Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

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Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:53 pm

Imperial Theatre is once again offering the "Practical Sound Course" hosted by yours truly. This is the same course that I have taught over the years there and it has proven to be quite popular. The best review I ever heard was someone talked to admin. after the fact and said "All musicians should take Malcolm's course". I would say, gear interested musicians is certainly what this course is all about.

Here is a link to the website: http://www.imperialtheatre.nb.ca/sound_workshop.php

Any questions about the course itself, just ask. Yes Matt, there will most likely be snacks. :-)
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:26 pm

I'd love to go but I can't take a full week off with such short notice. I wonder though, if I were to go (provided snacks were ample) how much would someone at an intermediate-ish level like me learn from it?

I'd actually like for our new intern to take the course though... He "studied" at a local "school" and let's just say I think his education could use some additional reinforcement. Really sharp kid though, he'd probably excel in your course.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Alain Benoit » Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:03 pm

I'd like for him to take it as well.
Malcolm, is there a discount for a business that does a lot of business with your business?

I took that course years ago and the one thing that i remember the most was Warren swearing up and down the the Sennheiser BlackFire MD509 went gold side out!!
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:32 pm

Imperial Website wrote:Single Adult: $250.00
Group of 4 or More Adults: $200.00/per person
Single Student: $200.00
Group of 3 or More Students: $15.00/per person

Nevermind Alain they have a super duper special for 3 or more students. I'll send Nick and one of his buddies too, the whole lot will cost us $45.00 flat.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Christian LeBlanc » Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:40 pm

Malcolm Boyce wrote:gear interested musicians

I may need to sign up for this thing. Is there a lot of hands on? I don't even mean my hands, I just mean, will there be lots of audio examples to illustrate things like, say, phasing? Or, a direct instrument compared to a mic'd instrument? Or how different mics sound with the same instrument? Will we hear examples of 'wrong' as well as 'right'? I'm ok with theory, but hearing examples can really lock down some otherwise shaky concepts for me.

Also, is $15 a typo for $150? Or was Matt just joking about that and my cold's throwing off my sense of humour?
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Jef » Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:21 pm

Doesn't look like a typo. The same $15.00 fee on the .pdf doc as well.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Alain Benoit » Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:57 pm

I called the box office tonight with my credit card number wanting to register three students for the course at $15 each for a total of $45. She said no problem but that she didn't know anything about it because she was new/untrained and there was no one around to tell how to do that.
She called back and hour or two later, asked for the name and phone numbers of all three attendees.
She then proceeded to tell me that $450 plus tax would be charged to my CC.
I told her that there must be some mistake, the website clearly said $15 each for three students or more.
She cried typo, I cried false advertising.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:45 am

Yes, it appears as though the copy/paste without reading world we're living in is in play. I don't have anything to do with the administration of this dealy, I just provide the program and instruction. I wouldn't even have been able to tell anyone what the rates were without looking myself. Seeing that, I would have assumed $150.00 instead of $15.00, although it jumped out at me as odd the very first time I read it.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:55 am

Christian LeBlanc wrote:
Malcolm Boyce wrote:gear interested musicians

I may need to sign up for this thing. Is there a lot of hands on? I don't even mean my hands, I just mean, will there be lots of audio examples to illustrate things like, say, phasing? Or, a direct instrument compared to a mic'd instrument? Or how different mics sound with the same instrument? Will we hear examples of 'wrong' as well as 'right'? I'm ok with theory, but hearing examples can really lock down some otherwise shaky concepts for me.
Christian, you are the type of person that would get a lot out of this kind of thing. Although it is geared toward "live" audio, it is an explanation of how things work in a way that covers most of what is used in both live and recording settings.

As far as hearing examples of specific things you are interested in, although I have a program that I cover over the term, I try to have plenty of time to try things that individuals want to hear and see. I really try to keep it an open forum type of atmosphere as much as I can and still cover the material I need to get to.

I really love teaching this course. Wish I could do this type of thing more often. Once again, any more questions, just ask. I'd love if some of you out there who've taken this in the past would chime in with your experiences.

...and if you know of anyone, or anywhere people gather who might be interested... pass on the info.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:29 am

Pic from a previous course:

Image
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Christian LeBlanc » Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:42 am

For the live band that plays on the Sunday - will they have keyboards? There's a thread in these forums about how hard they can be to mix live sometimes, and I think it might be fun to illustrate "how-to."

As fun as smuggling in a hardware vocoder to patch into the mixing board would be, I'm guessing that bringing gear from home is frowned upon, right? Because if one person wanted to do it, everyone would etc etc...plus, figuring out some gear might take away from what you're trying to do, you don't know if it's reliable, etc etc.

But that raises another question: will we have access to effects for the band on Sunday? I'd love to play around with things like thickening the guitar via a short delay, that kind of thing.

Would impedance be covered, as well?

And I'd love it if I could come out of this knowing what my amp and cab sims at home should sound like :) Would there be some illustration of how guitar -> distortion pedals -> direct to computer or soundboard, sounds compared to guitar -> distortion pedals -> guitar amp and cabinet -> microphone -> computer or soundboard?
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:23 am

Christian LeBlanc wrote:For the live band that plays on the Sunday - will they have keyboards? There's a thread in these forums about how hard they can be to mix live sometimes, and I think it might be fun to illustrate "how-to."
Don't know who the "band" will be yet so instrumentation is up in the air right now.

Christian LeBlanc wrote:As fun as smuggling in a hardware vocoder to patch into the mixing board would be, I'm guessing that bringing gear from home is frowned upon, right? Because if one person wanted to do it, everyone would etc etc...plus, figuring out some gear might take away from what you're trying to do, you don't know if it's reliable, etc etc.
Something like which you speak is such a specialized kind of thing, I can't spend too much time on stuff like that. You kind of answered your own question, and correctly I might add.

