Free-Form Audio Fundamentals: Recording, Mangling, & Mixing So Fine!

Saturday, May 12, 10am-1pm
Presented by Pauline Gloss
20 participants maximum
$12 Members / $15 Regular

Member price accessed with discount code at checkout. Are you a member and don’t know your code? Email [email protected]! Not a member but interested in these perks? Join here!

Yes, ok, you want to do something with sound. You want to record it, or you want to break it, or you want to mix and warp it with other sounds. You want to make a sound collage. Or a radio piece. You want to record your voice. Or a rock. Or you think you do, but you don’t really know what you’re looking for but you want to feel like it’s not so intimidating to approach any of these things. Ok! Great! Your questions and vexations are what’s important here because this is going to be an open-forum fundamentals class for all of your audio and sound related needs!

This class, in short will be a free form exploration of audio basics. When you sign up for the class, I’ll ask you to send me a list of specific things that you want to learn and we’ll make sure to cover it in the course. Either way, by the end, you’ll all have an understanding of (1) what the hell sound even is. (2) How to record, by understanding what mics do what and what all those meters mean. (3) How to mix and mangle sounds in both free and paid mixing programs [audacity and pro tools]. (4) How to process sounds by stretching them, cutting them up, using equalization, reverb, compression, and any other kind of processing that you might want to use. (5) How to use the stereo stage and draw automation curves and (6) learn useful compositional methods that other artists and composers have used to make pieces stick together!

So, we’ll listen to things inside and also go outside and explore with our ears. As I said, it’s an open forum where we can get it all figured out. So bring any recorder that’s vexing you. Bring a mic that you want to know more about. Bring sound clips that you don’t know what to do with. Bring it all! By the end of our three hours, you’ll be able to go home and no longer feel the clunky mediation between you and your tech. Our goal is to dissolve all that so you can just do the damn thing!

Materials: If you can bring a laptop or a computer, that would be ideal (so we can learn these editing programs). If it has a built in microphone, even better! (You’re set!) Either way, I will bring a few recorders and different microphones. Feel free to bring yours if you have them!

Accessibility information for this event:

WCCW has a 36” wide ramp at our front entrance and a stairway with 8 steps and a rail. There are 2 gender neutral restrooms. One restroom is wheelchair accessible, with a handrail. We provide scent free soaps and encourage guests to attend our events scent free, however organic cleaning supplies are stored in the handicap accessible bathroom. If you require ASL interpretation, CART, interpretation for a language other than English, or have any other access needs or questions, please contact [email protected] at least two weeks in advance. It is our practice to do everything we can to create a safe and accessible space.

Pauline Gloss is a writer and literary sound-artist based in Los Angeles. Her language-sound work attempts to dramatize and expand language in its timbral, rhythmic, textural, and meaning-making dimensions. Pauline runs Spoken Records, a record-label specializing in the release of work in the Sound Poetry / Text-Sound tradition. She has been written about favorably in art and music publications and has performed or had work shown in Los Angeles, London, and New York, at institutions including MoCA Geffen, Cal Arts, Resonance FM, Poetic Research Bureau, The Lambda Literary Festival, Automata, Betalevel, and others. More info: paulinegloss.com

*All members get 20% off paid programming. A limited number of free spots are also available for Warrior & Goddess level members. Email [email protected] to inquire about free tickets.

Our program costs go directly towards compensation of the instructors and staffers who work the event. We want to make programming as accessible as possible to anyone who is interested, however, so we offer volunteer opportunities in exchange for membership, as well as free community tickets to each program (number varies depending on capacity of the class). Email [email protected] for more info or to find out more about these opportunities for a specific event.