This post discusses the blog and forum; and links to a summary of Week 0 (with a bit of commentary and definition of terms).
Thanks to those of you who have posted Assignment 0* – good to get to know you!
We know you’re navigating a difficult landscape with unusual pressures and unknowns. Thank you for carrying out this balancing act on campus and online. Regardless of modality, we’re here to introduce tools and the understanding to make music, and to share the results.
The forum
On the website, I’ve opened a discussion forum open only to members of the course. This can serve many functions – musical and acoustic concepts, software documentation, additional audio examples, a place to pose questions on any aspect of the course, and to try your hand in answering them. Topics will be added as we continue.
The blog
This blog, on the other hand, is publicly viewable. It is the outward face of the course, and presents announcements like this one.
These old-fashioned tools, the blog and discussion board-style forum, we feel, offer focused, text-based methods of communication and straightforward sharing of files and media. As we address other needs and interests, we may add other communication methods in line with the spirit of the course.
Summary of Week 0
As we transition from Week 0 to Week 1’s lecture tomorrow, covering the basics of digital audio, I’ve posted a document summarizing Prof. Ernste’s overview of this “maker course.” I’ve amplified a few points, including definitions of some terms you may find it useful to understand. This isn’t to give you yet another thing to do – instead, think of it as a distillation of the information you have already, with a few hints for getting started, which may help you in this first complete week of the course, and as we continue.
That text is here.
-EM
[*our blog’s font currently shows zero, lowercase-oh and capital-oh as: 0, o, O.]