Christian LeBlanc wrote:But that raises another question: will we have access to effects for the band on Sunday? I'd love to play around with things like thickening the guitar via a short delay, that kind of thing.
Yes. Playing around with effects can and will happen. Know that in a live setting, things like "thickening" via use of delay is pretty advanced mixing technique and is above the level of most participants of this event. Subtle technique is non existent in the overwhelming majority of live situations that people taking this course will work in.

Christian LeBlanc wrote:Would impedance be covered, as well?
Not in depth.

Christian LeBlanc wrote:And I'd love it if I could come out of this knowing what my amp and cab sims at home should sound like :) Would there be some illustration of how guitar -> distortion pedals -> direct to computer or soundboard, sounds compared to guitar -> distortion pedals -> guitar amp and cabinet -> microphone -> computer or soundboard?
Although this course will benefit gear curious musicians, it's focus is on the sound systems and setups used and not the instruments and gear associated directly with said instruments. That being said, it is an open discussion, and lots of things come up during the course of events. It just isn't the focus.

If I thought there would be a demand for a more advanced course where we could spend that much time on stuff like you ask, I would be all over putting together another program. The one coming up is something that has outdone my expectations for people being interested in, and the degree to which people have enjoyed participating in. Who knows.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Christian LeBlanc » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:22 am

Malcolm Boyce wrote:If I thought there would be a demand for a more advanced course where we could spend that much time on stuff like you ask, I would be all over putting together another program. The one coming up is something that has outdone my expectations for people being interested in, and the degree to which people have enjoyed participating in. Who knows.

Most of the questions I'm asking about are "icing on the cake," for me; there's so many areas of sound that can be honed in on, it would be impossible to give everyone their favourite icing. The cake itself is the big reason I'm looking forward to this course :)

...it's my birthday that week, hence, cake analogies...
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:17 pm

Not entirely sure what's going to happen with this. They didn't see enough advance registrations so it's not happening as planned. There is talk of a less formal one evening event later this week. I'll let you know as I find out.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Christian LeBlanc » Sun Jan 01, 2012 8:16 pm

Thanks for the update. Imperial called me Friday afternoon about a refund, but I was drunk, so I told them I'd call back.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Alain Benoit » Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:00 pm

Went to buy a ticket for Blaze this afternoon and they were closed.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Tue Jan 03, 2012 1:36 pm

So something is happening tomorrow night (Wed). It'll be a 4 hour-ish kind of thing, and pretty informal. I will probably leave it mostly up to the group what we tackle for topics. Contact Imperial Theatre for info about getting in. I know nothing 'bout that... but they do.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:41 pm

Malcolm Boyce wrote:So something is happening tomorrow night (Wed). It'll be a 4 hour-ish kind of thing, and pretty informal. I will probably leave it mostly up to the group what we tackle for topics. Contact Imperial Theatre for info about getting in. I know nothing 'bout that... but they do.


So from what I gather from the imperial's facebook page... It looks like an informal 4 hour session for $40 tonight from 6pm-10pm. The only problem I have with that is that without a structured curriculum I'm not sure how usueful it would be to our intern since he can ask us questions whenever the wants for free.

The real draw to the program originally is that there is a tried, tested and true curriculum that was created and that covered all the basics in a systematic way that nothing gets left out. If I'm going to rely on him to ask the right questions to help them fill in the blanks then we might as well send him back to the other place he just graduated from. At least with you though it would only have set him back $40 and I do trust your experience as an instructor... but still it's a shame the course couldn't proceed as originally planned.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:44 pm

Mathieu Benoit wrote:... but still it's a shame the course couldn't proceed as originally planned.
This x100.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:46 pm

Keep us posted if the full course does come together next year, as I will be sending at least 2 people your way... maybe more.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:48 pm

Malcolm Boyce wrote:
Mathieu Benoit wrote:... but still it's a shame the course couldn't proceed as originally planned.
This x100.



By the way is there any chance you could put together a condensed curriculum? Might be to your advantage to have that as an available plan B in case this happens again.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Wed Jan 04, 2012 3:01 pm

Mathieu Benoit wrote:
Malcolm Boyce wrote:
Mathieu Benoit wrote:... but still it's a shame the course couldn't proceed as originally planned.
This x100.



By the way is there any chance you could put together a condensed curriculum? Might be to your advantage to have that as an available plan B in case this happens again.
The original course makeup touches a little bit on many, many topics. This is to appeal to a broad spectrum of people, and their varied experience level. In order to "condense" it, I would need to select what topics were of benefit to the audience attending, and the only way I can do that is to know who that will be. If you can tell me who will be there, and what their level of experience is, I can condense it and tell you what it will include. This is not the case tonight unfortunately.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Jan 04, 2012 3:21 pm

Maybe make separate beginner, intermediate and advanced courses? I don't know... I'm just thinking out loud mainly.
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:34 pm

How did last night go?
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Re: Practical Sound Course... Jan 2012 Version

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:31 pm

Mathieu Benoit wrote:How did last night go?

Cool enough... Talked about dynamics processing a fair bit. Frequency response and how it relates to the real world. Microphone choices. Direct boxes and their differences. Lossy digital conversion and how it's ruining what should be simple recording playback for live use. Some monitor mixing technique. Other stuff I don't remember...

Small group so people got to talk about what they were curious about. Some folks are probably going to hang with me on an upcoming date where I'll be mixing monitors for a decent sized band. Helps fill in the spaces.
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