Teaching

My current modules (2021/22) are: 

CRE105 Sound, Technology and Culture (BSc Music, Sound and Technology)

MUS112 Introduction to Music Technology (BMus)

CRE334 Acoustics and Cognition (BSc Music, Sound and Technology and BMus)

MUS302 Electronic Music, Sonic Arts and Sound Design (BSc Music, Sound and Technology and BMus)

CRE507 Final Project: theory and context (BSc Music, Sound and Technology)

I also co-supervise projects on Ulster’s MMus degree.

See below for old materials (2016/17) 


(semester 2, 2016/17)

MUS112 Desktop Audio Production (with Apple’s Logic Pro)

MUS112-assignment brief-2017

REVISED: mus112-schedule-2017

MUS112 reading list

MUS112-learning-outcomes

mus112-infographic-brief

NB: Logic Pro setup: activate advanced features: Logic Pro X menu -> Preferences menu ->Advanced tools menu -> enable all.

Lecture slides:

Week 1 1-mus112-intro-week-1-2017

Week 2 2a-mus112-week-1-intro-continued-and-week-2-synthesis-intro

Week 3 3-mus112-lecture-synthesis-2017

[Homework week 3: make 2 new sounds on (a) Retrosynth analog; (b) Retrosynth table (using what you’ve learned about oscillator wave shapes, filters, LFOs and envelopes)]

Week 4 4-mus112-synthesis-part-2-2017

Week 5: review of techiques from previous 4 weeks

Week 6: project week (incl.  Staging Sonic Spaces event)

Week 7: university holiday and reading days (17th March)

Week 8: MIDI editing 

8-mus112-week-8-synthesis-test-2017

8-mus112-week-8-midi-editing

Following on from our arpeggiator work this week, here’s an interesting tutorial on making beats with an arpeggiator!

Making beats with an arpeggiator

https://ask.audio/articles/capturing-the-arpeggiator-output-in-logic-pro-x

 Spotify playlist: arpeggiators in action

Week 9:  sampling

9-mus112-sampling

Some simple test samples

Spotify playlist: sampling

Other sources of audio to feed into your EXS24 sampler:

  1. http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/sampleradar-214-free-8-bit-bonanza-samples-627132
  2. https://awolfe.home.xs4all.nl/samples.html
  3. http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free-music-samples-download-loops-hits-and-multis-627820

[Note: sampling to create loops (rather than individual percussive ‘hits’ or pitched sounds) is a more specialist topic which will not be covered in class. If you are interested in exploring this topic, see this video and this article.]

Week 10: mixing and effects

10-mus112-mixing-and-effects

Week 11: mixing, effects, automation and conclusion

11-mus112-week-11-2017

Week 12: project week: no class, complete work.


MUS302 Electroacoustic Composition and Sound Design Technologies

STUDY GUIDE: introduction to electroacoustic music.

mus302-brief-2017

MUS302_electroacoustic_composition_and_sound_design_technologies-descriptor

Week 1  MUS302 eamusic_intro-2017

Week 2: Production, Composition, Sound Worlds and Philosophies

Week 3-mus302-sound-structure-in-music-intro

Week 4-mus302_timbre_sound_structure_in_music_2017

Week 5-mus302-spatial-audio-and-spatial-music-2017

Week 6: project week (incl. master class and project session with Prof. Leigh Landy as part of  Staging Sonic Spaces event)

Week 7: university holiday and reading days (17th March)

Week 8: 8mus302-spectra_drones-2017

Week 9: 9-mus302-aesthetics-of-sound-processing-and-sound-structure-in-composition-2017

Week 10: 10mus302-space-in-music-revisited-2017

Week 11: 11-mus302-drones-noises-grains-glitch-and-conclusion-2017

Week 12: project week; listening session in studio 2 at 9.15 am, bring work-in-progress

For other semester 2 modules, see RandomTwist system.


