MS 300 - Music Technology

The course introduces students to the latest music technologies through a series of theoretical and practical lessons from the privileged point of view of the music software designer. We will first explore the context that gave birth to technological music (with a particular focus on the history of the RAI Music Phonology Studio in Milan and the historical avant-garde of electroacoustic music), and then its evolution in the synthesizer, computer music and the latest sound synthesis techniques. The course will also provide students with a foundation in sound theory and listening methodologies, a basic overview of signal processors, microphones and portable digital recorders equipped with modern ambisonic techniques for immersive audio, and a focus on the concept of soundscape as a foundation of sound design theory. Without focusing solely on music, the course aims to illustrate the enormous potential of sound technology across a broad spectrum of industry applications ranging from music production to sound design to sound art. The course will provide students with the basic skills necessary to analyze and evaluate sound sculpting strategies and techniques using numerous commercial software developed by the teacher, used by famous musicians, sound designers and universities in more than forty countries around the world. To complete the course, each student will be asked to apply the elements and principles learned in class by developing a music piece or an artificial sounds.