Special thanks to Dr. David Williams for the Leadership Academy photos! See more at the bottom of the page!

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the TI:ME National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky as a part of the first-ever TI:ME Leadership Academy. I was chosen as one of eight music education students to participate in this academy, and was blown away by the incredible ideas and conversations generated by participants and instructors alike.

Participants

• Ann Dorgan, Senior Music Education Major, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
• Matt Ercolani, Junior Music Education Major, Rowan University
• Brian Rivers, Junior Music Education Major, University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music
• Alyssa Hoffert, Senior Music Education Major, Case Western Reserve University/ Cleveland Institute of Music
• T.J. Wolfgram, Senior Music Education Major, University of Michigan
• Sophie Taft, Senior Music Education Major, Northwestern University
• Camden Ritchie, Master’s Student/Graduate Assistant, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
• Andrew Ritenour, Senior Music Education Major, Grove City College

Instructors

• Rick Dammers, Chair of the Music Department, Rowan University
• Dave Williams, Professor Emeritus of Music and Arts Technology, Illinois State University
• V.J. Manzo, Music Technology Director, Montclair State University

The Other 80%

The participants and instructors of the 2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy discussed the research done concerning music education at the high school level referred to as The Other 80%. The research shows a pyramid effect, where there is a large number of students receiving a music education at the elementary grades. As grade levels increase, a smaller number of students are reached by music education with the largest drop occurring around the high school grades. This leaves the percentage of high school students receiving some kind of music instruction during the school day around 20%. Much of our discussion used this research as a starting point, exploring both the positive effects and concerns about changing curriculum to include these students. One of the biggest fears often expressed by teachers is that offering courses in music technology would take students away from traditional ensembles, causing numbers to drop. But research actually shows that this does not usually happen and in many cases, music technology courses recruit students to participate in traditional performing ensembles.

The Non-Traditional Music Student

Many great thoughts were shared on how to engage and reach this other 80% of students in high schools, referred to as the non-traditional music student. Making up the large majority of the student body, this student is not the typical band/chorus/orchestra/music theory student. Rather they are the students involved in rock bands or audio recording. The leadership academy discussed the fact that these students are at a severe disadvantage in our music education curriculum today as there are often no courses offered to help them create and perform music.

TI:ME Leadership Academy

The Leadership Academy brainstormed ways  to reach the non-traditional music student using music technology. The participants were assigned the task to create a 3-lesson unit plan using music technology that would engage non-traditional music students and reach out to the other 80% of students who don’t participate in traditional performing ensembles. This task required quite a bit of out-of-the-box thinking and consideration of new software, hardware and web-based resources.  Using software including GarageBand and Mixcraft, Audacity, Ableton Live, hardware like the Blue Snowball Mics and  Zoom H4N Handheld Audio Recorders, and online resources like Aviary’s Myna, Tone Mantrix and Noteflight, the Leadership Academy participants created several effective plans to reach these students. Since non-traditional music students often can’t read music, notate rhythm or have basic music theory knowledge, these lesson plans involved quite a bit of differentiated instruction designed to scaffold each student from their individual level of understanding, to a platform where they could make and understand music.

Overall, the TI:ME Leadership Academy discussed and agreed upon the need for current music curriculum to be expanded to include music technology.  Society and times are constantly changing. In order for music education to remain relevant to our society and to our students, our instruction must change and our curriculums must expand. While the core aspects and standards of our curriculum will remain the same, we must find a way to not only change the way we teach this curriculum, but broaden its to reach as many students as we can. Music technology offers many opportunities for music education to remain relevant in our students’ lives.

Matt Ercolani
 

Related posts:

1. 2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy Reflection
2. Collegiate Leadership Academy at MENC’s Music Ed Week
3. 2012 TI:ME/JEN Annual National Conference

After a 6.5 hour drive with Dr. Joseph Pisano, I am finally here! This year, the TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) Conference, held in conjunction with JEN (Jazz Education Network) is taking place in Louisville, Kentucky.

TI:ME Leadership Academy

I have the privilege to attend the conference as a part of the  TI:ME Leadership Academy. I am very excited to be participating in this way, and look forward to collaborating and working with the other participants of this academy. The participants all look to be very qualified, which should make for some really interesting discussion. Stay tuned, as I will be sharing my thoughts and lessons right here on MusicEdMajor.Net!

