March Updates

Hello World!

March is upon us and we’re half way through the semester here. Studio 3 has been pretty much booked solid lately! Lots of great music being made.

Announcements:

• Presidential Elections have closed. Robert Janzen was the unanimous choice and will be starting his position in Fall 2012.
• On March 20th, we’ll be hosting a guest lecture on the Buchla 200e Series synthesizer! Stay tuned for more details
• The Mus407 class is having their annual Computer Music Concert on March 29th at 7pm in the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
• The DIY MIDI Controller Design Workshop went over smashingly! Talks of Fuzz Pedals are in the works – See Facebook for more details!

• On April 27th, there is going to be a MISTIC concert at The Open Space as part of the Trimpin: (CanonX+4:33=100) installation (http://www.openspace.ca/Trimpin_2012).

And we are on Twitter now! @UVicCMCU – Follow us for links and updates and retweets from engineers and people in the industry!

February Events

Studio Mastering Tutorials  - Feb 10th, 24th from 12:30pm-1:30pm in Mac B008/B006

• Split into two separate sessions
• Session 1 will be an overview of the mastering process
• Session 2 will be an active workshop. Participants must bring tracks they would like to work on.
• Sessions will be led by Mr. McNally, the UVic School of Music’s professional recording engineer and professor of recording

Build-It-Yourself MIDI Controller Workshop - Feb. 25th, 10am-5pm in ECS 660

• You MUST sign-up for this workshop. Sign-up takes place Feb. 7th from 12:30pm-2:30pm. If you cannot make it for this time, you will have to make alternative arrangements. Please contact Mike at mikedean (.at.) uvic (dot) ca. You must vote for a new president in order to sign-up. HA!
• Cost is $35 per person. This cost is to purchase an Arduino microprocessor. If you already own one, cost is free.
• More details will be sent as they occur. Event will likely take several hours and will depend on space availability – likely from 10am-5pm.
• Please start scavenging as many crazy electronics devices as possible! The more crazy controls we have, the better!
• More details here: http://www.facebook.com/events/327448403966867/

2012-2013 Presidential Election - Feb. 7th, from 12:30pm-2:30pm in Mac B008/B006

• CALL FOR NOMINATIONS.
  • If you wish to run for CMCU president, or as a executive member, for next year, you MUST send an email to cmcu (at) uvic (dot) ca with “Nominate” in the subject line before Feb. 6th.
  • Please include a couple sentences on what you want to do as an executive.
  • This looks great on your resume and is a fantastic way to connect with like-minded people as well as learn lots about computer music!
• Election will be during a Tuesday studio session. If you would like to vote but cannot make it, contact cmcu (at) uvic (dot) ca to make arrangements.
• You must vote to sign-up for the DIY MIDI controller workshop

Advanced Music Production in Ableton Live - Feb 21st from 12:30pm-2:30pm in Mac B006/B008

• Will cover advanced music production techniques in Ableton Live
• Assumes a basic knowledge of the interface, covered in the first tutorial.
• Details on what is covered can be found here: http://uvicmucs.wordpress.com/events/

That’s all for now. Don’t hesitate to ask questions via the forum on Facebook.

We’re looking forward to all of this!

Music Track Day – A Huge Success!

Hello All!

I just wanted to write a blog here say thanks to everyone who was involved in the very first UVic Music Track Day. It was a roaring success – and that’s thanks to you!

The bands were great and the music was superb! I know Thor and his crew got the Jazz Band mixes done (listen here: http://tide-pool.ca/musictrackday) and Duncan’s gonna do some bouncing for Ben and Bucan Bucan early this week. I’m excited to hear what the day produced!

To Thor and Brett thank you for being our paparazzi the day. A big thanks to Kirk for coming in on his day-off to help us out with everything! I apologize for the lack of provided coffee – I will take the blame on that one.

Thor’s pictures on flick: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10644257@N07/sets/72157628885234997/
Brett’s pictures on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.282983938427066&type=1 

Once again, thanks to the assistants, our lead technicians, our experts, and bands! It was a great day.

I wrote a little bit of a blurb about the day on my website – so you can check it out here: http://jstasiuk.com/music-track-day/

I know we’ve got lots more planned for the semester. I think there’s another Hack Day coming up next week! Some more Ableton tutorials and then workshops! Exciting!

 

    Thanks again!

- J

We’re doing it all again, folks.  The second very local, very unofficial edition of the world-renowned Music Hack Day is happening at UVic on January 21st.  Here’s some of the things we did at the last one.

