 | ||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
||
| ||||||
|
||||||
|
|
Producing Music and Smiles at McCallum High By Scott Watson Jun 1, 2004 12:00 PM It's 8:00 a.m. at McCallum High School in Austin, Texas, and in about an hour students will be filing into the hallways to dutifully report to their lockers. Several have shown up early, however, to camp outside of the school's recording studio. They're students in Gene Raymond's Music Technology course, and they've come to get a jump on some of the tasks they've been assigned to do in the class's most recent project. According to Raymond, this is virtually a daily routine. McCallum's lively music-tech program centers around one year-long course. As with high school band or chorus, however, students can and often do enroll in successive years. Most of the curriculum is based on recording: after many activities designed to familiarize the kids with the hardware and software they'll use, they engage as a studio team in various projects. Lectures delivered along the way include the history of electronic music (with an emphasis on MIDI), some background science, and the roles of producer and engineer for a particular project. Over the past two years, they've added a video component to the class. A VITAL PROGRAM The students' projects epitomize the type of collaborative, cross-curricular, and service-oriented projects that are the hallmark of today's emerging music-technology programs, making them relevant to their school and community. (For another good example of this, see “Spotlight: Technology Fosters Growth at Brookwood High” in the Spring 2004 issue of MET.) The music-tech students learn to record, produce, engineer, and master their projects using their original songs, along with material generated in the school's songwriting class (a partner course, taught by a colleague). They also edit all the music for the recitals of the school's large dance department, and they record what Raymond calls a “bazzillion” concert performances given by talented McCallum students each year. The class produces a monthly video announcement for the school and sponsors regular “open mic” performances during student lunch periods. Recently, the kids created a music video to be used as part of a demonstration on music technology in the schools at the TMEA state conference in San Antonio. COMMUNITY PARTNERS A key to McCallum's music-technology program is the support provided by Austin-area recording-industry professionals. The music-production house CardinalZen has taken Raymond's program under its wing, bringing local and regional talent to perform for the kids and to talk to them about the business. The production company has allowed McCallum students to attend recording sessions and, on occasion, to participate in some of the studio projects. You can imagine the student's excitement when one of the CardinalZen projects to which they contributed gets local airplay. The relationship has influenced recording practices in McCallum's studio, as well (see sidebar “Beanbags and Bass Traps”). Eugene Brown, a producer-engineer with CardinalZen, frequently stops by McCallum's studio to lend his expertise. Gene has also taken advantage of the very active Texas chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). For instance, when Grammy Award — winning pop vocalist John Mayer was in town, NARAS arranged for McCallum's technology class to observe the preconcert sound check. Later, the kids were given an exclusive question-and-answer session with Mayer. The McCallum kids have also been included in other NARAS-sponsored events, including a Reba McIntyre concert sound check. Other industry relationships have yielded needed equipment. Last spring, a local video company donated an Avid video-editing system, including two Apple G4 computers, and a company representative donated acoustic tiles for the control room. The University of Texas, Austin, Audio Recording department has also been a valuable resource, serving as a liaison with NARAS. ALL IN A DAY'S WORK What might you see when McCallum's music-tech class meets? A lot! Students in the control room plan how to approach the next session or set up for it. Meanwhile musicians and technicians set up gear and instruments in the live room (the sound room where the artists perform). A few students back in the classroom draw the storyboard for the next video project, while others edit video (see Fig. 1). Others observe or help out down at CardinalZen's facility, located conveniently just two blocks away. Still more students work in the library, planning a new recording. The daily class is only 50 minutes long — not much time for such a symphony of activity — so plans are made to meet after school for video shooting, recording, editing, and mastering. The most difficult part of teaching this class, according to the school's tech-savvy choir director, is differentiating instruction for the student's varying levels of proficiency. Students are assigned jobs that match their talents and skills. Raymond allows the kids to teach each other in areas where they excel. Having so many facets to the program helps keep students from getting offtrack. If a student finishes an assignment on the current production, he or she begins the design of the next project or edits some dance music or a concert recording. “Assessment is based totally on involvement and deadlines,” Raymond says. Students are graded according to their success with their part of each project and on overall participation. Cooperation and teamwork is stressed and rewarded. DEEPEN THE ART OF TEXAS Gene Raymond's interest in technology started during the advent of MIDI, when he was working on his master's degree in music education at Indiana University. While there, he saw the potential for using music technology in the high school choral program he directed in nearby Mooresville. Like many teachers getting involved with technology at the time, his skills were largely self-taught or learned from friends. “I subscribed to all the major magazines and read them from cover to cover,” reports Raymond. “Electronic Musician [MET's sister publication] was my greatest mentor.” During his 14 years in Indiana, he put into service a variety of cutting-edge gear — synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and software sequencers — to augment his active show choir's rehearsals and performances, which included a live band. After 14 years, Gene decided he'd endured enough Indiana winters and took the job in Austin working with the choirs at McCallum High. Every day, he'd walk through the halls noticing incredible talent, such as kids singing R&B, blues, and rap, and pounding out beats on doors or trash cans. Gene's teaching philosophy had always been based on reaching as many kids as possible, not just a select few. “What a waste!” Gene thought, “None of these kids were involved in the arts program.” It's not that he needed more students. McCallum's large performing-arts program boasts hundreds of kids in choirs, bands, an orchestra, several sections of classical guitar, and even a steel-drum ensemble. But Raymond realized that music technology was a way to reach the untapped potential in kids who otherwise might not get involved in the arts. It took a while for Raymond to realize his vision, but what started as a recording class with a 4-track cassette recorder and some MIDI equipment has blossomed into a