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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Creating Sounds for Electronic Music by Berklee

4.7
stars
257 ratings

About the Course

What you’ll achieve: In this project-centered course*, you will create sounds and use them in your own musical compositions. Whether you're an aspiring producer, composer, or hobbyist, this course will help you gain skills in music production and confidence using software synthesizers. Along with your classmates, you will create a massive database of designed sounds, or patches, to use in your compositions. As part of the course, you will work with a free version of FXpansion Strobe 2. What you’ll need to get started: This course is designed for learners who are familiar with music production basics, and who have access to some basic music production equipment. Specifically, you should have experience with a digital audio workstation that supports VST, AAX, or AU plugins (Introduction to Music Production or Pro Tools Basics are recommended if you do not have this experience). You will also need a MIDI keyboard or controller (such as an oxygen 8), a digital audio workstation, such as Pro Tools, and FXpansion Strobe 2 (a free 90-day demo will be provided for Coursera learners in this course). *About Project-Centered Courses: This is a ‘project-centered course’, which means it is designed specifically to help you complete a personally meaningful real-world project, with your instructor and a community of learners with similar goals providing guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts as you learn, you’ll master the course content more efficiently; you’ll also get a head start on using the skills you gain to make positive changes in your life and career. When you complete the course, you’ll have a finished project that you’ll be proud to use and share....

Top reviews

KK

Sep 25, 2020

I really like this course. It was very useful to me and allowed me to improve my music making.I have come to know a lot more about using a synthesizer.Thank you all teachers for creating this course.

RE

Jan 8, 2018

I was pleased with this course. Loudon looked a lot Younger. At first I was critical of the synth (Strobe 2) and of the Course Style But I was impressed by Other Students. Thanks Loudon - Le

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1 - 25 of 80 Reviews for Creating Sounds for Electronic Music

By Alex S

May 5, 2018

Loudon's awesome teacher. This is how teaching should be done. Straight to the point engineering sounds and not math & calculus equations to explain how things work. He demonstrates it all in practice, not in theory that people couldn't relate.

By Norbert

Apr 17, 2017

The course gave a well structured overview on sound synthesis and I found it a good idea to combine it with building a song-project. It is really an overview - and this could be better labeled in the course description (there are a lot of other synthesis types like fm, wavetable etc.) - however looks like trying it out is the best way to get into it. So this is a starting point into the wonderful and complex world of sound synthesis.

By ankualizer

Feb 27, 2016

The right Step towards building basics after introduction to Synths. Some very good inputs like Manual control of the Filter cutoff etc.... Overall Extremely informative.

By Barend

Mar 31, 2016

Nice course! The teaching is excellent (5 stars), and I have learned a lot in this course. It is short but intensive.

I initially planned to give only 2 or 3 stars because of several reasons, described below. But in the end I like the course a lot so I don't want to go too low.

Reasons are:

1) Strobe, the software synth required in the course, was hardly usable (crashing always in 64 bit mode, sometimes in 32 bit mode). Several applicants stopped the course because of this. However this was (at least for me) solved during the course (I can use it now without any problems). So that is great (but a bit late).

2) The course is (as of March 2016) new and still contains many errors. The videos, as said, are excellent. But the assignments are often wrong and not accurate (actually 4 out of 4 contain errors...). In the first assignment you are asked to list favorites in 14 categories, but there are only 13. So you can never get the full points, or the reviewers should be flexible. In many of the following assignments the naming of the to be uploaded files is unclear or erroneous. It is important to fix that because reviewers are explicitly asked if the names are correct. In the third assignment it is worse, there is no room for an upload of the MP3, the final product of your whole week work which should be judged. One error was fixed during the course but in a hasty way, the most important errors are still there. Anyway, that will hopefully be fixed before the next cycle starts.

3) The course is really targetted to House (or at least Dance) music. All assignments should follow a predescribed form, while I (as an amateur classical pianist) would like to create pieces not following that form, but still using synth sounds. But if you do that, you get less points or do not pass the assignments. So that is too strict (in my opinion).

4) Strobe2 is central in the course. It is mainly educating for Strobe2. I tried after the course to apply the knowlegde to other synth plugins, which is possible but only in a limited way. You really learn how to do it in Strobe2, and there is no education for other synth plugins. Many concepts cannot easily be transferred. That is different from Loudon's excellent course Music Production, which was designed to be software independent.

So I have several objections to the course. But some of them can be fixed, and it was still a great course, I learned a lot and I enjoyed it, and I give it 4 stars.

