Christopher Plummer

Online Teaching Resources in Sound

March 15, 2020May 23, 2020 Christopher Plummer

This is a developing page that is focused on sound resources rather than general online teaching. Please contact us via the feedback page if you have material to add.

This google doc is an evolving list of online teaching resources in many areas of AV. It has a lot of available trainings. Link Sound Design Live has also come up with a list of “Best Free and Paid Online Training Webinars, Courses, and Certifications for Live Sound Engineers“.

Useful training applications:

Aux B used for visualizing and training on signal flow. Link.
SoundGym is for ear training and can be set-up to do online class tracking. Link. Jason Romney at UNCSA is an accomplished user and would be happy to answer questions.
Harman’s How to Listen is an application developed for critical listening training. Link.
From Seth Crow, “Here is another thing that I find wonderful if you need students to learn about the basics of sound (amplitude, frequency, timbre, envelope, wave types etc. ) that is free (for now) cross-platform, and all you need is the Chrome browser to run it: https://learningsynths.ableton.com”
The Jazz Bands at my school are doing online studio recording for the rest of the semester around SoundTrap. Our Jazz professor is super excited about this as a solution. So to share his enthusiasm here is a tool that might be useful for keeping collaboration as part of the curriculum: https://www.soundtrap.com/.

Online Texts/video resources:

The Association of Sound Designers in the UK has released several of their members only training videos to the public here.
Video Lectures by Jason Romney on YouTube.
Digital Sound & Music online textbook with activities.
John Huntington has made the video’s that go with his text book available online (and his text is on Amazon): Control Geek

Specific video resources shared with our community:

Ken Goodwin A Day in the Life of an Off Broadway A1.

Various ideas that have been shared:

Most sound consoles have off line editors that are free downloads. You can have students program shows using these apps and then share the show files with you for feedback. This could be with or with out accompanying system/show paperwork.

Other Lists of Resources:

Massive list of free training in the entertainment industry at Magnum.

Creating Rich Story Supporting Ambiances

June 30, 2015May 23, 2019 Christopher Plummer

Students will be given prompts describing a background environment and at least 3 foreground sounds. They will then be tasked with creating the environment and foreground sounds using three different techniques: 1) All field-recording based; 2) All synthesized; 3) All “Foley” (in-studio effects recording)-based. Students will explore different techniques for establishing a scene and telling narrative stories through sound by being tasked with generating three distinct versions that all represent their prompt.

click title to read more

My First Sound System

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students put together sound systems in small groups and demonstrate basic vocabulary and drafting standards individually. Read More

Sound Effect Scavenger Hunt

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students must find a specific list of three sound effects using found objects to create those sounds.

Mastering Tools: Sculpture

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students create a 1:00 to 1:30 minute sound composition using only the synthesizer Sculpture. This forces them to develop at least some expertise with a synthesizer and the assignment is designed to require them to delve fairly deeply into its operation. The assignment is also designed to require them to create movement using non-tonal, or at least non-note methods.

Creating Ghosts

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students create soundscapes for three different ghosts. These soundscapes should be haunting in specific ways that relate to the cultural and personal history of the Ghost. Each of the three Ghosts must be distinctive and each haunting soundscape needs to draw us through a moment, they should not be static atmospheres but should tell a story.

Interactive Children’s Book

June 8, 2015February 10, 2019 Christopher Plummer

Create a sound design for a children’s book. The design involves not only the audio content but also the playback and control system that allows the reader to trigger the sounds in a simple, asynchronous way.

The One-Minute Sound Story

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students create a one-minute long sound track that tells any story that they choose using only non-verbal sounds. The sound stories are then played for the class and everyone except the person who created the story tries to determine what happened. Following this discussion the story’s creator describes their intention for the action of the story. The class then discusses which aspects of the story communicated well and how to improve those that did not.

Practicum Rubric

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

A rubric to grade crew and project work. The rubric focuses the instructor/student discussion towards encouraging behaviors that will help students be more successful in internships. This, hopefully, also helps students understand the importance of their practicum work.

We use this at midterm and final points in the semester.