Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Lecturer, Tutor, Convenor
Adrian Renzo
Please see iLearn.
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
39cp at 100 level or above
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit builds practical skills to mix music for a live audience. Lectures and production lab workshops develop the techniques necessary for DJ-ing and laptop performance. The broad objective is to develop students’ awareness of mixing techniques in the live performance of electronic music, to develop creative skills in constructing studio-based DJ sets, and to collaborate creatively with colleagues. Students are introduced to Ableton Live software as a tool for laptop performance and production. This unit caters to a variety of skill levels with both beginning and advanced students welcome.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
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Listening Test | 35% | No | Week 6 |
Peer Assessment | 20% | No | Weeks 10-12 |
Live Performance | 45% | No | Weeks 10-12 |
Due: Week 6
Weighting: 35%
This assessment tests an important skill practised by DJs: the ability to recognise when music has been edited, looped, sampled, remixed, or otherwise manipulated. Practice tasks (with answer sheets) will be available on iLearn from Week 1. The practice tasks and answer sheets will provide you with early feedback on your progress in this unit.
The test will require you to use your own headphones.
In the Listening Test you will be given a series of extracts from various DJ mixes. The extracts will draw on songs from a playlist that you will have access to from Week 1. Your task will be to identify how the songs have been changed in the DJ mixes.
The Listening Test will take place in class time in Week 6. Answers will be written on a hard-copy sheet to be submitted by the end of the class. You may take up to 45 minutes to complete the test. Audio files will be played through headphones connected to the workstations in 10HA-223. Please remember to bring your headphones with you.
Marks will be awarded according to the number of correct responses submitted. Please see iLearn for a full assessment rubric.
Practice tasks (along with answer sheets) will be available on iLearn from Week 1. The Listening Test from 2017 will also be available on iLearn.
Due: Weeks 10-12
Weighting: 20%
For this assessment you will write peer-evaluations of nine (9) performances.
Your peer-evaluation sheet must be submitted to Turnitin/iLearn on the day that you complete your final peer-review. The file that you submit should be named as follows:
[Surname - ID number - Peer-evaluation]
Example: Renzo - 44441234 - Peer-evaluation
Peer-reviews will be assessed according to the following criteria:
Please see iLearn for a full assessment rubric.
An example of a peer-review will be available on iLearn.
Due: Weeks 10-12
Weighting: 45%
In this assessment, you will perform a 10-minute DJ set using the Session View of Ableton Live. You will also liaise with other students ahead of time, to ensure that you 'mix into' your set smoothly. The performance schedule will be available on iLearn by 5pm Friday 21 September.
Marks will be awarded according to the following criteria:
Please see iLearn for a full assessment rubric.
Videos of Live Performances will be available on iLearn.
This unit consists of online lectures and on-campus tutorials.
Tutorials begin in Week 2 and take place in 10HA-223. For more details please see the MQ Timetables website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au
In Week 1, you should complete the "Listening Practice" tasks available on iLearn. This will provide you with early feedback on how you are progressing in this unit.
Ableton Live 9 Standard is available for student use on all computers in the lab. (External licences are not available.) You may use the lab to work on your assignments at any time that no class is being held in the room. The lab is open from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. Please see MQ Timetables to check when the lab is free: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au
If you choose to acquire Ableton Live 10, please note that you will need to use your own computer for the duration of the unit.
You will need to supply your own headphones for this course. The headphones do not need to be premium-grade DJ headphones, but they do need to cover your ears and give a fair representation of the full frequency range (please see iLearn for further details). You will need to use your own headphones in order to complete the Listening Test in Week 6.
You will need to supply your own data storage hardware. It is expected that you will regularly make three copies of your work on your own external hard drives, computers, and/or USB flash drives. Data on lab computers may be erased at any time, so these computers should not be used as a backup storage medium.
It is students' responsibility to ensure that any work undertaken outside of the MMCCS is fully functional within and compatible with the Mac version of Ableton Live currently installed on the computers in the MMCCS labs. Additional VST instruments and effects not native to Ableton Live should not be used in submitted assignments unless you are also providing the hardware on which such instruments will run.
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.
If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
MMCCS website: https://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/ department_of_media_music_communication_and_cultural_studies/
The MMCCS in-session re-mark application is available at: http://www.mq.edu.au/pubstatic/public/download/?id=167914
Information is correct at the time of publication.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, no late submissions will be accepted for the Listening Test. If your Special Consideration request has been approved, you will be advised how and when to sit a supplementary Listening Test.
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, no late submissions will be accepted for the Peer Assessment. If your Special Consideration request has been approved, you will be advised how and when to submit your Peer Assessment task.
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, no late submissions will be accepted for the Live Performance. If your Special Consideration request has been approved, you will be advised how and when to complete the Live Performance.