School courses evolving to fit new technology

Many of us remember our high-school rock bands. Four or five hit-maker wannabes; somebody had a drum kit, a couple of secondhand guitars (one guy had even taken lessons) and maybe even a bass with three strings.

No PA system, but one guy had a Silvertone guitar amp with two input jacks. A girlfriend’s dad let us use his monaural single-track reel-toreel tape recorder with an old microphone from an office Dictaphone.

We used that state-of-the art equipment to cut our first demo recordings, including a cover version of a tune by Bill Haley and the Comets. We were sure it would be a charttopper.

On the other side of town were a couple of brothers, rich kids whose dad was an electrical engineer and who had concocted some kind of jerry-rigged echoplex thing that made them sound like a poor man’s version of Hank Marvin and the Shadows. Big deal, but out of our league. But that, as they say, was then and this is now.

At the always-innovative Frances Kelsey Secondary in Mill Bay, students interested in careers in digital-audio recording have access to a profesional-level studio cobbled together by teacher Kris Vopnfjord.

With some generous and ongoing support from Long and McQuade, radio stations 100.3 “The Q” and 91.3 “The Zone,” the kids get to work with the real thing when it comes to recording technology.

The program focuses on the fundamental techniques and best practices used in capturing and manipulating sound in a modern audio recording.

Five key learning areas include recording, editing, signal processing, mixing and mastering.

Students learn to create professional-sounding recordings using industry-standard tools such as GarageBand, Logic Pro X and ProTools.

As students progress from Grade 10 through to Grade 12 in Digital Audio Recording, it is expected they will become increasingly selfdirected and offer their support and knowledge to younger students.

Grade 12 students will be expected to engage in a “master project,” which will demonstrate their growing proficiency, skills and knowledge of DAR.

That includes learning to analyze waveforms to identify and apply recording strategies, as well as developing the skills to recognize and evaluate creative choices in the planning, interpreting and analyzing of recorded pieces.

But will any of this lead kids to postsecondary programs, actual employment, even career opportunities?

Both the B.C. Institute of Technology and the Capilano University School of Motion Picture Arts offer extensive media arts programs, including courses in the technicalities of running a business in the film and recording industry.

The Vancouver Film School also offers postsecondary programs.

According to Work B.C., the sound engineering and recording side of B.C.’s burgeoning film industry will see a employment growth rate of about 1,200 jobs over the next 10 years partly thanks to B.C.’s film and television taxcredit system.

The Work B.C. website identifies a growing need for people who can set up, prepare and adjust audio, recording, editing and reproducing equipment, edit and reproduce sound input material from tapes, vinyl records, compact discs, digital audio devices and input from live microphones, satellites or microwave trucks for films, videos, radio and television programs and recordings.

Compensation will range from $20 to $40 per hour.

According to Creative B.C., an arm of the B.C. Film Commission, which keeps track of what is happening in B.C.’s film and recording industries, B.C. is one of the top three international full-service production centres in North America capable of servicing all sizes and budgets of motion-picture production.

During 2014-15, production companies in B.C. spent about $2 billion on a total of 287 domestic and international productions.

So as public education struggles to keep up with the new options a rapidly changing digital world is offering our kids, curriculum, especially at the high-school level, is constantly needing to evolve to include new skills and knowledge the kids themselves have heard about and are anxious to learn.

Vopnfjord’s program at Frances Kelsey is one of several such programs underway at major B.C. secondary schools. Terry Fox Secondary in Coquitlam and Burnaby South both feature similar programs with fully equipped television production and professional recording studios.

All somewhat beyond our 1960s monaural reel-to-reel two track (press the red “record” button) and cheapo microphone.

Surely that can’t have been just a generation ago.

I still have the tapes. Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.