Course # / Title / Credit: AET 4380 The Recording Engineer

Semester:

Class Location: Ocean Way

Instructor: Russ Long

Contacts: RussLong1@earthlink.net

Office Hours: n/a

Meeting Time(s): Tuesday 6:30pm – 9:15pm and other times as required

Final Exam:

Educational Objectives of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music: 1) To provide a personalized, career-oriented and practical education that emphasizes leadership, innovation, private enterprise and entrepreneurship. 2) To equip students with the tools to think critically, communicate effectively, accept responsibility, make successful decisions, and prosper in diverse work environments. 3) To emphasize quality classroom instruction within the parameters of ethical Christian principles.

Course Description: Prerequisites: AET 3090, and three hours from AET 3190, AET 3370, AET 4400, or AET 3560, and permission of instructor. A study of the many roles of the modern recording engineer. Topics include studio ownership and management, clients, unions, current tax laws, and the impact of electronic and acoustic innovations and patents. Research project and lab hours required.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will increase their appreciation for engineering as an art form and the need to never stop learning about the field.

Students will successfully work as members of a team.

Students will exhibit that they can effectively analyze a unique acoustical situation.

Students will demonstrate their ability to effectively communicate with musicians and other technicians in a recording situation.

Students will establish themselves as efficient communicators through their writing and discussion.

Performance Criteria: Students will identify an area of interest that has practical relation to the recording process and through their research they will set out to resolve an unknown. Through an in-class presentation they will explain if this unknown was or was not resolved and why. If the unknown was not resolved they must explain what alternatively was learned in its place.

Honor Code: It is the responsibility of each student to abide by the Belmont University Honor Code. “In affirmation of the Belmont University Statement of Values, I pledge that I will not give or receive aid during examinations; I will not give or receive false or impermissible aid in course work, in the preparation of reports, or in any other type of work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of my grade; I will not engage in any form of academic fraud. Furthermore, I will uphold my responsibility to see to it that others abide by the spirit and letter of this Honor Pledge.”

Accommodation of Disabilities: In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Belmont University will provide reasonable accommodation of all medically documented disabilities.  If you have a disability and would like the university to provide reasonable accommodations of the disability during this course, please notify the Office of the Dean of Students located in Beaman Student Life Center (460-6407) as soon as possible.

Course Requirements:

1. Attendance: Class attendance policy follows the guidelines presented in the current Belmont University Catalog (see http://www.belmont.edu/catalog/undergrad2004/index.htm).

2. Materials: Digital or analog multi-track master tape and/or hard drives and recordable discs as determined necessary by project.

3. Assignments: the class will incorporate various reading assignments from journals and periodicals throughout the semester. The class will divide into groups of three to four students and each conduct a psychoacoustic/technical research project. Each group will oversee a single unique topic while the remaining students will serve as participants and subjects, as needed for perceptual listening test for each of the other groups. Projects will be completed with a journal style report and presentation of each group's findings. The audio portion of the project must meet the P&E Wing’s delivery standards.

4. Testing: The class will include a final exam that will cover the basic principles covered throughout the semester.

5. Basis of grade evaluation: Grading scale as per the current Undergraduate Bulletin (100-97 = A+, 96-93 = A, 92-90 = A-, 89-87 = B+, 86-83 = B, 82-80 = B-, 79-77 = C+, 76-73 = C, 72-70 = C-, 69-67 = D+, 66-63 = D, 62-60 = D-, < 60 = F). The grade will be determined will be determined by the following criteria: final exam (25%), group research project (25%), and class attendance & participation (50%). One day absent drops the attendance grade by 25%, two days by 50%, three days by 75% and four days by 100%.

6. Class Schedule: To be discussed as class progresses.