MMS 172 Midpoint Blog:
All ears!

I didn’t know it was possible that I could listen to so much music, yet know so little about sound. I remember making my absurd music listening habits as the central detail of my self-introduction. I have listened to upwards of 100,000 minutes of music for the last three years. It didn’t take long for me to realize that there’s still so much to know about sound.

Mentioned specifically as my goals and expectations on that self-intro are two things: to have the ear for clean and professional audio, and to learn how to produce it. For the first metric, I think I’ve made some decent headway. One thing I’ve noticed is that theory or text truly isn’t enough to get someone to know what entails good audio. A fair share of learning comes from actually listening, fully dissecting its properties and seeing what makes it good or bad, successful in its purpose or lacking. And perhaps that’s one of the things that I have appreciated about the class so far, is that it incorporates both elements to optimize the learning experience. My grasp of audio probably wouldn’t be as decent had the materials been strictly text – there were listening exercises interspersed throughout the units to show audio in action and context. One of my favorite moments in the course material is the introductory video for Unit 2. It was such an engaging way to put into perspective the different qualities of audio by really showing how bad and good it can be.

On the topic of the course materials, I found it reminiscent of how the MMS 173 course was structured – by training the senses and intuition to know what constitutes good quality and well-made outputs, before fully diving into the nitty-gritty, the technical knowledge of what makes production possible. The topics on the forums, though I truthfully haven’t even covered all of them yet, were something that I appreciated because it added a lot of depth to the original material and diversified the subjects of the course. I think in that sense, that makes the learning one of the most remarkable areas of this class for me so far. Despite my admittedly lacking participation in the forums as I was falling behind the material’s pacing for a while, I felt that I was still picking up a lot of knowledge.

I viewed Unit 1 as an equal parts refresher on the biology of our auditory systems, and also a refresher on the physics of acoustics. I remember one of my key takeaways was how much I did tend to undervalue audio in one way or another – an afterthought when it comes to media production, and I also wasn’t protective enough to preserve my hearing. The first unit was something of an eye-opener in that manner. In comparison, the second unit had a little bit of everything, which I suppose is a testament to how broad of an extent there is when it comes to producing audio. More physics concepts were introduced to lay out an understanding of acoustic treatment. There were sections on hardware, which I admit was a little bit of a slog to get through particularly on the subject of wiring and cables. That being said, I was quick to realize why all of those were important to learn. On the contrary, the sections on vocal recording were something I found great interest in, given that I had never been really satisfied with my voiceovers in the past. Seeing the tips to follow helped me ease some of my worries on the final audio project as I am recording my own voice for it. Something I also remembered happening in the prior MMS 173 course was I referred to post-production and editing as mainly a trial-and-error process as I did not know back then what each adjustment did – so I just played around with the sliders until I achieved my desired look. By the end, I was able to get more intentional with how I approached editing. I totally feel the same way about editing audio, though Unit 3 was able to provide some clarity. That being said, I feel that it’s only once I’ve taken on the final project that I’ll really be able to put the knowledge into action and get a fuller grasp of editing and mixing.

That should bring me to the next point of discussion, which is the final project. Truthfully speaking, I still feel nervous about its outcome. I’ve planned as much as possible on the first assignment, so now it’s just a matter of carrying out said plan, and troubleshooting, should any problem come up. Having that project timeline is immensely helpful for a major process like this, especially given that I usually dive into these things headfirst without any plan and end up feeling lost halfway through. Though my capabilities are certainly limited music wise, I still feel happy about the idea I came up with. The fear stems from the idea that what I might come up with doesn’t translate into the vision that I had in the beginning. There’s not really any way around that but to just start working, so staying on schedule is the way to go, given that I structured the timeline to account for potential difficulties. By perusing through my classmate’s ideas in the project forums and their submissions, I definitely saw a variety of ideas that I am excited to see come into fruition. I liked seeing what ideas my classmates came up with that catered to their individual skills and interests.

In the coming weeks, I’m anticipating a lot of work to accomplish the project, while referring to our course materials from time to time in the process. But the time to come is certainly the time to give my full attention and effort, so I can create something I’m ultimately proud of.