multifaceted media-technology program that is unique in the state. MANY ROLES, ONE GOAL “Austin is a wonderful city,” enthuses Raymond, “with an incredibly beautiful mix of cultures, ethnicities, and economic levels.” The students at McCallum represent a perfect cross-section of the city. On top of that, McCallum High School serves as a Fine Arts Academy in the Austin Independent School District (AISD), drawing some of the best high school talent in the city. Raymond embraces all of this. “I have found that everyone has a strength and knowledge that they can offer to the group. Craig is the equipment expert. Jordan is the songwriter-producer, David is the music theoretician, Sarah and Maddie are the video experts, and so forth.” Raymond's number one goal is to improve each student's self-image through a positive experience in the arts. “I'm most proud of the kids' smiles at the end of a successful project,” he says. Sometimes his students' enthusiasm for the class and their frequent presence at his door is overwhelming, but then he remembers his mission and what this program means to his kids. Several McCallum music-technology alums have gone on to study recording arts and are now in the business, and others are working professionally as performers. Raymond is proud of these students, whom he sometimes runs into in industry circles, but he's aware of an even greater impact he has on others over the years “who wouldn't be graduating if it weren't for their involvement in this class.” OF GEAR AND GRANTS McCallum's music-tech students are fortunate to have a great facility to call home (see the sidebar “Nuts and Bolts”). Immediately it's clear that Raymond has built his program up around the model of a pro recording studio rather than the MIDI-workstation lab that is more common in schools. The recording suite is actually a converted TV studio, located in the middle of the school's library. It includes a live room and a control room, separated by double-paned (five-inch airspace) glass, and a classroom (see Fig. 2). McCallum's Digidesign Pro Tools-based studio employs a Macintosh G4 computer and a rack of sound modules, preamps, compressors, and limiters. They also have a nice array of microphones and some miscellaneous gear collected over the years, which Raymond calls “toys,” including a Roland RA-50 Realtime Arranger (an auto-accompaniment device that can be used somewhat like PG Music's Band-in-a-Box software) and several effects processors. “Some are useless,” Raymond jokes, “until that ‘perfect need’ comes up!” Recently they purchased a Superscope direct-to-CD recorder to make live recording easier. A studio like McCallum's doesn't materialize out of thin air; it is the result of tenacious programbuilding, grant-writing, and good timing. Raymond applied for and received a grant for $10,000 from the Creative Learning and Career Advancement (CLCA) foundation in Austin, allowing him to purchase their Pro Tools system and a lot of other equipment. Because McCallum students can choose a music-technology career pathway that includes Raymond's course, his district's school-to-career department later acquired $14,000 from the Carl Perkins Federal Funding program. Then there's the approximately $2,000 worth of video gear donated last year. One of Gene Raymond's truly inspired ideas for acquiring free gear was to place an ad in the city's classifieds that appealed to pros and amateurs who were leaving recording to donate their equipment as a tax deduction. MASTERING THEIR DESTINY Raymond continues to plan for the future. Things wear out, the Pro Tools system needs to be updated, and a more powerful computer would help. Knowing that district funding will go only so far, he's not sitting still. While pursuing another CLCA grant, he and his students are making plans to market a student-produced, fund-raising CD using the school's rich pool of talent. Raymond is even looking into the possibility of establishing a McCallum High School record label. For almost everyone else, this would mean burning a CD and slapping a homemade label on it. But knowing the sort of professionals that rub shoulders with McCallum music-technology students every day, we can expect a whole lot more. Scott Watson teaches elementary school band and university music-technology courses in the Philadelphia area. His music for band is published by Alfred Publications and Shawnee Press. He invites you to contact him at watsons@parklandsd.org. Beanbags and Bass Traps One of the crucial differences between listening to sound on speakers and monitoring on headphones is that with speakers, the sound interacts with the surrounding room, reflecting off of the walls, floor, and ceiling. If the room has not been treated with special acoustic-conditioning materials, the resulting complex interaction of reflected and direct sound reinforces some frequencies, making them louder, and cancels others, making them softer. Therefore, the sound you hear in the untreated room does not accurately represent the recorded sound. If a room is properly treated with acoustic conditioning, the problems can be corrected, and the sound you hear in the room will accurately represent the recorded material. Because you are dealing with complex acoustic interactions that affect multiple frequencies, you need more than one type of acoustic conditioning to correct the room's acoustic problems. Regular acoustic foam has its place in treating mids and highs, for example, but it won't solve problems caused by excessive low frequencies. For that, most studio designers use a special acoustic device called a bass trap. Bass traps are resonating boxes designed to absorb low-frequency energy, preventing excess lows from bouncing around the room, and muddying the sound. With the traps correctly placed (an art in itself), the low-frequency problems can be reduced or eliminated. Bass traps can be made out of a variety of materials, ranging from closets filled with fiberglass to home-made or professionally built panels of wood, fiberglass, and other materials. Commercially manufactured bass traps can cost hundreds of dollars, but Gene Raymond has come up with a novel solution. Suggesting they make the studio “their own,” he invited kids to bring in items from home to use as bass traps. Today, a carefully placed old love seat improves sound in the control room (see Fig. A), while a large gorilla beanbag chair (see Fig. B) embraces both a kick drum and a guitar amp in the live room. Students also contributed everyday items such as blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals, which they placed by trial-and-error until they discovered a sweet spot. Admittedly, placing improvised bass traps by following one's ear is not a scientifically accurate solution, but for Raymond's purposes, it gets the job done. Furthermore, it does so at the right price — free — because the students used donated materials. Best of all, Raymond's students get a workaday experience with studio sound. Nuts and Bolts Gene Raymond's program at McCallum High School is focused on developing the students' potential, not on cool gear. Still, McCallum's equipment is an important part of the music department's technology initiative, and it's worth checking out. Here's a partial list of the most important gear, broken down by room.
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to Top | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||
|
|||
|
