The NewTech Audio Production Program

1- Week • 36 Hours

In both the 5-Week and Advanced Programs, our students get substantial experience operating Digidesign Pro Tools systems. In our NewTech Program, students develop even deeper Pro Tools skills and broaden their knowledge of DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations) in general.

Pro Tools running on the Mac OS platform is the prime focus of the NewTech Program. This combination is by far the dominant package found in the professional music and film industry. However, NewTech training goes beyond this specific equipment and applies to many other software and hardware choices.

The NewTech Program also provides our students with even more production experience using these systems. And the studio projects in this curriculum are the most technically sophisticated of any Recording Workshop program.

Of the NewTech’s 36 hours of training, 30 are in the studio. And students are scheduled in small 3-person teams, allowing a superior personal experience. A 90-minute lecture kicks off each of the first 4 days of this 5-day program.

Some of these morning talks provide background information for studio classes; others give insight into purchasing decisions. And some of these discussions offer an exciting look at technologies that are just around the corner and their impact on audio production.

Studio Classes

Pro Tools & DAW/MIDI System Setup – To complete the creation of a functioning system, students install the audio application software, learning about various copy protection and authentication methods. Pro Tools and other audio applications also require the installation of system-level software components and helper programs for setup and communication with peripherals. Students proceed with the physical hook-up of these peripherals, swimming through a sea of audio and MIDI ins and outs. Getting this all dialed in is a key NewTech goal.

Game Audio Project – To broaden the DAW experience, these classes step outside the Pro Tools domain and enter the Propellerhead Reason 3.0 and Rewire environment. This opens up a very powerful and fun way to create music and sound effects that can be synched to picture or triggered by the programming of a computer game. For the Game Audio project, all the graphic elements and game programming are already complete, but NewTech students are responsible for the excitement that comes from the richness of sound effects, and the energy of custom music and dialog.

Sound-for-Picture 5.1 Surround Project – This is one of the most stunning applications of Pro Tools and other computer-based technologies in our entire curriculum. Students continue to build on their prior sound-for-picture experience, however this time producing the soundtrack for a movie short in 5.1 surround sound. And the final product is authored and burned to a DVD for each student. It is a great culmination to the entire flow of curriculum in sound-for-picture production.

CD Mastering Project – This project extends over three parts, with students first selecting an assignment based on their music tastes. Whatever their choice, there is a demanding list of engineering tasks that need to be done to a sequence of songs before they are ready for duplication. Editing, equalizing, normalizing, limiting, compressing… all essential processes, but if you’re not careful, they can be done to excess. Critical listening is a theme throughout this project. Although these classes embrace a cutting-edge software approach to mastering, we maintain that humans make sonic decisions, not algorithms. When all is done, students commit their efforts to a CD burn.