Course outline — Fall 2026 CSU East Bay, Department of Music Mondays & Wednesdays, 3:00–4:40 PM Lab: MB2525 (2nd floor, Music Building)
This is an introductory course in music technology for students with little or no prior experience. The goal is to build genuine fluency in core tools and concepts — file management, digital audio, editing, mixing, recording, sample-based production, and DAW work — through hands-on, project-based learning.
The course is structured around four modules, each ending in a real deliverable. Students listen, analyze, and create in response throughout.
| Wk | Mon | Wed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Aug 19 | Wed only (semester starts Tue Aug 18) |
| 2 | Aug 24 | Aug 26 | full |
| 3 | Aug 31 | Sep 2 | full |
| 4 | Sep 9 | Wed only | |
| 5 | Sep 14 | Sep 16 | full |
| 6 | Sep 21 | Sep 23 | full |
| 7 | Sep 28 | Sep 30 | full |
| 8 | Oct 5 | Oct 7 | full |
| 9 | Oct 12 | Oct 14 | full |
| 10 | Oct 19 | Oct 21 | full |
| 11 | Oct 26 | Oct 28 | full |
| 12 | Nov 2 | Nov 4 | full |
| 13 | Nov 9 | Mon only | |
| 14 | Nov 16 | Nov 18 | full |
| — | Fall recess | Nov 23–27 | no class |
| 15 | Nov 30 | Dec 2 | full |
| Finals | Dec 7–12 |
Total class meetings: 27 (12 full weeks + 3 single-day weeks)
| # | Module | Weeks | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Computer & studio fluency | 1 | — (setup) |
| 2 | Digital audio + editing + mixing in Audacity | 2–5 | Project 1: Musique concrète (Wed Wk 5) |
| 3 | Recording, sample prep, library building | 6–8 | Midterm: sample library + terminology exam (Wk 8) |
| 4 | Ableton — audio (Wks 9–11) + MIDI/synth (Wks 12–14) | 9–14 | Final project Draft 1 (Wk 14) |
| — | Revision week | 15 | Final project Draft 2 (Wk 15) |
| — | Finals | Dec 7–12 | Final exam (cumulative) + final piece uploaded to NAS, posted for class listening |
Why this module: Most students arrive without Mac experience or studio fluency. Before any music-technology content can land, students need to be able to navigate files, plug things in, and find their work. This module is short but essential.
Topics:
Deliverable: None — Wednesday lab is a setup and orientation activity. Students leave Week 1 with their local working folder created at ~/Documents/lastname/, their NAS folder verified, gear plugged in and tested, and a “hello world” file uploaded to the NAS via the exit routine.
Why this module: Audacity is free, simple, and forces destructive-editing thinking, which is pedagogically useful for learning what edits actually do. Starting in Audacity (rather than Ableton) lets students focus on listening and editing without DAW complexity. The musique concrète tradition is the historical and aesthetic anchor — students manipulate existing sound material to create something new.
Topics:
Listening: musique concrète and sound collage tradition (Schaeffer, Henry, more recent examples). Module 2 also includes a peer listening assignment after Project 1 submission, where students listen to each other’s pieces in the class listening folder and respond briefly.
Source sounds: Provided on the NAS (/music/shared/sample-banks/project1/). Students download, manipulate, and arrange.
Deliverable: Project 1 — Musique concrète
Why this module: Now that students can edit and arrange, they learn to generate their own raw material. This module builds field-recording fundamentals, basic studio recording, and the skill of preparing sounds for later creative use. The deliverable is the library itself — a curated, organized, usable resource the student will draw from for the rest of the semester (and beyond).
Topics:
Listening: Field recording and acousmatic tradition (Chris Watson, Hildegard Westerkamp, Francisco López, others). Module 3 also includes a peer listening assignment after midterm submission, where students browse and listen to each other’s sample libraries and respond briefly. The format differs from Module 2’s peer listening: students are listening to libraries (collections of curated sounds) rather than finished pieces, so the prompts are oriented toward what’s in the libraries and what they’d do with it.
Deliverable: Midterm
Why this module: Ableton is the destination DAW for the course. Six weeks gives students real fluency, not just exposure. The module is split into two halves — audio first (which connects directly to their sample library work from Module 3), then MIDI and synthesis (which opens up a new creative dimension). The split lets students build confidence with familiar material before tackling new abstractions.
Topics:
Listening: Producers using sample manipulation (Holly Herndon, Oneohtrix Point Never, hip-hop producers, others)
Topics:
Listening: MIDI as a control layer (Bach inventions to Aphex Twin to electronic dance music)
Deliverable:
Scope: Open. Students may produce any kind of piece — audio-driven, MIDI-driven, or combined. The piece should demonstrate fluency with the skills built across the semester.
Process:
Sharing: All final pieces posted to the class folder on the NAS for everyone to hear. Optional SoundCloud upload encouraged for students who want to use the piece in their portfolio.
| Component | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Project 1 (musique concrète piece) | TBD | Module 2 deliverable |
| Midterm: sample library + exam | TBD | Module 3 deliverable |
| Final project (Draft 1 + Draft 2 + final) | TBD | Module 4 deliverable |
| Final exam (cumulative) | TBD | Finals week |
| Listening responses | TBD | Historical listening per module; peer listening in Modules 2 and 3 |
| Weekly tutorial completion | TBD | Wednesday labs |
Weights to be finalized.
~/Documents/lastname/ on whichever lab machine they’re using. The lab NAS at MB2525 holds the master copy of each student’s work. Students download from the NAS at the start of every session and upload at the end.lastname-projectNN.wav convention, in both a private working folder and a class listening folder where applicable. Written deliverables (listening responses, peer-listening responses, the final exam) are submitted on Canvas as Word or PDF following the per-assignment submission card.No required textbook. Course materials, handouts, and interactive tools live in this repository and are made available to students via Canvas / the NAS.
Faculty/TA reference texts (not assigned):
This is a living document. Week-by-week plans, handouts, tutorials, and TA notes are developed in adjacent folders within this repository.