Music Hack Day is a hacking session in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects: music + software + mobile + hardware + art + the web + etc.  The objective is to get something neat built and working, as fast as possible, and then present it at the end of the day.

The Hack Day will run from 10 AM to 10 PM, in ECS 660.  The sign up sheet is here.  For more information, email tkell at uvic.ca.  It will be the most fun you have writing code all term, we promise.

 

UVic Music Track Day – January 14th

What are you doing January 14th?  Want to spend a day recording, overdubbing and mixing bands?

Music Track Day is an all day recording session:  the goal is to record an EP or album for each band in a single day, inclusive of bed tracks, overdub, and mixdown.  The recording artists include Amy Wood, Chris Ho, Bucan Bucan, the Kovich String Quartet, and the UVic Jazz Ensemble.

To do this, we need people to help record!  This is where you come in.  You’ll spend the day working with one lead engineer and a few bands in different sessions. Your job will be to help the engineer in moving mics, testing levels, troubleshooting and all the other jobs that are associated in the recording process. We are trying to make this similar to a 306 class session, but with less people, more time and a bigger project. You will be working in a team of about 4/5 + an engineer.

Track Day will run all day on January the 14th, in MACB 008, 037, and the recital hall.  The sign up sheet is here.  For more information, email Jason or Thor:  stasiuk.jc at gmail.com, or tkell at uvic.ca

CMCU Year End Concert/Party/Mingler

The Computer Music Course Union is celebrating the end of another semester with some live music. These performances will be by unique, precise individuals who each have mastered their own brand of sound….featuring some of UVic’s very own and very talented electronic musicians:

Ookpik (Live PA)
Fractal & Iterate (Live PA + DJ Set)
Transient (DJ Set)
Geev3s (DJ Set)

The show starts at 8:30pm. There is no cover.

So come out and experience some live electronic music! You’re guaranteed to see some things you’re not likely to see in many other places. Bring your friends, have a couple beers. Mingle about, and get to know people who are so excited about music that they can’t even help themselves. Wind down the semester with the Computer Music Course Union and some live electronic music.

CMCU! FTW!

See you there!

Ableton Live Workshop Series: Part I

The first of three workshops for the Ableton Live DAW will be held on Thursday, October 27th from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in MacLaurin B006/B008 (the studio in the basement of the music wing).

Part I – Understanding the DAW

• Arrangement View vs. Session View
• Scenes, Clips and Tempo
• Instruments, MIDI effects, Audio effects, Instrument Racks, Presets
• MIDI and Audio I/O
• MIDI Mapping and Ext. MIDI Synchronization
• Hot Swapping and the File Browser
• Demo – Producing a track from start to finish

How to Take Part:

- send an email to cmcu@uvic.ca with the subject: ‘Ableton Live Workshop – Attending’

- you do not need to bring a laptop, but if you would like to follow along with one, feel free to do so

- you may bring your own hardware if you would like any assistance getting started with it, or if you would just like to set it up to try things (ie. MIDI controllers, external sound cards)

- bring any questions you have about the posted subjects

Post any questions in the Facebook group. See you there

UVic Music Hack Day – Huge Success

We came, we saw, we hacked.  Music Hack Day photos are now on flickr, and a video is on the youtubes.

Many, many thanks to everyone who showed up and built rad stuff. – extra special thanks to George for being the faculty mastermind, and to Mike Dean for helping me organize things.

Same time next term?  I hope so.

Domain Transition

Hello all, we’re thinking of purchasing a domain for the CMCU website, in an attempt to gain some sort of e-stature. Seeing as this union has grown so fast over the last few months (as it didn’t even exist last year), a friendly, concise URL might help garner the attention of those not yet in the loop.

We want something that is succinct (succinctness is the whole point of top-level domains), while at the same time one that conveys all aspects of “The University of Victoria Computer Science and Music Course Union”. http://theuniversityofvictoriacomputerscienceandmusiccourseunion.com is too long, so I propose the following:

• www.ucmcu.net      (my favourite)
• www.uviccmcu.com
• www.uviccmcu.net
• www.uvicmucs.com
• www.uvicmucs.net

Any suggestions? Thoughts?

-Toby

 

 

Job Opportunity

For those of you who missed the boat on the School of Music’s “Recording Technician” position (or those for you that never knew…), here is a job opening that might interest to all yallz.

Audio Production & Program Assistant (CFUV)

You must be eligible for work study in order to qualify for this job. Although the due date says September 9th, 2011, the (renewed) deadline is September 23^rd, 2011.