Joe Janiga – Teaching and Learning with Technology at Reed

Mother 32 and DFAM (drummer from another mother) at PARC

The Performing Arts Resource Center (PARC) in the Performing Arts Building (PAB) has added two Moog analog synthesizers to our continually evolving A/V editing room 327!

Reedies’ Experimental Music Project: a new music collective on campus?

Recently I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of working with our visiting composition professor Yuan Chen-Li and her MUS 314 composition class. Over the last six weeks I have conducted workshops with them at the PARC covering topics ranging from live audio capture (using the PARC’s mobile recording hardware and software) to electronic music composition using software synths (soft synths).

The class is using our set of special project iPads for their works this term, which I configured with the requested apps. As per professor Chen-Li’s assignment, the students are capturing live sounds. The students have leaned towards what she calls undifferentiated sounds — such as running water, microwaves, and chalk on a board — which the students then process and manipulate with the iPad using iOS GarageBand or on a computer using Audacity or Logic Pro.

Continue reading “Reedies’ Experimental Music Project: a new music collective on campus?”

Tool Talk: Creating transparency in images with Preview

Preview, macOS’s built-in image and PDF viewer, has quietly added many useful features over the years. Earlier this year, we blogged about Preview’s PDF annotation tools.

Preview’s Instant Alpha tool allows you to quickly make parts of an image transparent. You could also do this with other more robust (and expensive) software, but having this capability included in a built-in piece of software on the Mac is very useful. One potential use is removing the background from images in order to insert them in documents or posters. Another potential use would be for artwork or photos you want to manipulate digitally. Continue reading “Tool Talk: Creating transparency in images with Preview”

New developments in mobile audio recording at Reed

Welcome to the Fall 2016 semester!

New mobile recording equipment is available to check out for academic or personal recording at the Performing Arts Resource Center (PARC). Possible uses include field recording for classes, analog and/or midi recording of your own music, sampling, editing music, mixing, and mastering. We have enough microphones to record anything from one instrument to an entire band. Documentation is included with all of the equipment. You can also talk to me in the PARC or write me at joejaniga@reed.edu with any questions.

The list after the jump is ordered from entry-level to advanced; your needs will determine the best option for you. Continue reading “New developments in mobile audio recording at Reed”

Tool Talk – Adapter: a three-in-one media conversion tool

There are many media file types that exist for images, audio, and video. A file type that works in one situation make may not work in another. For example, an upload that you need to make might take .png files but not .tiff. Maybe the audio file you are trying to email or upload is too big and you need to compress it. Video files can be particularly problematic due to their size, or perhaps the software you are using accepts only certain formats. The number of possible file types and codecs (technologies for compressing and decompressing files) are seemingly endless and it can be daunting to keep track of this ever-changing landscape. If you don’t want to download multiple apps that facilitate different conversion tasks you can download Adapter and do most everything in one app.

Tool Talk: Soundflower for routing audio

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to route your computer’s system audio output into a piece of audio recording software. Some potential situations that you would want to do this for would be as follows. What if you needed to record the audio from a Skype or FaceTime session? Or you wanted to do some creative re-sampling of a piece of audio? Maybe you want to record something from the web like Tone Generator (a frequency generation tool only available on the web), like a student and I did for RAW (Reed Arts Week) recently. You could also use it for a live situation where you wanted to capture everything you did on your computer.

Shoot a film with our new iPad filmmaking case!

As an instructional technologist for performing arts my job is multifaceted. One of the aspect of my job is to look for emerging technologies that could be relevant to education within the performing arts; another aspect is to look for new technologies that could enhance creativity within or integrate with performances. Sometimes the technology crosses over between these two and sometimes it doesn’t.

Continue reading “Shoot a film with our new iPad filmmaking case!”

Zombie: a video paper; a nontraditional treatment of a traditional assignment

The idea: or, how one thing leads to another

Last spring, a student named Hannah came to my office with questions about overlaying animation on video to explain movement in a visually narrative way. She wanted to analyze a video and thought that if she used animated (moving) annotations in conjunction with it she could better get her point across. The subject matter was dancers and their interaction with musicians. We looked at a few examples she liked online that utilized animation and video. We talked about the time she had available and what was feasible in regards to time needed for the technical command of the software and creating a finished product that would be useable. After talking about it we ended up using Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) to do this; a multimedia “paper” was in motion.

The paper was due in two weeks. Over that time, Hannah learned FCPX both through our meetings discussing best practices and through trial and error while doing the work. As a result, she gained enough command of the software to move beyond the basics and make some new discoveries that carried through to the final draft.

The process: start, stop, struggle, proceed, refine

I don’t think the creators of FCPX conceived of the application as a way to complete a college paper, but leave it to a Reedie to find a way to skew its intended use! Hannah’s use of FCPX was unconventional and creative, but the software supported it nicely. In addition to animated annotations, Hannah included freeze and still frames, inserted text frames, and used slow motion and split screen functionality to support her analysis of the movement phrases. After a few meetings with me, her own research, and some standard back and forth regarding new questions that arose as she explored the software, she got to work. I watched as her technical facility in the software led to new ideas and directions we didn’t even discuss.

Then came the editing. Good editing requires distance (time away) from the project; an unbiased, razor-sharp eye; and a good sense of form, pacing, and detail. Practically speaking, one has to have the ability to step back, analyze the rhythm of the transitions, tighten up timings so there is smooth flow, and make sure everything is cohesive. Usually, having another person look at the project is helpful. When immersed in nuts and bolts technical video work, it is hard to visually step back. If that is not possible, your best bet is time away. I helped by watching her video a few times and making some suggestions. We only had time for one round of revisions; ultimately, two or three would have been the most helpful. That said, the video still works very well.

The product: Zombie

Below is the final product. This was an wonderful example of Seymour Papert’s notion of computer-aided inspiration: the creative use of technology in education. (Papert, Seymour. Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. New York: Basic Books, 1980.)

Hannah did an excellent job in the time available to her. I believe she opened the door for other students to use FCPX this way in the future and broke new ground by using video technology to communicate elements of her analysis that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to deliver in a traditional paper.

New at the PARC 2015/2016

Welcome back to a new school year! It has been a busy summer at the Performing Arts Resource Center getting ready for it. I am excited to let Reed know of new hardware available for immediate checkout at the PARC.

We now have microphones! They have been chosen for their flexibility and multiple configuration possibilities. Remember, each microphone has its own character; no two mics are the same. Also, placement and process (which DAW you are using, your signal flow, and your instrument and instrumentalist quality) are huge parts of your final product. Experiment, use your ears, and have fun! Continue reading “New at the PARC 2015/2016”

Pan to Zoom in iMovie and Final Cut Pro X

In my last post I talked about zooming into and cropping an entire video clip in iMovie and Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). Another approach to this is to use zoom as an effect to “crop” into your image while panning in your video clip, an effect if not originated at least made very famous by Ken Burns. In both iMovie and FCPX there is a function to do just this, appropriately named the Ken Burns Effect. This will let you create an animated pan (the effect of motion within a video clip) to a crop that has a smooth flow from one section of your video to another.