Performing Arts Computing and Recording Labs

Expected Activities

  1. Classes
  2. Instructor and TA office hours
  3. Individual and group student work (as part of coursework)
  4. Faculty and graduate student research

 

Access Approval

TAs, graduate, and undergraduate students receive training and approval before they are given permission to book the spaces. Training and approval are unique and separate for each space, beginning with the least complex to the most complex. Training would normally be administered as part of a class, but could also be separate for special projects. Training and approval is executed by instructors with classes booked in the corresponding space.

Training:

  1. Determine if student work is appropriate for that space.
  2. Equipment operation, security, and responsibility.
  3. Booking protocol.

Priority Work Types by Room

Increasing complexity and access permissions. The work should ideally be done in the least complex studio that fits the application.

ACE 021 Performing Arts Computer Lab

  1. Any work that requires use of the specialized software

ACE 019 5.1 Studio

  1. Post-production
  2. DAW-based composition

ACE 025 Atmos Studio

  1. Overdubs or multi-track recording
  2. 5.1 or 3D Post-Production
  3. DAW-based composition involving the electronic instruments in the lab

ACE 233 Analog Recording Studio (optional: ACE231 or ACE235)

  1. Large multi-track recordings
  2. Analog console-based stereo post-production

Room Booking Procedure

The Music Office will maintain a list of approved students for each space, reset each September.

  1. Book room through music office
    1. 1x booking per week, per student, per studio. (exceptions with instructor permission) With time limit:
      1. ACE021 – 4hrs
      2. ACE019 – 4hrs
      3. ACE025 – 6hrs
      4. ACE233 – 6hrs
    2. Bookings must occur during regular building hours.
  3. Pick up keys during Music Office hours 9am-4pm on the day of the booking. For weekends, keys are picked up on Friday.
  4. Keys are returned to the Music Office directly or key drop-box immediately after booking ends.

Students who repeatedly abuse the booking process should be reported to their instructor, and might lose access to the space. Ex:

  1. Not showing up for bookings
  2. Not exiting the space on time
  3. Not returning the key on time

Studio Rules

  1. Responsibility. During the booking, students are responsible for the space and equipment, and for lockup at the end. The studio door should not be propped open. Report any suspicious activities to university security.
  2. Equipment from the studio must stay in the studio.
  3. Data storage must be on the student’s personal hard drive or cloud storage. Lab or Studio internal storage can be used temporarily, but will be regularly erased.
  4. Guests. Students should not let anyone else into the space unless they are part of their production session. Students are responsible for their guests.
  5. Food and drinks are not allowed in the studio. There is an exception for closed water containers, provided they are kept far from equipment.
  6. Control room gear. Do not disconnect or re-wire any of the permanently installed equipment. If students would like to do a special setup, they should consult their instructor.
  7. Tape. We typically use tape to temporarily label equipment during sessions. Only use “console tape” or “gaffers tape” on any cables, microphones, consoles, etc.
  8. Interruptions. Do not enter a studio during another booking. Do not store anything in the studio without the instructor’s permission.

Equipment Counter (Jorge + work-studies)

The studios will normally be fully equipped for post-production, and will not need additional resources. For recording sessions, additional equipment like microphones, stands, cables, headphones, etc. will need to be booked from the equipment counter.

Students with approval to book ACE019, ACE025, or ACE233 also automatically have approval to book equipment.

The same rules and protocol for studio booking apply, except:

  1. Gear bookings must be made at least 2 business days in advance.
  2. Gear pickup and drop-off are done by appointment.

Performing Arts Computing Lab Calendar

Software Changes

If your course will require software not already installed (see list below), please include this in your booking request.

Software requests must be made a month in advance and include a funding source.

Trial software will be installed on the instructor station only.

Please report problems with the lab, including hardware or software issues, or difficulties logging in, to ampdcomp@yorku.ca using your YORK email address.

Students enrolled in classes held in the Performing Arts Computing Lab will have had an account created automatically.

Please log in with your username, which will be your Passport York name and your password, which initially will be your York student number.

Software Installed Effective 2022/09/13

  • ARIA Player
  • Ableton Live 11
  • Audacity
  • Avid
  • Blackmagic
  • Brackets
  • DaVinci Resolve
  • FileZilla
  • Finale
  • Firefox
  • Garritan ARIA Player
  • Garritan Instruments for Finale
  • Google Chrome
  • Jamulus
  • Logic Pro X
  • Loopback
  • Max
  • Medolyne 5
  • Microsoft Office 365
  • Pro Tools
  • QLab
  • REAPER
  • Safari
  • VB-Audio
  • VLC

OneDrive

Every undergraduate student at York has access to OneDrive.

To access this storage, please point a browser to office.com

For more information, please refer to Microsoft’s OneDrive video training

Google Drive

Every undergraduate student at York has Google Apps including Google Drive.

To access this storage, please point a browser to http://drive.google.com

For more information, please refer to http://google.info.yorku.ca/

Local hard drive

You can temporarily store work on the hard drive of the workstation you are at.  Look for a folder called “SAVE_WORK_HERE”.

Please note that local storage is shared by all, so do not leave sensitive material there. Also, when the machine is serviced, local PROFILE WILL BE DELETED.  Work saved anywhere on the hard drive (including preferences and settings) will be deleted when you log out.

Always move your work to another storage location before logging out of the workstation.

Server Storage

If your course has been set up with server storage, you will be able to save files on Forerunner. This storage is ONLY AVAILABLE for the duration of your course and will be deleted before the next term.