Follow Along!

To find out more about TI:ME and the conference, visit the TI:ME homepage. To follow along with my experiences, follow the hashtag #timejen12!

If you are attending this conference, I would love to meet up with you! Send me a Tweet @andrewritenour, or email andrewritenour@gmail.com!

Related posts:

1. 2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy Reflection
2. 2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy
3. Collegiate Leadership Academy at MENC’s Music Ed Week

I will be presenting a session on Thursday, January 27th at 11:00am, entitled “Music Teacher 2.0: Blogging Your Way to a Better Classroom.” The presentation will take place in room 234 of the Duke Energy Convention Center. The TI:ME 2011 Landing Page will have tons of resources from this presentation, including:

• Embedded Slide Show
• Download Links to:
  • Slide Handouts
  • Session Handout (only available online – I’m going “green!”)
  • Audio of the Presentation (afterwards)
• Links to Pertinent Websites (from the handout)

These resources are not just for those who were able to attend my session – if you were unable to make it to Cincinnati this year, feel free to use these resources as well!

Also, for those of you who will be unable to attend the conference, I still need your help! If you’re free at 11:00am EST on Thursday morning, hop on Twitter and start following me at @Zweibz7, and the hashtag #TIME11 for discussion prompts! Let’s try to get a full back-channel discussion occuring during my presentation. We will be checking in to Twitter as our presentation goes on, so your voice will definitely be heard!

Tweetup

It is time to have our first ever TI:ME Tweetup! If you will be in Cincinnati, join us on Friday evening after dinner for an evening of networking, drinks, and relaxation at the Bistro on Elm Restaurant and Bar. This lounge is a part of the Millenium Hotel, and is connected to the Convention Center by a covered walkway. Our event will begin around 9:00 pm, and last until we decide to stop! Tweetups are always a blast – just ask the gang that got together for our first ever Midwest Clinic Tweetup in Chicago this past December. Have a friend who is new to Twitter? Bring them along!

RSVP for our TI:ME/OMEA Tweetup Here!

Will you be attending TI:ME this year? Let’s meet up! Drop me a comment or a Tweet at @Zweibz7. I look forward to seeing you there!

Related posts:

1. Midwest Clinic Live-Blog and Tweetup
2. REMINDER: Midwest LiveBlog Starts Today
3. 2011 FMEA Conference

If you are in Tampa for the conference, I would love to see you in rooms 7-8 of the Tampa Convention Center! If not, there are still a few ways to follow along. I am *hoping* to have an internet connection in the presentation room. If I do, follow along with me on Twitter using the hashtag #5csn as I send automatic updates throughout the presentation (and add to the conversation – we’ll be watching!). Otherwise, you can visit the special landing page I have set up for the session, which has the slides, handouts, and pertinent links from my presentation available for download. I will be making an audio recording of the session, as well, and posting that recording at the conclusion of the session.

Hope to see/chat with you later today!

Related posts:

1. 2011 FMEA Conference
2. Social Networking for Music Educators
3. Heading to TI:ME 2011!

Live-Blogs

As always, I will be hosting a live-blog commentary of the entire conference. You can visit this live-blog interface (and sign up for a reminder email the day of or day before the event!) at the special FMEA 2011 Landing Page I have set up for the event. You can also access this landing page by clicking the “FMEA 2011″ link in the menu bar. This live-blog will feature my updates from all the sessions I attend (and present – if I can convince a friend to take over for me!), as well as pulling in all the Tweets tagged with #FMEA11, the official hash-tag for the conference.

Comments on the live-blog will be, by necessity, moderated. This means that when you submit a comment, it won’t actually be published into the feed until I (or another publisher) approve it. Once you have commented once, however, we have the ability to make you an unmoderated commenter, so you can add your thoughts whenever you want. Moral of the story? Leave a comment!

Presentations

As I said, I am extremely excited to be making my presentation debut (outside of the UM Music Ed family) at this year’s FMEA conference. I will be presenting two sessions at FMEA; here is the information on both of them:

• “Social Networking for Music Educators: The 4 C’s of Social Networking” – Friday, January 14, 4 pm, TCC 7
• “Music Teacher 2.0: Blogging Your Way to a Better Classroom” – Saturday, January 15, 10 am, TCC 31

I am still putting finishing touches on my presentations, but once they are completely finished (hopefully by this weekend!), I will be publishing links to download my slides and handouts for both sessions on the FMEA 2011 Landing Page. I will also post an audio recording of each session after the fact, so you can still have the experience if you weren’t able to attend.

