Final Project

Compose a 3-5 minute audio piece that shows who you are as an artist. This is the one project of the semester where the subject is your own taste: what you’ve been listening to, what you want to make, and which of the tools from this course get you there.

Your piece needs at least two techniques from the semester. Some options:

Studio recording. Record instruments or voice, then use the recordings directly or cut them into samples. We practice tracking in class on 11/23. If your piece needs more recording time, book studio time .
Audio effects. EQ, compression, reverb, delay, or anything else we’ve covered, used as part of the sound rather than as cleanup.
MIDI percussion with Sitala.
Sounds you designed in Vital.

Not a composer? That’s fine. Send me a proposal for a podcast, a sound design piece, or another audio format that uses what you’ve learned, and we’ll shape it together.

The rule on loops: one or two loops are allowed if you alter them enough to make them yours, with effects or otherwise. Same goes for presets in other plugins like Spitfire LABS.

Style is open. Techno, vaporwave, drill, whatever you’re into. A video to go with it is welcome too.

Presentation: Projects are presented and submitted during the final exam slot on Friday, December 11, 8:00-10:00 a.m. The presentation is worth 5% of the course grade (the project and proposal are 15%). Presentations are for the audience as much as the presenter: this is where you return what your classmates have been sharing with you all semester. If you miss the session without a documented excuse, you receive a zero on the presentation portion and your project is graded from the render alone. With a documented excuse, contact me to arrange a make-up presentation.

Your portfolio

The final projects in DAD 222, DAD 310, and DAD 422 can become a three-part portfolio: a produced track, a film sound design, and an immersive piece. This is the first one. Make a clean render, use clear filenames, and keep the full project in storage you can access after graduation. Together, the three pieces can anchor a demo reel for jobs or graduate programs.

Deliverables

The complete, consolidated project file.
A rendered master track.
A one-page reflection covering three things: which artists or works influenced the piece and how yours differs from them, how you actually made it (including what went wrong and what you did about it), and where you’d take this work next.

Grading Rubric (100 points total)

Criterion	Exemplary	Proficient	Developing	Emerging	Points
Technique Application (35 pts)	Two or more techniques from the semester used with control, each serving the piece rather than demonstrating the skill	Two techniques present and competently applied; one carries more weight than the other	Two techniques present, one only nominally	One technique, or techniques applied without evident control	/35
Artistic Voice (30 pts)	The piece engages its named influences and arrives somewhere they did not; the choices read as yours	A personal direction is audible, though it stays close to an influence	The piece resembles its influences more than it departs from them	No identifiable direction beyond the assignment requirements	/30
Craft and Polish (12 pts)	Balanced, cleanly rendered, free of clipping and artifacts; the mix holds up across playback systems	Cleanly rendered with minor balance issues	Audible artifacts, clipping, or a mix that collapses outside the studio	Render unusable	/12
Structural Complexity (8 pts)	Three to five minutes with sections that develop and connect	Correct length with sections present but loosely joined	Correct length built from one repeating idea	Off length	/8
Reflective Essay (15 pts)	Names influences and how the piece differs from them, traces the process and its problems, and identifies where the work goes next	Covers all three areas, one more thoroughly than the others	One of the three areas missing or handled in a sentence	Missing, or too brief to show the process	/15

Total: ___ / 100