OTHER MODULES (SAMPLE MATERIALS)

Form, Perception and Cognition (acoustics, psychoacoustics, visual perception, embodied cognition, interface design)

10_form_perception_cognition_ecological_perception_and_affordances_2016

11_form_perception_cognition_embodied_cognition-and-recap-2016

Interactive Systems (with Cycling 74’s Max environment)

int-sys-3-intro-to-open-gl

cre305-mus522-control-interaction-design-multitouch-incl-osc


I also teach and superivse on the music technology/electroacoustic composition specialism on the MMus degree.


STUDENT PROJECTS

Here is a selection of memorable projects from our Creative Technologies and Music degrees over the last few years…


Joe McLaughlin: Tesseract

Final project for Interactive Systems 3 (Interactive Media Systems) module, 2014

Sequencer with audio–reactive 3D generative visuals in Open GL (also using Max’s physics engine).

Joe writes:

Tesseract is a Max6 application created utilising Jitter / OpenGL physics and graphics objects synchronised to a drum sequencer. The patch has been designed to function both as a primitive 3D audiovisual composition tool, as a well a standalone app with minimal interactivity. After viewing some of the Jitter OpenGL examples presented in class, I was reminded of visuals from various underground electronic music/glitch-core artists (such as the promo videos from Aphex Twin, Autechre and Warp Records).


Matthew Graham: Focus: A Gestural Approach to the Creation and Performance of Electroacoustic Music

Final project for BMus degree, 2012

NB: Although this work is for the Music rather than CT degree, it is again illustrative of the sort of standard of work you should be looking at for Final Project. (For comparative purposes, though, a Music degree Final Project is worth 20 credits, the CT project is 60 credits, so there is a question of scale, scope.)

This work follows on from Matthew’s studies on the Electroacoustic Composition and Interactive Systems modules.

It is a dance and electroacoustic music piece controlled using a Kinect camera/sensor, inputting OSC control data to Max via the Synapse application.

Video from performance at the Contemporary Music Centre New Music Marathon, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2012.


Marty Doherty: Creating Sounds from Un–intentionality…a practical exploration influenced by the works of John Cage and Christian Marclay

Final Project for BA Creative Technologies degree, 2014

Performance (and installation) project based on comparing and combining the ideas and methods of John Cage and Christian Marclay. The final piece was installed and performed at Echo Echo Dance Studios, Derry, June 2014.

Marty writes:

‘John Cage and Christian Marclay are known for their experimentation on apparatuses to achieve sounds that go against their original purpose. I will set out to discover the concepts behind works from Cage and Marclay and will then begin to develop my own techniques for creating new sounds from ‘undesired’ sounds. How does one liberate a sound? Will understanding the physical properties of noise make them less or more desirable? That’s a different project altogether. I discovered that accepting sounds for what they are, could ignite creativity regardless of modern technologies, education background or dexterity. The excitement of discovering new sounds innovates and creates new possibilities.’


Marty Doherty CT2014 installation a

Marty Doherty CT2014 installation c


Philip Wallace: Intonarumori 101: can the seminal work of Luigi Russolo be reconstructed in the contemporary space to give added insight into the relationship between ‘analogue’ (physical) and digital modes?

Final Project for BA Creative Technologies degree, 2014

This project traces connections between the noise intoners of the Futurists and the contemporary Maker movement and the development of physical computing and tangible user interfaces. It pairs a faithful recreation of the original intonarumori with a 21st–century recontextualisation using Cycling 74’s Max and and an Arduino I/O.

The final piece was installed and performed at Void Gallery, Derry, in June 2014. The following is a demo video of the Intonarumori 101 in operation.

Philip Wallace CT2014 installation b


(alias) Conrad Heart: ‘The Heat Closing In’ from We Are Now Living in a Cyberpunk Novel (set of music videos and accompanying study exploring cyberpunk motifs in the contemporary world)

Final Project for BA Creative Creative Technologies degree, 2012


If you are interested in what I’m currently teaching, feel free to get in touch at bd [dot] bridges [at] ulster [dot] ac [dot] uk. If you’re a graduate and want to update me on your current projects, please email me at the same address.