I have been told that it is unlikely that there will be an internet connection in the conference rooms for my sessions. However, in the event that the powers that be at FMEA are able to make one appear, I will definitely be asking for your participation in creating a Twitter back-channel for discussion! Please stay tuned on Thursday of next week for more information over Twitter (follow me at both @Zweibz7 and @MusicEdMajor). Any updates on this will certainly be posted here at MusicEdMajor.net, as well.

Are you going to FMEA? Let’s meet up! Leave a comment, and we can try to organize a time to sit down and chat!

See you in Tampa!

Related posts:

1. Conference Season
2. Florida Music Educators’ Association Conference 2010
3. Florida Music Educators’ Association 2011

Sessions

I went to four very informative sessions while at the Midwest Clinic. All the presenters were very knowledgeable and personable, and the sessions were a joy to attend. Here are links to my session notes from each clinic:

• Percussion Throwdown by Andy Bliss
• Adding Value to the Student Teaching Experience by Dr. David Campo
• This Rehearsal is Available to You in High Definition by Dr. Thomas McCauley
• Great Two-Track Recordings by Dr. Joseph Pisano

A special thank you to these presenters, who were all very supportive of my live-blogging efforts throughout their sessions.

Alfred and Sound Innovations

Halfway through the first day, I received a tweet from one of Alfred’s accounts (@AlfredSI) inviting me to stop by the booth and introduce myself. I had the pleasure of meeting Marina, a Marketing Specialist with Alfred, who was very enthusiastic about helping provide me with resources to share more information with the readers here at MusicEdMajor.net. She helped set me up with some time to talk to Peter Boonshaft, and the following articles are a result of those conversations:

• Video Interview with Peter Boonshaft: Advice for Music Education Majors
• Video Interview with Peter Boonshaft: Alfred’s Sound Innovations
• Review: Sound Innovations

Networking

It was also a pleasure getting to meet for the first time so many folks with whom I have been chatting and collaborating over the past few months! Special shout-outs go to Nick Jaworski (@jaworskimusic), Marcia Neel (@musicedconsult), Ryan Dore (@britishbuegler), and Scott Watson (@scott_watson). These four, plus some old friends including Dr. Pisano (@pisanojm), Andy Ritenour (@andrewritenour), and Travis Weller (@travisjweller) joined me one evening for the first ever Midwest Clinic Tweetup! The event was a blast, and it was great getting to finally put faces to all these Twitter handles! Special thanks as well to @HyattMcCormick for helping me put together the event.

I hope the resources I have posted here over the past week have been helpful to you! If you have any thoughts regarding my coverage of Midwest, or requests for future conferences, please feel free to leave a comment!

Related posts:

1. REMINDER: Updates From Midwest
2. REMINDER: Midwest LiveBlog Starts Today
3. Midwest Clinic Live-Blog and Tweetup

What IS Sound Innovations?

There are a few differences between Sound Innovations and a normal method book. First off, the folks at Alfred took an unprecedented amount of time to interview thousands of music teachers about their specific wants and needs regarding a method book. The result was a book that, in every way possible, is an embodiment of what a majority of music educators asked for in a beginning instrumental method book. Here are a few examples, all additions based on teachers’ requests:

• Cleaner page layouts
• Every line of music is included on one accompanying CD, with instrument-specific recordings
• Subdivisions (including subdivision of rests) introduced right away
• Specific goals for each exercise in the book

Another addition to Sound Innovations is the fact that each book comes with a high-definition DVD, including instrument-specific master classes featuring top performers on each instrument. These master classes feature the performers (who have all taught beginners themselves) teaching the student how to perform techniques (including posture, breathing, slurring, etc.), as well as performing every line in the book.

Director’s Choice Edition

The most exciting new addition that Sound Innovations brought to the method book world, however, is the creation of the “Director’s Choice” edition. This revolution allows educators to sign onto a website and literally build their own method book from the ground up. From customizing the front cover of the book to include your school name (or whatever else they want) to changing the pedagogical philosophies, teachers can make Sound Innovations their own. They can answer the following questions::

• Do you want to start teaching with whole notes or quarter notes?
• Do you want to start with concert Bb and work up? Concert F and work down? Etc…
• What tunes do you want to have in your book? Do you want to add alternate genres? Pop music?
• Do you want to add enrichment pages including:
  • Music History?
  • Music Theory/Composition?
  • Full-Band Arrangements?
  • Scales?
  • Duets?

