Studying Music Online

I had a conversation with instructor Dave Franz last week and we spent some time talking about his new online course, Pro Tools: Virtual Instruments and Effects. Those of you who know me are familiar with the fact that I am a production novice (n00b), but I felt compelled to write a quick blog due to the unique layout of his course.

Pro Tools 8 has six powerful virtual instruments: Boom, Vacuum, DB-33, XPand! 2, Structure Free, and Mini Grand. It isn’t surprising that the overall goal of the course is to teach students how to use these powerful instruments while showing how to use several effects plug-ins but the creative assignments in the course are what really caught my attention.

Students will be working on small weekly assignments using each of the 6 irtual instruments but at the same time, they will be working on engineering a lager project in which each channel strip will be a different virtual instrument! Dave is expecting to see lots of different styles of music such as Rock, Pop, Blues, Classical, Reggae, Electronica, etc. in these assignments which gives students a lot of creative freedom to explore their new found tools.

The open musical nature of this course will make it a great place for diverse musicians and producers to learn and work together. It is recommended that students have a good grasp on midi sequencing in Pro Tools 8 before taking this course. Pro Tools 101 and Producing with Pro Tools are good prerequisite courses if you need a refresher.

Find out more at berkleemusic.com or contact a Student Advisor:
1-866-BERKLEE (USA) | +1 617 747 2146 (Intl) | advisors@berkleemusic.com