely mixed. Some tracks should have changing volume and/or pan.
NOTE: It's unlikely that using the default fader and pan values for all tracks will be effective musically.
Your piece should sound like you worked it over and tweaked things until they seemed just right to you. That doesn't mean that it has to sound smooth — it can sound noisy and rough, as long as these qualities aren't the result of negligence.
If you're using audio tracks, listen carefully for pops and clicks at the edges of your soundbites. This happens because of discontinuities in the waveform that can arise when a soundbite ends abruptly. Clicks can be very distracting. You can eliminate them by using Digital Performer's fades (described in Assignment 4).
If you want to use equipment or software that's not in our classroom, that's okay. You just have to discuss it with me two to three weeks in advance and include in your project description a list of the equipment and/or software you used. If your software doesn't allow you to combine audio and MIDI, then you must use Digital Performer for the final stage of production. I would prefer that you not use programs like Acid, Garage Band, Fruity Loops, etc., because they provide too much finished musical material, and it's just too easy to get something that sounds polished with these programs.
For example, you could make a MIDI sequence using other software, like Sonar, and import it into Digital Performer as a Standard MIDI File. Or, you could record sound files using whatever equipment you have available, and then use these as soundbites in Digital Performer or as the basis for Reason sampler programs.
If you use another sequencer program that has audio features, so that you don't really need Digital Performer, you must still satisfy the requirements given above. You must submit your project data — sequence and audio files for the other program — just as people using Digital Performer must do: by storing it in your folder on the Music Server.
One problem with using your own equipment for the entire project is that you still have to come to class, and I won't be able to help you much with any technical problems you have.

IMPORTANT: The process of mixing down projects that contain both MIDI and audio tracks is much more complicated than just recording Korg MIDI tracks into the computer as audio, which you did in Exercise 3. The complete mix-down process is described in...

Mixing Down.

You'll learn how to balance your audio tracks with the Korg sound you've captured into the computer, as well as how to include Reason tracks in your stereo mix-down file.

I advise you not to leave the production of your mix file for the last minute, since it can be difficult and time-consuming to do this well.

BE CONSIDERATE! Use the stations that have Korg recording capability only for recording the Korg output. Once you've captured the Korg audio into sound files, please move to a different station so that others can record their Korg tracks.

WARNING: Please maintain multiple backups of all your project data. It's easy to lose all your work if your only up-to-date copy becomes corrupted somehow. Never work on your only copy of a project. Always copy your project to the hard disk before working on it. Keep a "history" of at least the sequence file used in your project. These are tiny compared to sound files, so it's no problem keeping a lot of them around. Read this advice.

LOSS OF WORK DUE TO MEDIA OR FILE CORRUPTION WILL NOT EARN YOU AN EXTENSION! Anticipating problems and learning to backup your work is an important part of working with computers.

What to turn in...

Here are the items you must turn in by the due date. Read these very carefully, as your grade will depend partly on whether the materials you submit are prepared properly.

Turn in an MP3 file of your project music. Please give this a name that includes your user ID and "final project" (e.g., "johgibso final proj.mp3"), and put it in your folder on the Music Server.
Feel free to make an audio CD of your project for yourself. (You do not have to turn in a CD.)
Leave all of your project data — Digital Performer project, Reason files, etc. — in your Music Server folder. Please put all these in a single "Final Project" folder, so that I can find it easily.
If you want to keep the data you generated during this course, you should burn a data CD of your Music Server folder before the end of the semester. The contents of the server will be erased shortly after the end of the semester.
Send me via email a project description. Include:
1. the basic musical idea(s) behind your piece,
2. the equipment and software you used,
3. some techniques you employed, and
4. a complete list of sound sources (e.g., web sites; "my roomate eating nachos" for personal recordings; and so on).
Use plain text typed into my email form or any mailer. Please: no HTML mail, Word files, etc.