One of the results of the explosion of digital media is that there has never before been so much music so readily available. This has affected the music industry in several ways, and one of those ways is a heightened demand for high-quality production.
You could even make the argument that production has more to do with a song’s success today than lyrics, melody, and harmony. This means sound design–the crafting of the timbre of a record–has become an increasingly important skill for music producers and artists.
Thankfully, Coursera is offering a free course titled Introduction to Digital Sound Design and it’s open for enrollment right now. The course consists of 10-15 minute long video lessons and requires no prior knowledge of sound design. It will cover the basics from sound waves to digital synthesis.
The course is taught by Steve Everett, Professor of music composition / computer music and Director of the Music-Audio Research Center at Emory University. Everett has an illustrious background, including being a guest composer at the prestigious Eastman School of Music and multiple performances at numerous music festivals, many of them featuring electronic music.
The free course is representative of a greater trend–that music schools are recognizing more and more that there’s a growing market of self-produced musicians who want online courses. We recently wrote about Berklee’s free e-books on music production to draw students for their online programs.
Because more and more artists are producing, mixing and even mastering from home, having a basic understanding of sound design is becoming an integral part of being a professional musician.
As many more professional musicians today are self taught, resources like Introduction to Digital Sound Design are a great help to home producers in making better recordings, mixes and masters. We’re betting courses like these will only become more prolific as they close the gap between the formally-educated producers / engineers and the passionate do-it-yourselfers of the music industry by serving the online market of worldwide musicians.
Make Pro Songs
There are 6 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 20 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 20 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You’ll get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
2. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited mixing feedback so you can quickly improve your mixes fast.
- This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide you with feedback about what you can improve first before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
3. Sage Audio University™ (SAU) — (Mixing and Mastering Education Platform)
- SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout every course curriculum.
- SAU course curriculums include Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
- Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
4. Sage Audio Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers that can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, discussions, mix competitions, networking, collaborations, and more.
5. 700+ In-depth Sage Audio Mixing and Mastering Videos
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content, Including:
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 58 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.