Musical Applications of Technology; B.Mus. (Minor)

Offered by:Music
Degree:Bachelor of Music

Program Requirement:

The goal of this Minor is to provide instruction in practical and creative applications of technology for musical purposes. This program will help prepare students for production-oriented jobs in the creative arts.

This program is open to students from any discipline and has no prerequisites other than familiarity with computers. Applications will only be considered for fall admission. Late applications will not be accepted and no students will be admitted to the Minor in January. Registration will be limited to available lab space. To apply, submit an online application through the Music website: www.mcgill.ca/music/programs/minor/mat.

Students will be selected on the basis of their previous background or experience in music technology and/or sound recording, their computer programming skills, their expressed interest in the program, and their Cumulative Grade Point Average.

Advising for the Minor is available from the Area Chair for the Music Technology Program. Further information on this program is available on the Music Technology website at: http://www.music.mcgill.ca/musictech/programmes_and_admissions.

Required Courses (12 credits)

• MUMT 202 Fundamentals of New Media 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Music Technology: A theoretical and practical introduction to selected areas of music technology. Topics include digital audio and sampling theory, MIDI and sequencing, audio editing and mixing, elementary sound recording, score editing software and current areas of research interest.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 3 hours
  • Prerequisites: none
  • Restriction: Open to all students though priority will be given to students in the Music Technology MAT Minor, followed by Schulich School of Music students.

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • Lena Heng, Miranda Jackson
• MUMT 250 Music Perception and Cognition 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Music Technology: Basic processes by which the brain transforms sound waves into musical events, dimensions, systems and structures and the processes by which musicians imagine new musical sounds and structures and plan movements that produce music on instruments.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • Terms
    • Winter 2023
  • Instructors
    • Stephen McAdams
• MUMT 302 New Media Production 1 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Music Technology: Techniques for producing and manipulating music and sound for new media applications. Synthesis techniques including FM, granular and physical modeling. Audio effects including delay, reverberation, dynamics processing, and filtering. Audio compression, HCI and MIR concepts.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 3 hours
  • Prerequisite: MUMT 202
  • Restriction: Open only to students in the Music Technology MAT Minor or by permission of the instructor.

  • Terms
    • Winter 2023
  • Instructors
    • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2022-2023 academic year
• PHYS 224 Physics of Music 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Physics: An introduction to the physics of music. Properties of sound and their perception as pitch, loudness, and timbre. Dissonance, consonance, and musical intervals and tuning. Physics of sound propagation and reflection. Resonance. Acoustic properties of pipes, strings, bars, and membranes, and sound production in wind, string, and percussion instruments. The human voice. Room reverberation and acoustics. Directional characteristics of sound sources.

  Offered by: Physics

  • Fall
  • 3 hours lectures
  • Designed for students in the Faculty of Music but suitable for students with an interest in music and its physical basis.
  • Restriction: Not open to students who have taken PHYS 225

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • Jack C Sankey (Childress)

Complementary Courses (6 credits)

6 credits selected from:

• MUMT 301 Music and the Internet 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Music Technology: A brief history of Internet technologies (protocols, web servers, web browsers) and their relationship to music and musicians (physical vs. virtual music distribution, digital music formats, streaming services). Locating, retrieving, and working with online music information through Web APIs and coding exercises. Basic static website creation for musicians (HTML/CSS/JavaScript). Technology-enhanced music creation.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 3 hours
  • Prerequisite: MUMT 202

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • Timothy R de Reuse, Ninad V Puranik
• MUMT 303 New Media Production 2 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Music Technology: Advanced audio processing with general considerations of aesthetics in sonic art. Introduction to theory and practice of digital video processing using Jitter.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 3 hours
  • Prerequisite: MUMT 302
  • Restriction: Open only to students in the Music Technology MAT Minor or by permission of the instructor.

  • Terms
    • This course is not scheduled for the 2022-2023 academic year
  • Instructors
    • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2022-2023 academic year
• MUPD 204 Production for Digital Media 1 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Music Professional Development: Fundamental video production techniques for music and general applications. Professional video camera operation, lighting and shooting techniques. The lab component of the course includes camera setup and operation during Schulich School of Music productions for live internet streaming. Capture and editing of video, audio, text and graphics for use in creating digital media. Basic techniques of recording audio for video.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor
  • Restriction: Enrolment will be limited to 16.
  • A Macintosh laptop will be an asset.

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • John D Castillo
• MUSR 200 Audio Recording Essentials 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Sound Recording: A basic overview of audio recording. Topics include fundamentals of audio; a historical overview of recorded sound; analog and digital signal flow; listening environment design; listening and analysis; simple recording; connecting audio to a video camera; and audio on the web.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • No experience in audio recording required.

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2022-2023 academic year
• MUSR 232 Introduction to Electronics 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Sound Recording: Basics of electricity including: Ohm's law, electronic components, DC circuits, block diagram, amplifiers, filters, power supplies, electrical measurements (frequency levels, distortion). Emphasis will be placed on electronics applied to audio.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 2 hours lecture plus 2 hours laboratory.
  • Prerequisite or corequisite: MATH 112. Available as Arts/Science elective in B.Mus. programs.
  • Restriction: Not open to students who have taken MUMT 232.

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • Robert E Gaskell
• MUSR 300D1 Intro to Music Recording 3 Credits*

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Sound Recording: The theory and practice of music recording including a study of recording environments, equipment and studio techniques. The analysis of music scores and recordings with respect to the requirements and possibilities of the recording studio. Studio work will include recording sessions, recording of live concerts, editing, mixing and music p.a.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 3 hours lecture plus 4 hours studio time.
  • Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.
  • It is recommended that all students taking this course register concurrently for PHYS 224 Physics of Music if they do not already have a background in this subject.
  • Students must register for both MUSR 300D1 and MUSR 300D2.
  • No credit will be given for this course unless both MUSR 300D1 and MUSR 300D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.
  • Restriction: Not open to students who have taken MUMT 300D1/D2.

  • Symbols:
  • *

  • Terms
    • Fall 2022
  • Instructors
    • André St-Denis
• MUSR 300D2 Intro to Music Recording 3 Credits*

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Sound Recording: See MUSR 300D1 for description.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • Prerequisite: MUSR 300D1.
  • No credit will be given for this course unless both MUSR 300D1 and MUSR 300D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms.

  • Symbols:
  • *

  • Terms
    • Winter 2023
  • Instructors
    • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2022-2023 academic year
• MUSR 339 Intro to Electroacoustics 3 Credits

  Offered in the:
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Summer

  
  

  Sound Recording: Basic principles of operation and design of electroacoustical devices and systems; transducers and signal processing devices; magnetic tape sound recording - reproducing systems; disc recording, motion picture sound recording and reproducing systems; practical demonstration of some of these devices and associated measuring, testing and analyzing equipment and techniques.

  Offered by: Music Research

  • 2 hours lecture plus 2 hours laboratory.
  • Prerequisite: MUSR 232 (previously MUMT 232). Available as Arts/Science elective in B.Mus. programs.
  • Restriction: Not open to students who have taken MUMT 339.

  • Terms
    • Winter 2023
  • Instructors
    • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2022-2023 academic year

*MUSR 300D1/MUSR 300D2 has limited enrollment and should be selected together. This course is generally restricted to students in the Sound Recording Qualifying Year program. Students interested in taking this course should contact the Sound Recording Area Coordinator to seek permission to register.