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Student Equipment

April 12, 2019 vpahubwp Advising, Equipment 0

We find that students who have their own equipment spend more time investing in their education and explore a greater number of creative avenues. Because of that we are dedicating resources to equip students early in their education with powerful tools and we recommend that students come to school with a laptop and a few other pieces of computer hardware.

  • Provided Equipment:
    • Students in the Michigan Tech sound programs can check out several pieces of exceptionally useful equipment to insure they are always able to get work done and to creative explore their own passions.
    • Hydrophones
      • Microphones for underwater recording are available.
    • Contact Microphones
      • Microhpones for attach to and directly recording sounds conducted through materials other than air are also available.
  • Recommended Equipment:
    • Portable Drive:
    • Back-up plan:
      • Google drive provides students with lots of storage space for back-ups but does require more hands on planning to use reliably and can lead to students not backing-up critical information. However, it is provided by the University at no extra cost.
      • More reliable, and highly recommended, at a modest cost is Back Blaze which will automatically back-up the students computer AND external drives when they are active on the network. We cannot stress enough how important back-ups are. https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html
        • Every year more than one studnet looses work due to hard drive failure or loss. I highly reccomend considering the back-blaze service. So long as you plug in your external drives overnight every so often it will back them up as well as your computer.
    • Hearing Protection:
      • Healthy ears are the most important equipment for students in this major. Anytime you are in an environment louder than 80dB SPL you should consider wearing hearing protection. And you should always carry hearing protection. Custom molded musician earplugs from an audiologist are recommended but simple foam earplugs from any pharmacy work great, and are much cheaper. Buy a small pouch so that you can always have a clean pair in your pocket.
  • Recommended Computer:
    • You need a laptop computer that you can use in classes, on calls, and in meetings.
    • We recommend a Macintosh Laptop, especially for those students interested in the artistic side of the business. We use some cross platform software, a lot of Mac OS only software, and some Windows only software. Students can use a windows computer and depending on their focus this may be easier or harder. Students with a deep investment in Windows should probably stick with Windows. Students interested in video game design may want to stick with Windows computers.
    • Short Reccomendation:
      • Minimum: 8GB unified memory, 512GB SSD storage.
      • Recommended: 16GB unified memory, 1TB SSD storage.
      • Upgraded 32GB of RAM and as much storage as you can afford. If you want to work in video increasing the GPU performance is valuable.
    • DetailedSpecifications:
      • We recommend students get a MacBook. The MacBook Pro is more powerful and expandable and will probably last longer as a powerful computer. As our work requires extended high processing loads the additional cooling in the MacBook Pro models will also probably help their longevity. However, the M4 powered MacBook Air is also a very capable computer with enough RAM and Storage.
      • Processor:
        • All modern processors are exceptionally powerful. Upgrades here are nice but less important than RAM and Storage unless you are doing lots of video work that needs the extra GPU.
      • Storage:
        • We recommend at least 1TB of internal storage as the applications we use require a lot of space.
        • This is probably the most important aspect of a computer for our work.
        • In addition to internal storage students are encouraged to purchase an external drive as detailed above.
      • Memory (RAM):
        • We reccomend 16GB of RAM since this isn’t upgradable In Macs and can make a big difference to the lifespan of a computer.
        • However, 8GB likely will do everything you need to do, especially if you don’t have all of your applications open at once.
      • Graphics
        • All of the apple chips provide significant graphics power. This doesn’t make much difference to sound work. If students are interested in video editing or video game work the M1 Pro and M1 Max represent significant upgrades for reasonable pricing.
      • Adaptors:
  • Software:
    • Many software packages will be available through Michigan Tech through the software distribution site <https://downloads.it.mtu.edu>. Software that is important to Audio students from this site:
      • Matlab for Audio Production & Technology students
      • Microsoft Office
    • Student versions of other software can be obtained direct from companies:
    • DAW software is very important:
      • Logic Pro X is exceptionally powerful and affordable. Students can purchase this as part of a very powerful bundle of professional applications here: https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/product/BMGE2Z/A/pro-apps-bundle-for-education.
      • Reaper is very cheap and good at somethings.
      • ProTools is an industry standard, especially in the film world and a very good DAW. Because of its wide usage we will require you to learn it. However, we don’t necessarily recommend you purchase it as it can be more expensive than other options.
    • Window emulation software: VMware Fusion for Mac or Parallels is strongly recommended for Audio Production and Technology students.
    • Students will learn many other applications and may want to have their own copies of those programs later in the program but they don’t need them to start.
    • Google Drive is used all the time and requires the desktop client to avoid corrupting your files. You can download it here.

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