Production

Students concentrating in Production will prepare a portfolio of original tracks and write an analysis paper and script for their senior spring semester lecture-recital.

The Production Senior Project Proposal requires the following information:

A description of your production project, including planned pieces, length of each piece, and any other relevant content. Submit as a PDF.
A 250-350 word proposal for an argument-driven academic essay that will engage with and contribute to recent and relevant scholarship in the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, and/or music theory. Your essay must focus on the music of a particular producer or the history, evolution, and/or reception of a particular style, technique, instrument, or other technology. Submit as a PDF. This paper is completed in MUSC 490.
A bibliography for this topic proposal that includes ten relevant scholarly sources. Submit as a PDF.
A portfolio of recordings (mp3’s) and related materials (PDF’s for lyrics) produced as part of a class or under the supervision of Music faculty. You will need to create a Google Drive folder containing these materials and whose link you will copy and paste into the project proposal form.

Once you have prepared the above materials, submit your proposal using the Senior Project Proposal Form.

Production Assessment

Each senior project component is graded Pass with Distinction (PD), Pass (P), or Fail (F). The portfolio is worth 70%, the comps paper 20%, and the lecture-recital plus script 10%.

Notwithstanding the comps paper counting for only 20% of the overall comps assessment, students must receive a PD or P on your comps paper in order to receive a PD or P as their final comps grade. In other words, a student cannot pass their comps with a failing comps paper.

Production Portfolio - Grading Rubric

1. Recorded Materials

Students will submit a folder of recorded music totaling 30-40 minutes in length. The portfolio contents should demonstrate an arc reflecting the full range of the students’ capabilities as a producer. These recordings may be formatted as an album, EP, group of singles, mixed media project, video game cues, etc. The choice of format is up to the student, however, the portfolio must be designed as an audience-facing body of work. Twenty-five percent (25%) of the portfolio must be collaborative (i.e cowriting, recording other musicians, etc.) Each piece must have a title, and the audio files should be formatted to reflect those titles without unnecessary file extensions like “v2”, “finalMix”, etc. If the pieces are formatted as an album, the album itself is also required to have a title.

2. Mixing and Mastering Proficiency

Recordings will be assessed to determine whether the student has used appropriate input levels, stereo imaging, and microphone technique. Audio files will also be assessed according to the commercial standards for mixing and mastering. A passing portfolio must have no weak signal and no clipping at the master or track levels. The loudness at the output stage should peak no higher than -0.1 dB on the master VU meter, and the average loudness should range between -14 and -9 LUFS in the louder moments. Some variations of this rule are allowed, depending on the customary standards of the musical genres covered in the portfolio.

3. Track-by-Track Liner Notes

The portfolio must include liner notes for each track with details about each piece, including the duration and credits to contributing instrumentalists and any collaborating songwriters/producers. Write a brief description of each piece, explaining the production background and how choices in texture, instrumentation, arrangement and engineering reflect the themes underlying this collection of music. Use this document as a template. You will need to copy this document to your own Google Drive to make edits.

Students may also choose to write about the poetic themes if lyrics are included.

4. Presentation and Program Notes

Students will give a final presentation, totalling 25 minutes in length, which selects the most exemplary music of their portfolio to demonstrate the breadth of their work to their faculty and colleagues. The presentation will be given using PowerPoint, Google Slides, or similar, outlining central themes of the students work, audio/visual examples, and a track by track analysis as it relates to the core focus of the portfolio. The presentation will be accompanied by program notes shared with the audience, which must be approved and printed ahead of time.

The portfolio and presentation script will be due no later than 4 weeks ahead of the presentation date, upon which time a Jury will be held with the student’s committee to assess the work and address any revisions.

Note: A recital performance is not a part of the comps presentation or assessment. If any student would like to set up a performance or showcase of their work in addition to the presentation, this will have to be arranged ahead of time with the Department's Production Manager, Alexander Zhu. There are no guarantees a performance or set of performances will be held. This will be assessed based on availability of staff and performance space.

Portfolio Assessment grading:

Excellent, Satisfactory, and Unsatisfactory

Pass with Distinction

Requires an “excellent” assessment in all four of the above categories, and is reserved for a truly outstanding body of work.

Pass

Requires a "satisfactory" assessment in all four criteria.

No Pass

Indicates an "unsatisfactory" assessment in any of the four criteria.

Production Lecture-Recital

Students giving a production lecture-recital will assemble a portfolio of original tracks with the guidance of one or more Music department faculty members. The portfolio will include works begun or completed in MUSC 148, 248, 249, 252, and 348. This portfolio must be submitted electronically, with full score(s) if available, to the faculty along with the senior project proposal. The portfolio should be 45-60 minutes in total length.

Production Lecture-Recital Content

Students must discuss goals for the lecture-recital with their production instructor no later than the spring semester of the junior year. During the senior year, the student and production instructor(s) will choose tracks that will be submitted as part of the portfolio, as well as those tracks (amounting to 25 minutes of music) that will be part of the lecture-recital. At least 75% of the portfolio tracks must be original creations, and up to 25% can be remixes. All covers, remixes, and samples must be cleared by the copyright owner. At least 25% of portfolio music must cross genres in a significant way. While we encourage you to collaborate with as many people as needed to realize your creative vision for your project, we require that you collaborate with at least two other individuals. At least 50% of the portfolio and lecture-recital must be collaborative (e.g. recording other musicians, co-writing, live mixing musicians). Each track must be written, recorded, and mixed by the student.

The student is responsible for completing and submitting tracks no later than four weeks in advance of the recital date. The student is also responsible for scheduling coaching and rehearsal sessions as needed.

Production Jury

A student presenting a senior production lecture-recital must participate in a jury at least four weeks prior to the lecture-recital date. A committee comprised of at least two Music department faculty members, including the student’s production instructor and another faculty member outside of the production area, will hold the jury. At least five days prior to the jury, the student must give the production instructor the following: a portfolio consisting of final mixes of all tracks (45-60 minutes in length); the analytic paper (completed in MUSC 490); and a draft script for the lecture-recital that identifies which tracks (totalling 25 minutes) will be played or performed at the recital and the accompanying analytic discussion of each track to be played. The total scripted speaking time should be 10-15 minutes (approximately 1000-1500 words), for a script that will be prepared in MUSC 490 and used as the basis for their lecture-recital presentation. At the jury, the student will meet with the committee for a thorough evaluation of all submitted materials. The final decision regarding tracks to be included in the recital will be made at the jury. If the portfolio does not demonstrate adequate evidence of achievement, and/or the recruitment of personnel to perform in the recital has not been completed satisfactorily, the student will not be approved for the lecture-recital and will, instead, be required to take an exam to complete the senior comprehensive requirement (details of this are indicated under “Courses & Requirements”).

The student shall submit their lecture-recital script to their review committee chair no later than one week before the recital date.

Analytic Paper and Lecture-Recital Script for Production Recitals

When producers submit their senior project proposal during their junior year, they will include a paragraph-length topic proposal and preliminary bibliography for their 2,500-word paper. This analysis-driven research paper should develop an argument about the music of a particular producer or about the history, evolution, and/or reception of a particular style, technique, instrument, or other technology. It is expected that students will begin this research during the summer before their senior year.

Students will work with their senior seminar (MUSC 490) professor on this paper and their lecture-recital script during the fall semester of their senior year.

An annotated bibliography is due in the 4th week of the fall semester.
An abstract proposal and 15 minutes of music from the proposed portfolio are due in the 6th week
A complete first draft is due in the 11th week. The final paper is due on the last day of classes, fall semester. Download the senior analytical paper rubric used for assessment.