Program Overview
The goal of the Musical Applications of Technology (MAT) Minor is to provide instruction in practical and creative applications of technology for music purposes. This program will help prepare students for production-oriented opportunities in the creative arts.
Enrollment
The MAT program is open to students from music and other faculties at McGill University and has no prerequisites other than familiarity with computers. 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.
Requirements
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)
12 credits, select all of the following:
-
MUMT 202 Fundamentals of New Media 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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.
- Symbols:
- Terms
- Fall 2021
- Instructors
- Lena Heng, Eduardo Aparecido Lopes Meneses
-
MUMT 250 Music Perception and Cognition 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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
- Symbols:
- Terms
- Winter 2022
- Instructors
- Stephen McAdams
-
MUMT 302 New Media Production 1 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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.
- Symbols:
- Terms
- Winter 2022
- Instructors
- Song Wang
-
PHYS 224 Physics of Music 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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
- Symbols:
- Terms
- Fall 2021
- Instructors
- Martin Grant
Complementary Courses (6 credits)
6 credits selected from:
Note: Students select MUSR 300D1 and MUSR 300D2 together.
-
MUHL 342 Hist of Electroacoustic Music 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the:Music History and Literature: Investigation of the repertoire and techniques of electroacoustic music and the historical developments at important centres for research and creative activities. The roles of electronic and computer technologies in commercial and concert music are examined.
Offered by: Music Research
- 3 hours
- Prerequisites: MUHL 286
- Corequisites: MUTH 250 or MUCO 241, AND MUSP 241 or MUJZ 214
- Restriction: Open to non-music students by permission of instructor
- Normally offered in alternate years
- Symbols:
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2021-2022 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2021-2022 academic year
-
MUMT 301 Music and the Internet 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the:Music Technology: A brief history of Internet technologies (protocols, web servers, web browsers) and their irrelationship 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
- Symbols:
- Terms
- Fall 2021
- Instructors
- Néstor Nápoles López, Timothy R de Reuse
-
MUMT 303 New Media Production 2 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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.
- Symbols:
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2021-2022 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2021-2022 academic year
-
MUSR 200 Audio Recording Essentials 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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.
- Symbols:
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2021-2022 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2021-2022 academic year
-
MUSR 300D1 Intro to Music Recording 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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 2021
- Instructors
- Denis Martin
-
MUSR 300D2 Intro to Music Recording 3 Credits
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Offered in the: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 2022
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2021-2022 academic year
Note:
- MUSR 300D1 and MUSR 300D2 should be selected together and are generally restricted to students in the Sound Recording Q-Year program.
- It is unlikely that MUHL 342 and MUMT 303 will be offered within the next several academic years.
Application
Application period: December 1, 2020 to May 1, 2021
How to apply: Complete the online application form. You will be notified of the results via email by the end of June.
