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Week 2
Thursday
In the morning, we had an hour and a half to work on our projects for the Ethics Video Competition. After that, we met Aaron, our TA, who continued teaching us how to use the software Ableton, and discussed film scoring with us.
We got a chance to practice with MIDI instruments on Ableton, and made a theme for ourselves, which some people shared with the class. After that, we had a lesson on themes and how to create variations, then made variations to a premade theme.
In the afternoon, we continued using Ableton, and discussing film scoring. Once we learned a bit more, we got a chance to make a score for a short video of two different cars or a whale using the many interesting tools on Ableton.
For our penultimate COSMOlympics practice, we felt like we were in good shape! After running through our skit a few times with and without music, we went to dinner feeling like we just needed to lock in for one final practice session before performing our skit on Saturday.
Later, we chose between exploring the campus and visiting the medical buildings, completing gem paintings, making aromatherapy sprays, and listening to jazz while eating snacks by the fireplace.
Friday
Today, we got to go into the UC San Diego recording studio and learn a bit about how recording works. Our TA, Douglas, taught us about the basics of how a recording studio works, some common mic positions, and how we could use software like Ableton to monitor sound.
We got a very interesting lesson on sound waves and interference, and then had a break for lunch. In the afternoon, our lesson continued, with a focus on microphones and their workings.
We split up into groups to do research on specific microphones, and then presented our findings to the class. Finally, before the end of the day, we recorded a singer and used that recording to discuss the difference in tone and timbre of different microphones.
The nighttime activity was a Minecraft movie night—when I say “chicken,” you say “jockey!” While some of us checked out for family weekend, the rest of us enjoyed watching Steve’s shenanigans outside on the lawn, eating snacks, and/or chatting with our friends.
Saturday
Saturday morning was comparatively quiet; we did laundry and went on Target runs, before gathering for lunch and congregating in our COSMOS shirts and taking the trolley to the UTC Mall. Many of us sampled the delicacies present, like boba tea and ice cream, and purchased new clothes or blind boxes.
In the evening, we headed back to Argo Hall and had a chance to do some fun outdoor activities.
Sunday
Sunday was COSMOlympics Day! We vacillated between confidence in our ability to win and awe-struck amazement at what other clusters were doing. Despite technical difficulties requiring us to restart our skit after the introduction, we pulled off the rest of it smoothly, with our instrumentalists playing wonderfully and the techno enjoyers hyping up the crowd.
After that, we headed to trivia—an endeavor that seemed hopeless until we began a monumental winning streak, leading us to earn a whole ten points by the end of the game. After dinner, we went through a relay race and a game of dodgeball before eagerly anticipating the results. In the end, we came in first place! We screamed until we could scream no more before returning to our dorms to revel (Haha, get it? Like Revelle?) in our victory.
Monday
To start out the week, we went back to the recording studio with TA Douglas. This time, we split up into small groups to put together a piece to perform and record.
The groups included six students performing Just the Two of Us, four singers on Hoizer’s Cherry Wine, and Concertino by Weber, for clarinet and piano.
Recording and monitoring for Just the Two of Us and Cherry Wine took most of the morning, so we stopped for lunch after a few preliminary edits on both songs.
Once we got back from lunch, we recorded the Concertino and got to suggest edits to the song. After that, we finished up some larger edits to Just the Two of Us and some extra changes to Cherry Wine. Before leaving, we got to hear all the songs, and Douglas shared them with our professor for us to access later.
We got to pick up our COSMOlympics prize, UCSD Computer Science and Engineering sweaters, during lunch. Also, with newfound freedom, we could head to Starbucks and Tapioca Express after class!
With the COSMOlympics done, we had our former practice time to chill in the dorms. After dinner, we played flag football and Just Dance, made keychains, or headed on an evening run or a walk to the Warren Trails.
Tuesday
We started the day with Ethics again, and got a lot of work done on our Ethics Videos. Afterwards, we started on a new software called MaxMSP. Our lesson, led by Professor Lou, started with the basics of Max, and guided us through a couple creations, including a note generator that gave control of tempo and note length.
The stacking nature of this software made it pretty confusing to use, but most of us got the hang of it before lunch. In the afternoon, we met our final TA, Charles. He taught us how to make a basic synthesizer using Max, by combining FM and AM frequencies, and attaching the random note generator we put together earlier.
We continued to bask in the glorious light of being able to wander around campus by filming our ethics videos and getting more little treats and embarking upon more Target trips.
This evening, we had the choices of playing Smash Bros, tie-dying tote bags and T-shirts, making clay figurines, or going to the UCSD Super Computer Center.
Wednesday
Charles continued teaching us how to use Max, using our saved basic synthesizer from Tuesday. We added more elements to the synth, making it so we could control a lot more aspects of it. This lesson was pretty difficult because Max is a very complicated software. Once the synth was completed, we added it to Ableton and made more adjustments to the sound, such as an envelope control and glide, and got to mess around a bit with the ways that Ableton uses the patch.
After lunch, we continued to edit our synthesizer, then added other instruments such as drums, and recorded clips of the synthesizer. We were then able to make our own dance track type songs, using different instruments on Ableton and our Max synthesizer. A few people presented their tracks to the class.
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