Enrollment for this course has closed. But you can enroll in a future offering (please select)
Not available for purchase in India
Enrollment for this course has closed. But you can enroll in a future offering (please select)
Not available for purchase in India
This course is designed to explore practical contemporary synthesis techniques in the context of creating a musical composition. It focuses on the musical and emotional implications of synthesizer components and techniques: envelopes, LFO’s, filters, oscillators, modulation, and audio effects. Frequent peer feedback on both the synthesizer patches and musical composition help to develop the student’s technical and musical capabilities.
At the conclusion of the course the student will have a solid foundation in practical contemporary synthesis techniques within an industry standard synthesizer, will have created a piece of music to demonstrate his or her skills, and will have developed the ability to critique synthesizer patches based on their appropriateness, emotional impact, category, and expressiveness.
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Below you will find an overview of the Learning Outcomes you will achieve as you complete this course.
Understanding of the main aspects of contemporary subtractive synthesis including: Oscillators, Filters, Amplifiers, Envelopes, and LFOs.
Ability to design custom synthesizer sounds to fill the most common musical roles including: Basses, Leads, Pads, Drums, and FX.
Advanced use of synthesizers to create electronic music with dramatic emotional journeys.
Loudon Stearns is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, a course author and instructor at Berklee Online, and an active media-artist. Within the Contemporary Writing and Production department at Berklee College of Music he prepares students to work as independent composers and producers in a technology-laden music industry. Online, he focuses on the latest electronic music styles and music-technology innovations, showing students how to analyze contemporary styles and use the latest music technology in their own works. An innovator in both education and art, Loudon received an award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) for "Excellence in Teaching" and received the "Excellence in Media Art" award from the Emerson College Visual and Media Art department.
Pre-Requisite Knowledge: students should have experience with a digital audio workstation and be comfortable using one that supports VST, AAX, or AU plugins.
Equipment: FXpansion Strobe and a MIDI keyboard (such as an oxygen 8)
Download Your FREE 90-Day Demo of Strobe 2
Berklee and FXpansion have partnered to bring you a free, 90-day trial of Strobe 2. This demo includes all of the features available in the full version and is only available to students in this course.
To download your free 90-day demo of Strobe 2, click here.
You will be directed to a webpage where you will need to create an account with FXpansion. If you already have an account with FXpansion, you may log in using your username and password. When you are ready to download the demo, you will need to enter the following Activation Code (please note this code is case sensitive):
BERKLEE123S
Once you have entered the code and verified you are a student in this MOOC, the demo will appear within the "My Registered Products" page in your user account and you can download it for free.
Please view the document below for instructions on downloading and authorizing your Strobe 2 demo.
The suggested Digital Audio Workstations are:
Strobe 2 is provided in the following plugin formats:
On Mac:
On Windows:
A simple USB keyboard controller that can interface with your DAW is also required, an M-Audio Oxygen 25 is an example of a small keyboard controller that could work well for this course.
System Requirements
For the Strobe 2 synthesizer, the hardware requirements are:
Please note: Taking part in a Kadenze course as a Premium Member does not affirm that the learner has been enrolled or accepted for enrollment by Berklee.
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Please understand that posts which violate this Code of Conduct harm our community and may be deleted or made invisible to other learners by course moderators. Learners who repeatedly break these rules may be removed from the course and/or may lose access to Kadenze.
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