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Sound Design (PBC405)

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Overview

The third term (or semester) sees students taking their music production skills to the next level on Point Blank's Sound Design module, taken concurrently with Production Analysis. Whether you are producing tracks for the dancefloor or designing sound for multimedia, this creative sound design module is a music production course that will give you the knowledge to reproduce contemporary sounds whilst developing your own unique style. Featuring Native Instruments' Kontakt and Reaktor, you'll upload your music for DVR™- expert analysis and video feedback on your work from a multi media professional. And with Point Blank ability to pitch your work to a wide range of advertising agencies, this course can get you working in the music industry. Students will be assessed through a range of diverse assignments. This module is worth 20 credits at level 4.

See Sound Design student Eddie Yanez' MTV Europe Swatch commercial:

Content

What is Sound Design?

Building a sample library: Copyright issues
Basics of 'sound': theory on frequencies
Filters and EQ: Creating filter sweep FX
Creating riser/noise sound FX

Samples and Effects

Exploring phaser, reverb and delay
Editing, exporting and organising your files
Layering samples
Creative gating

Creative Sampling in Kontakt

How to navigate the Kontakt interface
Building instruments
Mapping, wave and script editors.

Kontakt Modulation Workshop

Zone envelopes, gating, LFO & filtering
Multiple processing: pitch shift, lofi and FX send
DBD

Adventures in Pitch and Time

Time Machine: real-time timestretching
Tempo synchronisation & legato mode
Tone Machine: musical phrases with drumloops

Rhythm and Sound Science

Kontakt's Beat Machine
Using groups to create unique drum sounds
Synthesis using raw sampled waveforms
Create 'electronic' drum kit from two short samples

Introduction to Reaktor

Ensembles, Instruments, Macros and Modules
Recorderbox: saving the audio to a wav file
Random Stepshifter
Exploring Massive, Vectory and Travelizer

Reaktor Ensemble Workshop

Reaktor file types: Instrument, Macro and Module
Building a library of introductory ensembles
Tape Deck, Vintage Compressor
Wind machine

Building an Analogue Synth in Reaktor

Building an analog synth
Oscillators, filters & envelopes
Creative filter modulation

Presets for the Analogue Synth

How to create lead, bass, stab and pad sounds
Sound effects
Creating your own FX library

Reaktor Hacking and Patching

Using Reaktor as an FX device
Insert/send and return configuration
Compression, custom FX and vocoders

Sound Design Final Project

Create your final project
Final test

Featured Student

Paula Fairfield (Sound Designer for 'Lost') Course rating: 10/10

"I am always looking for new tricks to make my designs fresh and I am also a bit of a tech-head so I am curious to try new things. The Point Blank courses definitely put me way outside my comfort zone... and thats a good thing!"

Paula is an award winning Sound Designer. She works on the TV Show LOST and Hollywood movies including Sin City, Lucky Number Slevin and Tropic Thunder.

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Program details