When the customization is complete, you can save and order your book, which will be bound, printed, and delivered to your school. Can you imagine passing out method books to fifth graders that have their school name on the front?? They’ll already love it!

Final Thoughts

As someone who has had the concepts of patterning and discrimination ingrained into my head for the past four years, I don’t think Sound Innovations is the be all and end all of method books. As a matter of fact, neither does the author – Dr. Boonshaft made clear in his interview that no method book is perfect. However, when combined with good fundamental patterning, major/minor and duple/triple discrimination, and sound-before-sight concepts, the Director’s Choice edition of the Sound Innovations method allows the music teacher to supplement basic curricular materials with materials that suit the specific needs of the students. This will allow students to develop properly, while still enjoying their beginning band/orchestra experience (I mean really… who would enjoy playing three-note major and minor patterns for the first three days? I would want to play SONGS!). For this reason, I think Sound Innovations would be a worthwhile investment for any beginning band or orchestra program!

Related posts:

1. VIDEO: Peter Boonshaft on Alfred’s “Sound Innovations”
2. VIDEO: Peter Boonshaft – Advice to Music Ed Majors
3. Midwest 2010 In Review

Video Transcript

Andy Zweibel: Andy Zweibel here at the Alfred booth at Midwest 2010, I’ve got Peter Boonshaft with me, who was instrumental in developing Alfred’s new Sound Innovations beginning method books for strings, winds and percussion. So Peter, if you wouldn’t mind, tell me a little bit, just on a most basic level what IS the Sound Innovations method?

Peter Boonshaft: Sound Innovations is a remarkable new method book for strings and beginning band, developed by Alfred. And it actually comes in two formats. One is the traditional method book that’s been around forever, that you can buy at any dealer and it’s available, ready to go. And it has many revolutions to it, many innovations making it very, very, special very new, which we’ll talk about a couple of those. But the other part that is amazing is the greatest revolution to me in method book history, and that is that the first time that a teacher can go on and customize their own beginning string or band book, and have it bound, printed, and made for them especially with all of what they want in it, and it’s delivered right to them. So it’s really quite a remarkable product.

AZ: And how did you find yourself getting involved in the development of this?

PB: Years ago, I was approached by some of the authors on the team for this, and at first I was reluctant, because I thought to myself, “Well, if we’re just going to do another method book, why does the world need another method book? There are already so many wonderful ones by some really remarkable authors,” and they started to say, “Well, what do you think we could make better?” and we started bantering around ideas and things, and then we stumbled upon this phenomenal new approach. Method books before had always been done by authors or groups of authors who decided what they thought was best and, as I said, they gave us great gifts, and they’re remarkable people – most of them are some of my best friends. We decided to change the paradigm, and what we did is we interviewed thousands of teachers – literally, over two thousand teachers, from all around North America, and asked them what they wanted and what they didn’t want in a method book. We took that information to use as the basis for the decisions we made. So teachers gave us these ideas and really helped us write this book based on what they want. That’s really the reason I got involved, is I saw that it was a good project, and then when I heard about the customizability, the fact that this was the first time in history this could be done… to me this was like the greatest invention since the printing press, and I couldn’t miss this opportunity. And it’s a wonderful team of authors – some of the finest people I’ve ever had the privilege of working with, and I’ve known them for twenty years, which is the great part. And a company that is just a joy to work with.

AZ: So you did say that you’ve had some fantastic people collaborating with you on this project. Who has joined this and what have they brought to the table?

PB: The author team is great. Bob Sheldon, one of the most remarkable, talented individuals I’ve ever known in my life. Whether he’s conducting, whether he’s composing, whether he’s teaching, he’s just truly one of the giants of the industry. Bob Phillips, one of the most remarkable educators I think the world has ever seen, and as nice a human being as he is talented. Dave Black, from my vantage point, one of the great percussion educators in history. One of the most exciting things is, one of the best-selling percussion method books in history has always been the Yamaha Band Method, and we started thinking about percussion and trying to get someone, and we thought, “Well let’s ask Dave, because he’s one of the authors of that remarkable product that teachers just love and adore” so we decided wouldn’t it be great to have that wisdom in this book? So, it’s been a team of great people, and all the great people behind the scenes the production of it, and making the computer generate the customizability, and all the DVD’s series, it’s been a great team.

