PSU Magazine Winter 2004

Students interface with computers to create their own music. By John Kirkland l hiny years ago, Brad Hansen , associate professor of music, worked part time as a music "copyist." For $2 a page, he wou ld take orchestral scores, extract the pans for specific members of the orchestra-an oboist or violinist, for example– and write out their pans page by laborious page: a scene reminiscent of pre-Gutenberg bible production. Now that's a tough way to make a living. Today Hansen and instructor Jon Newton over– see a lab on the second floor of PSU's Lincoln Hall where computers can do the job in triple time. Those same computers can mix tonal layers, recreate the sounds of everything from the human voice to a gunshot, and allow young musicians to realize a dream: recording their own professional quality CDs. The MIDI lab, short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is the hub of an intensive new PSU program in recording arts and music produc– tion (RAMP for short). The program was created in response to years of demand from students, who not only wanted to record and produce their own music, but also learn how to score films and TV shows. The RAMP program integrates with all other activities of the Music Department. Opera stu– dents are using the new recording lab to make demo CDs to win auditions and competitions. Other students use MIDI lab equipment to build aural skills for their classes in ear training and sight singing. "This results in higher levels of musicianship for all the music students," Hansen says. Jazz majors can access anthologies compiled in the lab and use the lab's software to write their own arrangements. Students studying theory, composition, and orchestration can hear virtual renditions of their works and print out their scores with the instrumental parts transposed and extracted. And music education majors learn about software that is used for teaching in the classroom and in private studio settings. Some of these same students will learn tech– niques that can make a single performer sound like a five-piece band. This is possible because of the hundreds of digitally sampled sounds that are available as software packages. It's not uncommon these days for performers to have all the accom– paniment they need from preprogrammed sounds they've assembled before a gig. The next time you listen to a CD of your favorite performer, consider that the rich back– ground of strings, keyboards, and voices you hear may be digitally sampled sounds assembled by a skilled recording engineer. They can even be th~