Vocal Recording Technology

Vocal Recording Technology

Institution: BerkleeX (edX)

Date: May 27, 2014 - July 8, 2014


Bio: "Vocal Recording Technology" is a six week edX course based on the twelve week course at Berklee College of Music Online (sold separately. For $1400...). The edX course is a seminar type teaching of audio production, with a focus primarily on musical vocal performances.

The lectures are quite decent, introducing the material in an approachable manner but also getting into the non obvious technical details of the field. Each topic is given an introduction followed by an in depth demonstration as the instructor walks through the actual editing and manipulation of a vocal performance to highlight the topic. The lectures also make use of their digital presentation to incorporate the audio editing effects in the lectures themselves as demonstration. There are some pacing issues in some of the demonstrations that could probably be broken up into series of shorter videos.

What the course lacks is any kind of application. There is no digital lab or project for the students to actually put in practice what they are learning. The quizzes are next to useless in terms of assessment or retention, often having one relatively arbitrary question from each topic of the week. The lectures are informative to be sure, but this course as it is on edX will not prepare you for any kind of audio editing on its own.

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