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Digital Audio Technology Overview
The Digital Audio Technology (DAT) program offers students who seek professional careers in the audio industry the opportunity to focus on audio production, audio product manufacturing, or healing and transformation through sound. Each approach to audio is distinct in the way that a professional applies audio skills and principles. The DAT program of study prepares students for professional careers through an integrated curriculum that includes conceptual foundations, hands-on assignments and projects, and a generous year-long senior portfolio project. Cogswell Polytechnical College provides a unique setting where these distinct but related audio disciplines come together.
Audio Production
Central to the DAT program is audio production, which consists of desktop audio production, studio recording production, and soundtrack production for motion pictures and videogames. The emphasis here is on the whole concept to delivery pipeline for audio production. Students produce original creative work and market and distribute it themselves. The senior portfolio classes provide a format for bringing together all of the elements of concept-to-delivery in a major capstone project. Cogswell College provides many opportunities for collaborative work for DAT students, particularly in the crafting of soundtracks for animations, motion pictures and videogames.
Audio Engineering
DAT offers a program of study that integrates audio technology and computer engineering for the manufacturing side of the audio industry. The program combines study in math, physics, computer engineering, digital signal processing, as well as digital audio technology conceptual foundations and production practices. Throughout the program there are many opportunities for hands-on learning and application. In the senior portfolio classes students synthesize all of the components of their study into the design and implementation of an audio device or computer application.
Sound Work
As an alternative to audio production for entertainment, the DAT program includes a specialization track in the use of music and sound to transform, heal and enhance the quality of life. Sound Work students share most of the DAT program with the other DAT students, but have a group of courses that include consciousness studies, sacred geometry, and the history, theories and practices of healing and transformation through sound. A special feature of this program is its emphasis throughout on original research and the importance of aligning practice with scientific understanding. The senior year of study features a year-long portfolio class format for an original production or research project.
DAT Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the DAT program of study will be able to:
- Implement an audio project according to a standard audio industry production pipeline.
- Create a soundtrack for a motion picture or videogame that supports the meaning of the story or action.
- Explain the conceptual basis of the tools and processes used in audio production from a scientific, mathematical or engineering perspective.
- Explain landmark historical events in the music and audio industries.
- Apply musical best practices to an audio project (musicianship).
- Imbue an audio project with grace and style above and beyond minimal technical requirements (artistry).
- Deliver a focused oral presentation with demonstration of a project or concept.
- Document a project or concept on a website or using Internet resources.
- Explain the perceptual and cognitive basis of digital audio technology.
- Create an original library of audio assets for use in an audio project.
Message from the DAT Director
Prospective students to Cogswell College, when they apply for admissions, write an essay explaining their intentions in coming to Cogswell. It is not uncommon for me to read in these essays that Cogswell is the only four-year degree granting college that offers what the student is looking for in an audio program.
One of the assumptions that we have about DAT students at Cogswell is that they already have some kind of “product”. In other words, the typical DAT student is a songwriter, is a DJ, has a band, or composes film or videogame soundtracks, to name a few. Students come to the DAT program to learn how to use the powerful new tools of the audio industry to wield their “product” like a professional, turning an aspiration into a career in the audio industry.
The DAT program has well-defined courses of study in studio recording, digital orchestration, music theory and the conceptual foundations of audio production. In addition, students have three portfolio classes in which they produce and market their own work. In fact, we conscientiously have tried to include all the stages of the concept to delivery pipeline, the sequence of steps from the moment someone first has a creative idea all the way to the delivery of a finished product to a customer or client. Starting in Fall 2007, we will offer a specialization track in Transformative Music, which considerably expands our range of music and audio applications and allows us to enter a dynamic and rapidly growing field with its own industry of recorded products.
In addition to album production and distribution, Cogswell College offers exceptional opportunities for producing soundtracks. We have programs in animation, motion picture production and videogames. Every student in those three programs must create original works and every one of those works requires a soundtrack. Physically, Cogswell College is housed in one building and all Cogswell students participate in the same General Education classes, so there are built-in opportunities for networking among students. Our emphasis on collaboration and team effort is a core value.
Finally, a Cogswell education goes well beyond technical instruction in any of the industries we serve. With one third of our curriculum dedicated to General Education studies, we strive to prepare our students for a lifetime of learning and to participate in what is increasingly becoming a global marketplace. Our scale is small and there are many opportunities for Cogswell students to receive individualized instruction. We have many alumni in the audio industry as well as other professional contacts and relationships that constitute a network of opportunities within the industry.
Feel free to contact me directly if you are interested in learning more about the Digital Audio Technology program. I am particularly interested in talking with musicians with unusual interests or skills in music and audio. Diversity is, after all, what the world is about these days.
Proud McDSP Education Partner
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