By Don Q

Mar 7, 2022

Hello Berklee, dear Loudon,

Well supported by video and syllabus. I have gained much more inside knowledge and a good format how to create my own patches and destruct or analyse my fav patches. Thanks to my fellow students / peers as they have contribute a lot in this process. It wasn't always easy peasy, quite hard but educational and lots of fun. An amazing journey indeed. Just loved the course.

Thanks Loudon!

Don

By Michael M

Mar 26, 2022

I audited this course, and learned a lot. I'm new to synthesizers, and this class gave me a toolkit of basic patching starting points that are a great way to leapfrog into extended musical ideas. It also covers a good amount of song construction and workflow in a way that is very helpful. I would absolutely recomend this course to someone interested in creating sounds and music.

By Isaac M

Jun 19, 2017

This was a great course! I really enjoyed the time I spent on this. I build a draft for a song which was just an improvised idea at first, but at the end of the course it has a very nice evolution. Also, I learned how to create some sounds from scratch using a digital synth and this gives me enough confidence to design my own patches on a hardware synth. I'm very satisfied :)

By michael

Mar 31, 2016

Great course for understanding sound design in a project. I did the course on multiple DAWs so I would get the most out of it. The teacher is fantastic and makes the course easy for beginners or advanced future designers. I like that it was in an environment that most people would not already have as a plugin.

By Charles G

Sep 28, 2021

Lot of information, mostly on Strobe2. Was looking for more production information, i.e using a DAW, running a recording session, getting the best out of muscians, etc. Not really what this class is all about. If you want to make weird noises with a sythn then this class is for you.

By Ferd V

Dec 26, 2016

Thanks so Much Berklee for make my knowledge complete.... increase my skills in everything that i get involved in music world.... What can i say: GUYS ... YOU REALLY ROCKS!!! Thanks so much and merry Christmas and a Happy New year 2017.... Love you Guys!!!!

By Henrique Z d S P

Aug 31, 2020

For me it was amazing introduction to the world of sound design and many of the concepts and principles learned with the patches each week can be applied to other synths. But it would very helpful if we could have examples on different types of synths

By Kornpong K

Sep 26, 2020

I really like this course. It was very useful to me and allowed me to improve my music making.I have come to know a lot more about using a synthesizer.Thank you all teachers for creating this course.

By Robert J B E

Jan 9, 2018

I was pleased with this course. Loudon looked a lot Younger. At first I was critical of the synth (Strobe 2) and of the Course Style But I was impressed by Other Students. Thanks Loudon - Le

By Rodrigo C

Jul 21, 2023

Este es un campo del cual desconocía mucho pero siempre me ha interesado, pude aprender sobre los fundamentos y aspectos básicos para empezar a aplicarlos en mis propios proyectos.

By Tia R

Sep 26, 2020

Thank you a lot for such a course! I felt so inspired thanks to Loudon Stearns. I learnt a lot but what is more important - I feel encouraged to learn more

By Julius V

Apr 27, 2018

One of the best courses I have taken (and I have taken many). Massive end excellent teaching material. Fantastic teacher. Highly recommended!

By Michael P M

May 30, 2016

Awesome course for begginers like me for create from scratch my sounds in my virtual synthesizers.

Thanks so much Coursera and Berklee Online!

By Carlos G

May 17, 2016

Very useful and interesting. Is recommended (but not required) to have some experience and knowledge about synths and this staff...

By Aubrey M

Jul 15, 2023

This course has helped me a lot, now i know how to make EDM and create my own patches, lots of things in this course, i love it.

By Manu S

Apr 19, 2021

Fantastic. I used it to create a LOT of patches and use them in my songs now. My favorite of the 4 courses in the specialization

By Victor M

Oct 28, 2016

Very interesting and useful course. Very important that this course contains a lot of practical meterials and exercises.

By Mark G

Feb 11, 2017

I enjoyed this course and even though I have owned and played synths since the 70s I still learned a lot.

Thanks Loudan!

By fradely

Dec 29, 2016

Is incredible. All the info and all the wasted time that I spent on the internet. You got everything in order. LOVE IT

By Кудряшов Д Н

Jul 20, 2018

Thank you, this is a wonderful course, I learned a lot of new and useful things for myself, I wish you good luck !!!!

By Cathy G

Jul 18, 2016

Very thorough and a valuable enrichment class to follow the Music Production class, which was also very thorough.