# RESOURCE 5: DAWs for Soundscape Compositions

## Workshop 1: Recreate an Electronic Composition (Music 30)
*Introduces to basics of electronics, and also carries aesthetic implications with it.*

- e.g. Recreate Halim el-Dabh’s Wire Recorder Piece (1944) with Audacity (could be done with other DAWs as well)
* [Full lesson plan here.](https://hackmd.io/SHAihEpARJmNhaFqGlgrsw)
* (Using background context from the following link: https://herri.org.za/4/michael-khoury/)
* Discussion about the idea of “fidelity,” Halim el-Dabh’s piece, and Egyptian zar
* Adding effects to modern track of zar (Abdelsalam Lamsar by Mazaher), including discussion of EQ and how frequency curves work.
* What is the aesthetic/emotional impact of these effects? What was el-Dabh trying to capture by using them?

## Workshop 2: Sampling (Music 30)

1. Students have time to explore various instruments and odd materials in the Leaning Lab until they isolate a particular sound(s) that they like.
2. They record their sound(s) into Audacity, apply effects to it as desired, and save as WAV file.
3. Then they receive an introduction to GarageBand basics (see below), including loop libraries/drum layers/etc. for a music bed.
4. Finally, they are introduced to sampling:
* Add software instrument track
* Open smart controls pane on bottom of screen (open using button on top-left toolbar)
* Track > Controls > Plug-ins
* Change default instrument plug-in (probably E-Piano) to Apple > AU Instruments > Apple > AU Sampler > Stereo
* Click on "AU sampler" plugin to open sampler window.
* Click the gear in the bottom-left corner of the window and click “Add Samples”
* Upload the WAV file of the recorded sound.
* Once it is uploaded, delete the “Sine 110 Built-In” sound by selecting it and hitting the minus button in the bottom left of the window.
* Now, when you hit the keys on the sampler window keyboard, you should hear the sample play at different pitch levels. When students use Musical Typing (command-K) with this track selected, they will be “playing” their sample

## Workshop 3: Soundwalk (Politics and Protest -- Hist-Lit 93AH)

*Students were asked to create a multimedia kit that would guide people through space at the 2025 Arts Fest.*

### Part 1: How to orchestra a multimedia "experience"

* Marvin Gaye What’s Going On is a good example of musicking (see Christopher Small) — many sounds on the track evoke people coming together, making music together — and understanding layers)
* Second example of audio layers via podcast (we used Krystal Klingenberg’s Collected podcast, featured in the course)
* Paper prototype of a multimedia experience that “unpacks” reading from class (we used Tammy Kernodle on Nina Simone [JSAM 2008]) with blocks representing visuals, audio, and text formats, to be presented under the overhead — each group taking a different section of article
* Intro to Part 2: Zeroing in on the listener perspective while moving or not moving; immersion; utilize passage about Pauline Oliveros’s circle of concentration (from Martha Mockus, “Mediation” in Sounding Out: Pauline Oliveros and Lesbian Musicality) to understand this perspective.

### Part 2: Learning sound production tools (alongside various other stations, such as video editing and zine-making)

- Field recordings of protest from Cities and Memory site (as well as Pauline Oliveros Ear Piece performance and musical examples from class playlist) in a “sound bank” on the computer or already loaded into garageBand
- Presenting the track window as a roadmap for moments of “stationary” and “moving” audio experience
* Students select a few of these disparate recordings and **simulate movement between them**
* Basics of GarageBand (see Resource 2)
* Add narration over top of audio (this could take a number of forms, incl. different degrees of react directly to the sounds)
* Students use GB tools to impact straightforward markers of distance/positioning: volume, panning, and automation of these
* Students use GB tools to enact transformations of the qualities of the space: reverb, EQ, and automation of these