Soundation Review

 https://soundation.com/t/db0hm

This week has been very stressful due to a lot of reading and writing but also very rewarding with lots of new tools and ideas that will help my teaching become more effective. This week our class had the opportunity to explore and become familiar with a cost-free web-based recording studio called Soundation. The timing of this project was perfect because recently I attended three concerts and had the honor to see Duran Duran, Chic, Guns N’Roses, Nile Rodgers, Gwen Stefani, Eve and Lenny Kravitz. All of these bands used plenty of synthesizer and sequencers while performing live and I feel that they did somehow influenced my Soundation project. In it you will hear a little funk, 80s, rock and some electronic sounds.

Soundation just like any other popular DAW allows musicians to record digital audio, use available loops and midi. Overall the Soundation sequencer was very easy to navigate and very user friendly. However, the free version of Soundation comes with many limitations. For example, limited available amount of loops, midi, their not so great sound quality and shortcuts. I also experienced some glitches while working with it. The fade in and fade out handling tends to get a bit tricky. Every time I tried to fade out a track or the song it affected the tempo. Also when I would scroll across the screen tracks would skip or freeze during playback. The limitations however do not disqualify it from being a very useful tool to teach composition concepts such as, form, melody, measures, intros, use of loops, midi, digital audio and in general music technology. It is a lot better to have available music technology even if it has some limitations than not have it at all. Besides it is web-based and cost-free.

When I was hired in 2010 I piloted a music production class. Today this class has become very popular in all schools of the district. The schools of the district that I teach have been using Apple computers for many years now. Since all Apple computers come with Garage Band, it was easy for me to advocate for the music production class.  I remember that my main argument was that I wanted to teach music through technology since technology was appealing to students.

However, since music production is only offered to 8^th graders and the 6^th 7^th and 8^th grade conservatory takes place at the same time, there is class number cap and not all students who apply are able to take the class. Our music department has been discussing the possibility of designing a two-year music production curriculum with the goal to offer it also to 7^th or even to 6^th graders but the available number of Apple computers still remains an obstacle.

Recently the district invested in new computers but those are Chrome Books. Here is where Soundation wins hands down against any other studio software that I know so far in a classroom setting. First and the most important part is that it is free. Secondly, it is a web-based DAW that also is compatible with Chrome Books. Until now the general music students have been using Chrome Books only for research and presentations. This coming year Soundation will be a game changer especially in the general music classes that lack instruments, student interest and very often space as well. The layout of the Soundation sequencer is very similar to that of Garage Band in many aspects from the way one can drag loops to fading in and out. Because of the similarities to Garage Band and other DAWs, I plan to use Soundation in my 6^th and 7^th general music to teach introduction to composition and some music production and give a head start to students who will eventually join the actual music production class that the district offers. Soundation has been the most exciting and useful tool that I have explored during these last three weeks and I hope it will be as exciting to my students as well in September.