Hi there!

Welcome to MUS170 / ICAM103: Musical Acoustics!

Here's a little information regarding the way grades will be calculated:

Attendance - 30%

• Will be taken each class. In my experience, there is no better marker for class engagement than attendance. 
• If you know you will miss a class ahead of time, send Tina, Kevin, or me an email in advance and we will spare you, if you deserve it.

Readings -

Generally Puckette's notes (online: http://msp.ucsd.edu/syllabi/170.13f/course-notes/course-notes.html), occasionally also chapters from the Pierce book ("Almost All About Waves"). Pick it up, it's <$20 on Amazon, and a great read.

Assignments - 35%

• Almost every week there will be a short problem set and home lab.
• These will generally be assigned on Tuesday in class, due the following Tuesday at class time.
• This pattern is broken for Tuesday, Nov 18, because the final project proposals will instead be due on that date. The homework for week 6 will be due the following Tuesday, Nov 25.
• Late assignments will depreciate in value by 10% (not compounding) every 24 hour period.
• Generally, home labs will be performed in the PureData patching environment (http://msp.ucsd.edu/syllabi/170.13f/lib/index.htm), and we will use the "patch library" Puckette has linked to on this page. You may do the labs as a group, but please submit unique problem sets.

Final Projects - 35%

This project should be completed in groups of 3.

Assignment:

• Produce a novel musical instrument using the understanding you have gained through this course.
• The notion of a musical instrument is left intentionally somewhat vague, to permit a wide variety of possible contenders. This instrument could be acoustic, electronic, or hybrid in nature.
• It should be able to play various "notes" according to the intention of the performer. ie, a maraca or snare drum is not enough. (However, a set of them would be!)
• You will demo your instrument during the last week of class. you will also write a 3 page paper describing your process.

Your project will be judged on:

• Originality
• How novel was your approach?
• Audacity
• How many risks did you take? Is it technically challenging?
• Sound quality
• How does it sound? Did you succeed?
• Explanation
• How did you present it? Did you sell the idea to us?

Final Project Proposal -

• Each group must turn in a 1 page proposal for the final project by Tuesday, Nov 18.
• This will count toward 10% of the final project grade, or 3.5% of your raw score.
• We will give you feedback regarding this proposal, to guide you toward a worthy goal.