AZ: So what type of basic foundation or founding principles is the SI method based upon?

PB: Sound Innovations is really predicated on the likes and dislikes of teachers, and some of the things that teachers told us that we wanted to make sure we accomplish. For example, one of them is, they wanted every line of the book recorded for the kids. They wanted them by instrument-specific recordings, so it wasn’t just a sax player was listening to a clarinet or a basoonist, but instrument specific. They wanted them all, but here’s the trick, they wanted them on one disc, because up until now it’s been on multiple discs, so when you get to line 135, it’s disc 2, track 36, and it was like doing algebra for these kids. Also, by the time you got to disc two, most of the time, they had lost disc two. This way, everything is on one disc. The tempo changer software that comes with it allows the kids to go faster or slower – in pitch – is right on that disc. Every line is recorded on that disc. So it’s a wonderful tool. The second thing we wanted was, we wanted to help teachers and students by having tools so to speak. So we had the idea of DVD’s for this collection were going to be master class artists from around the country. All accomplished performers who have all taught little ones. And what we did was we got full-length, high-definition DVD’s for every instrument – we even one for Alto Clarinet – from here’s how you hold your case, through everything about starting to play, breathing, posture, hand position, making your first notes. After that, through the series of techniques, so when they learn slurs, there’s a DVD icon that says “now watch your DVD” specifically for your instrument, and then all the way to the final solo of the book, so they actually see the performance, not just hear it. And what’s so great about it is that we as teachers can generically talk about slurring in our classroom, and then send the kids home that night and hear people like Adam Fry on euphonium help them learn how to slur on euphonium. Deanna Swoboda on Tuba, Tereasa Payne on Flute, so it’s specific, so it’s a wonderful review, it’s a wonderful way to augment what we’re trying to teach the kids all throughout the book. So it’s little things like that that we tried to build upon the wonderful work that’s been done in the past to allow the teachers to have these extra things that they all were craving so much.

AZ: What’s the main demographic of teacher that you’re looking to appeal to with Sound Innovations?

PB: Andy, It’s a great question, it’s a fascinating question, I’ll tell you the truth. Originally, we thought with the customizability especially, that this was going to be a method for the new generation of teachers – people who have always had an iPhone and always had iPods and always had that kind of thing. And we thought for the people of my age this would be, “this is not going to happen.” And what interestingly happened was, it ended up appealing to both demographics – both extremes, because the folks of your generations who were used to technology, they said, “Well why not? Why shouldn’t we do this?” People of my generation were so frustrated by not having the ability, they gravitated to this like someone who was thirsty finding water. So what we found was teachers who were in their last couple years of teaching wanted to still do this, because they said, “Finally, I can get what I want!” So it’s been a real neat mix of people.

AZ: Now, I am a Music Education major, an undergraduate student, and that’s primarily the group of people I write for at my website, so could you talk a little bit about the potential advantages that SI could bring to pre-service music teachers in terms of preparing us for teaching?

PB: Absolutely. Well, one of the first things I would say, as a young teacher, you are all prepared so well. And I think it’s just fantastic the preparation that the new generation of teachers are getting. But there’s also, you get out in the real world, find out, “wow, there’s so much to learn,” and there’s so much to learn on the fly as you’re going. And I think the DVD’s help to a great extent because they augment what you’re doing, and they give you that as an extra benefit in your teaching, so I think that’s one thing. The other thing is, I think the generation of teachers that you’re among have learned great opinions about what they want to teach, maybe more so than my generation. So that you’re coming out, and begin able to say, “You know I have this, this, this, and this as a possibility, which one do I want to use?” And with the Sound Innovations ability to customize, you can choose. Now you may change your mind, and say, “You know, I really thought I wanted to start with whole notes on concert Bb for the band kids, but you know what, I think I’m going to try D going down in quarter notes.” And you’re going to be able to experiment with things that match your philosophy. So as a young teacher, I can find that people will be able to say, “This is what I want to try,” Like at a restaurant. “I might want to not get this the next time I go, I want to get some of this.” You get to have that ability to customize the book in that way.

AZ: Great, is there anything you would like to add about the SI series at all?

