MC 118
Basic Audio Production
Fall 2010
Prof. Sally Berger Class time: TR
Office: 109 Chapel Basement Classroom: Core 125 & WPUM
Phone: 866-6211
e-mail: sallyn@saintjoe.edu
Course
Purpose: Basic Audio Production is an introductory, hands-on course designed to
teach the student about sound, audio equipment, and techniques needed to
produce professional audio production.
More specifically, students will learn: 1) how to operate analog and
digital equipment, 2) the science of sound, and 3) broadcast principles in the
radio industry. This course prepares the
student for an advanced audio production course, and is a prerequisite for
Broadcast Announcing, Broadcast Management, and Broadcast Journalism.
Required Text:
Audio
Production Worktext by Reese, Gross & Gross. 6th
edition. 2009.
Required
Materials: In addition to the required
text, you will also need the following items:
1. Two CD-R’s
(to dub your projects onto)
CLASS
POLICIES:
Each student must be
fully aware of the expectations in this class.
Furthermore, each student is expected to be responsible for
understanding all assignments, which can be found on Moodle and my webpage: www.saintjoe.edu/~dept20/NesselrodeCourses/sally.html. The following guidelines will affect
students' grades and acquired knowledge from this course.
Electronic Devices. In
the business world, it is considered poor etiquette if you text, receive phone
calls, or use any electronic device during a public performance (movies, plays,
concerts, lectures, meetings, classrooms).
Therefore, all cell phones, iPods, and other electronic devices must be
turned OFF during class & labs. Five points will be deducted from your final
grade each time your cell phone rings or you text during lecture/class. In addition, I have the right to ask you to
leave class.
Attendance.
The
broadcasting industry (or any industry for that matter) demands that its employees
develop a good work ethic and are dependable and responsible.
At
Sickness: If you are experiencing flu-like symptoms, please seek medical attention and do not come to class. You will not be penalized for your absence. However, for this to count as an excused absence, you must seek and forward documentation from the College nurse or other medical professionals which attest to these symptoms as a reason for missing class. Please e-mail me before class to alert me of your absence. Keep in mind that you are still responsible for any missed work as well as keeping up with course content.
A flat tire, your car running out of gas, running errands during lunch, or your roommate borrowed your car with your project in it are not valid excuses to miss this class. Therefore, absences may be excused for one of these reasons: 1) a documented illness or family emergency, 2) participation in college-sponsored activities, or 3) an unforeseen emergency obligation relating to immediate family or your job.
All documentation for the above excuses must be presented to me within 24 hours after your absence. I reserve the right to not accept documented absences, and I reserve the right to determine the difference between excused and unexcused absences.
Class Participation. Each student is expected to participate in classroom
discussions. The ability to demonstrate
knowledge of reading assignments, lecture notes, lab material, along with
proper behavior is factored into your participation grade.
No Late Work. I will not accept late work
without penalty. Projects and
assignments not turned in by the deadline will lose 10% each day late. On occasion, equipment could break down. In such cases, you should call me
immediately. If you “lost” your project
on the computer due to a lightning strike, because you didn’t save your work
(properly), or because the computer shutdown on its own, you will be expected
to redo that project to receive full credit.
Please respect that I cannot award points to a project that I have not
heard—no matter how long/hard you’ve worked on it. Also, I will not accept excuses about computer
or printer malfunctions for written assignments accompanying projects.
Written Assignments. All papers and scripts accompanying projects must be
neatly typed. Wrinkled, folded, or
stained papers demonstrate disrespect toward your own work and will result in
points lost. Hand-written work is not accepted.
In some cases, paperwork must be uploaded to the Moodle website: moodle.saintjoe.edu.
Enrollment key: basicaudio.
NOTE: Plagiarism is taking someone else’s writings and passing them off as your own and/or turning in papers written by another person. The penalty for plagiarism is failure of the project and possibly failure in this course (see Academic Honesty Policy in SJC Catalog).
WPUM Production
Room Rules. Abuse and mistreatment of
equipment are inexcusable. The student
will be held accountable for the cost to repair or replace damaged
equipment. Nothing is to be removed from
the production rooms or from WPUM that is not yours. Please pick up after yourself and put back
any CDs where they belong. Each student
is allowed to sign up for a maximum of 2
hours at a time. If a student
reserves a specific production time but does not arrive within 15 minutes of
the scheduled time, the reservation is surrendered and the production room is
open to anyone.
Production
room hours: M-F
Sat
& Sun by appointment only
Grading:
Grades are
determined on a total of 500 points.
Point values for examinations, assignments and projects are proportioned
as follows:
EXAMS & ASSIGNMENTS
Tests (5 @ 20 points each) 100
Final Exam (comprehensive) 100
Homework 25
Attendance 25
PRODUCTION PROJECTS**
1.
Digital Audio
Editing (ch. 3) 10
(destructive & nondestructive editing)
2.
Console Operation/Commercial
(ch. 5) 20
3. Combo Work & IDs (ch. 9) 30
4. Concert Commercial (ch. 7) 50
5. Gathering Sound/Christmas
Greetings (ch. 10) 60
6. Sound for Video (ch. 11) 80
Sub-total 250
**All projects are due by
Evaluation.
Grade Percentage Point total
A 93-100% 465-500
A- 90-92% 450-464
B 83-87% 415-439
B- 80-82% 400-414
C+ 78-79% 390-399
C 73-77% 365-389
C- 70-72% 350-364
D+ 68-69% 340-349
D 60-67% 300-339
F 0-59% 0-299
The professor reserves the right to add, alter, or cancel any assignment(s). The professor also reserves the right to give unscheduled quizzes if it is apparent that students are not reading the text. In such cases, each "pop" quiz will be worth 10 points, which will be added to the course point total.