Music Recording Studio
Ages 13-18
Overview
Are you tech-savvy and love music? Have you ever wondered what makes your favorite songs sound so good? Then you might like being an audio engineer!
At the Music Recording Studio, we will focus on recording and mixing original music in Mason’s state-of-the-art recording studio.
NEW THIS SUMMER! In collaboration with the Academy’s Songwriting Workshop, students will use industry-standard digital audio workstation Pro Tools to engineer and mix original songs. Students will gain experience engineering a recording session and working with an artist, just like a professional audio engineer. They will learn to identify microphone types, microphone placement techniques, and tools for editing audio. Students will also learn how to operate recording studio hardware devices including mixers and microphone preamps
At the end of camp, we will have a showcase of the projects recorded in the studio
All students with musical and/or audio engineering interests are welcome!
Course Objectives
- Basics of digital audio
- Audio recording and editing in Pro Tools
- Microphone types
- Microphone placement
- Operating recording studio hardware
- Engineering a session for a musical artist
Tentative Schedule
Day 1: Recording studio tour, overview of recording technology, intro to microphones, cable connectors, intro to Pro Tools. Recording your first audio track using a microphone.
Day 2: Editing audio, and recording multiple takes. Operating the front console. Aux tracks and setting up the talkback.
Day 3: Recording sessions with songwriters begins. Mic placement for guitar, piano, and drums. Using EQ and Compression. Working with MIDI and software instruments.
Day 4: Recording sessions with songwriters continues. Mixing using gates and limiters.
Day 5: Any remaining recording sessions finished. Synthesis and sampling intro. Practicing presentations, title choosing, etc. Final listening party.
Ages: 13-18
Dates: July 24 – 28, 2023
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Tuition: $467
Location: Mason Fairfax Campus, deLaski Performing Arts Building
Covid Safety Information
- Mason Community Arts Academy follows all safety protocols required by George Mason University. Visit our COVID Safety Guidelines for more information.
- Mask & PPE Requirements—Masks are optional, but strongly recommended, for students and faculty in all programming. *See University Policy on Face Coverings for full details.
- George Mason Offers Covid Vaccine Appointments
Program Faculty
John Jansen
Dewberry School of Music Faculty, Music Technology
John C.L. Jansen is an active composer, multi-instrumentalist, luthier, author, recording engineer, and teacher of music technology and music theory, based in Takoma Park, Maryland.
John’s compositions are influenced by a reverence of nature, a love of patterns, and the energy of minimalism. He currently divides his time between writing chamber works for ensembles of existing instruments and writing for original instruments and tuning systems he designs himself. His music has been performed across the United States by the Partch Quartet, the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, Duo Atmos, chamber band Drive (J:), Decho Ensemble, the violinist Todd Reynolds, and saxophonist Jacob Swanson.
A strong advocate for new music, John has appeared at Strange Beautiful Music VI and VII in Detroit, Michigan with the GVSU New Music Ensemble, as well as accompanied the same group on four tours of the national parks—reaching twenty parks spanning the West Coast to the East Coast. In 2016 John co-founded Drive (J:), a chamber band from Fredonia, New York. With Drive (J:), John has appeared at the New Music Gathering in Boston, MA, and released two studio albums: places/spaces, and Phenomenology. As a solo performer, he has appeared at the New York City Electro Acoustic Music Festival and the Hot Air New Music Festival in San Francisco, California. John has also collaborated with Bang On A Can to restore Glenn Branca’s Movement Within, a piece for an ensemble of original instruments designed for a seven-octave overtone tuning. He worked directly with the original instruments, and the final product was performed live on WNYC’s New Sounds program.
As an instrument builder, John invented a 3rd bridge instrument called the duochord, a 9-foot-long amplified zither which allows the user to isolate string partials, and to generate clouds of reverberant harmonics. He is also one of the only builders of daxophones, and pick-behind-the-bridge guitars, little-known inventions by Hans Reichel.
In 2020, John founded JLJ Instruments, a company that produces experimental musical instruments. The company has shipped globally, with orders ranging from daxophones to microtonal guitars.
Adjunct Professor of Music
- Music and Computer Technology
Education
- BA Music Composition, Grand Valley State University
- MM Music Composition, SUNY Fredonia
Notes
- Please note that group classes are subject to cancellation if minimum enrollment is not reached.
- Be sure to check our policies and procedures regarding registration, withdrawals, refunds, and more for summer group classes.
- All students will receive a Welcome Letter via email at least 1 week before the class starts with all necessary details.
- Online registration closes 2 business days before the first class, however space may still be available. Please contact academy@gmu.edu for more information. A $10 late registration fee may apply.
- For additional information, please contact the Academy at academy@gmu.edu.