PB: Well, I think there are so many wonderful benefits to the series, and there are so many opportunities for teachers who are at the end of the career or at the beginning of the career to find things that will appeal to them. I think the most important thing to me, is that it allows teachers whether they’re at the beginning or the end of their career, to have a book that matches their philosophy. But the other thing is, even with the wonderful standard edition available off the shelf right now, what’s great is, so many teacher shave said to us, they sat and listened to presentations and they said, “How did you read my mind?” And we looked at them and we said, “We didn’t read your mind, we read two thousand other teachers minds who told us what they wanted.” And when you start to hear something a hundred, two hundred, a thousand times from teachers about what they don’t want in a book, what they want in a book, you realize that that probably represents most of the folks in our profession. So I think what they’ll find is a lot of the things that bothered them about existing books, or books they wanted to augment or change, are found here. But the one thing I would tell especially pre-service teachers is, there is no perfect method book. The authors of most of the major methods are some of my closest friends in the world, and some of the most remarkable teachers and educators, and I’ve said this so many times. I think the job of the teacher is to find a method book that matches what you want. It’s like going to a restaurant – If I take you to my favorite restaurant, you may like it, you may not. Your job is to find restaurants you like. So I think all the method books that exist are fabulous tools, and it’s just a question of finding the tool that works best for you, and we hope Sound Innovations is something you’ll look at.

AZ: Great, well Peter, thank you so much for taking the time to talk about it!

PB: Thank you, my pleasure, best of luck! Thanks!

Stay tuned in the coming days for more information on Sound Innovations. A special thank you to the folks at Alfred for their support over the entire conference and help in setting up this interview! Also, don’t forget to check out the other interview I did with Dr. Boonshaft, discussing his advice for Music Education majors.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: “Sound Innovations” Method
2. VIDEO: Peter Boonshaft – Advice to Music Ed Majors
3. REVIEW: Teaching Band and Chorus in the 21st Century

I also had a longer chat with Dr. Boonshaft about his involvement in Alfred’s new Sound Innovations beginning method book. I’ll have the full ten-minute interview about Sound Innovations up here on the blog in the coming days.

What did you think of Dr. Boonshaft’s advice? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Related posts:

1. VIDEO: Peter Boonshaft on Alfred’s “Sound Innovations”
2. REVIEW: “Sound Innovations” Method
3. Midwest 2010 In Review

Great Two-Track Recordings – A Low-Cost, Recording Solution Using a Hand-Held Digital Recorder and Open-Source Software – Dr. Joseph M. Pisano

Equipment needed to create two-track recordings:

1. Digital Hand-Held Recorder (Amazon Affiliate Links):
   • Zoom H4N
   • Zoom H2
   • Edirol R-09HR
   • Sony PCM-M10
   • Marantz PMD620
   • Yamaha PockeTrak W24
   • Tascam DR2D
2. Audacity (Free/GPL Open Source Software
3. CD Burning Software (if you want)

The “Why’s”

Why Two-Track Recordings?

• Real-World Sound-the way it really sounds to the human ear
• Less Equipment-One device
• Less Hassle-Record directly onto flash drives, transfer files quickly
• Less Time-the process is shorter
• The Mixdown Process is eliminated

Why Audacity?

• Universal across platforms
• Multilingual
• FREE
• Community (sourceforge.com)
• Plug-in support
• Easy to use

GIGO – Garbage In = Garbage Out – A recording is only as good as the group being recorded (especially in the two-track world!)

The Golden Question

Who decides what sounds good??

You do!! You are the arbiter of the sound, and are qualified to make decisions about what sounds good. We just need to be more comfortable with the process and practice recording techniques and audio software.

Start out by recording at CD Quality (44.1 kHz/16-bit)and experiment with higher-fidelity rates after you’ve gained some.

The “Master” Forumla

1. Cut Edit (Get rid of the extra stuff before/after the music)
2. DC Offset Correction (Center your equalization)
3. Equalize (increase or decrease specific frequency ranges)
4. Compression (smooth out peaks)
5. Equalize Tweak (might be omitted)
6. Reverb (GVerb Plugin)
7. Fade In/Out/Set Silence (if desired)
8. Save, Burn, Convert

Related posts:

1. Session Notes: Percussion Throwdown
2. Session Notes: This Rehearsal is Available to You in HD
3. Reasons You Need a Recording Device