I've just completed the course subject to peer review grading. I must say that this was the WORST online course I've ever taken and I've taken a lot of online courses (including YouTube tutorials by people who were clearly intoxicated when creating their masterpieces).

To begin, the recommended software options for screen movies and presentation are awful choices - not to mention "Prezi" is subscription service. I didn't use it. Try Open Office which has a "PowerPoint" type presentation software if you are looking to save costs. There's also an enormous technical problem with the screen movie makers suggested (at least with the PC versions). You cannot record from your microphone and capture internal sound card information (i.e. sounds produced by your DAW) simultaneously with any of the "suggested" programs I tried. The solution was a virtual sound card (I used Voice Meeter) where I could route the sounds accordingly so you could hear the sound produced by my DAW while I spoke. Considering this is a technology course, you would think this would be addressed. It is not.

There is almost no practical discussion. There's plenty of "what," --- an overwhelming amount of what actually --- but not much "how" or "why."

Others may experience this course differently depending on your goals. If you record vocals and real instruments and want to learn how to do this so everything sounds fantastic, this isn't the course for you. There's a tiny bit of that discussed with microphone placement and the like, but it quickly moves to digital sound creation. If you want to use synths and effects and noise things and such to create EDM music ... well, this isn't the course for you either, but maybe it would be more beneficial to you than most other categories.

So, who is this course for? I can't say I'm sure of the answer to that. If you are wanting to be a sound designer, perhaps you would learn the vocabulary for sound design but not much "how." If you use Logix as your DAW, perhaps you will learn where something is you hadn't seen before (although the videos are hard to follow as some things are happening off screen or aren't the focus of the video).

In the end, this course was very much a "self teaching" course. I didn't learn much from the video lectures provided by Berklee other than application of a few terms in music I'd never considered much with a background in playing instruments rather than playing a digital synth, like "ADSR." I spent more time on other websites and YouTube videos and in my DAW's operation manual as we were often told, "Go to your DAW and figure out how to use an XYZ." Rarely did it include "how and why" to use that XYZ for musicality.

The quizzes were awful as well. There's a lot of "minutia" detail in the lectures that never seems to have any relevance because there's no practical application discussed. Make sure you know this not very relevant information because it will be on the quiz --- like how to determine the word length and bit depth using some formula involving 2 to the power of something.... it still doesn't make since because I don't know why or how it applies.

Also, note that not everything is completely uniform in DAWs with some terms being different in each one. This was extremely confusing because I don't use Logix and the lessons do. I had a terrible time figuring out many things simply because my DAW had another term or button name for it.

I'm glad this is over. I feel like I learned a little bit, but don't feel like it's information I'll retain for long since I have no idea how to use much of the information for my purposes. Maybe on a game of Jeopardy?

Sorry for the length of this, but I hope you find the information helpful in deciding whether you will benefit from this class.

Too much theory and little application. I felt like I heard about a lot of things but did not learn much.

I feel like there's so much content in this course, but I didn't really learn anything...It's a lot of talking, ending with "go to the forums and ask your peers about all these concepts that you need to know but that I won't talk about."

Very difficult to stay motivated during the course.

The absolute perfect course for beginner producers who want to learn the basics and fundamentals of the tech involved in contemporary productions. Highly highly recommend.

the best, Learned a lot from you guys, despite financial issues I now have my music production specialization certificate from an international organization! Thank you!

Not so practical

WOW, Awesome course Loudon! I'm learning lots of stuff I never knew, very much in depth and it takes me to the source of things I already knew but ignored where they generated from. Love it!

I can see how this instructor would be great in a classroom. He has a wealth of technical knowledge and passionately explains concepts in common language.The videos were very lacking in visual content, and the quizzes were not helpful. Honestly, this course would be better if there were NO quizzes, and maybe critical thinking questions that require reasoning. Also, more frequent, smaller projects. Surprised I never had to submit a recording, but since its strictly peer-reviewed that would mean no instructor is actively checking our work.

Learned all the previously daunting technical aspects of music production I wanted to learn and feel much more confident in my ability to record and mix audio. Thanks!

The whole concept of us teaching each other for this program is a lazy cop out on the professor's part. I shouldn't have to teach my classmates. I enrolled to learn from a pro teacher, instead I got a lazy one.

This is perfectly what I hoped it would be. Experienced musician new to digital music production and songwriting. The lessons answer every question I had struggled with and wasted time blindly experimenting with in three DAW's. I'm confident this will get me to a fully functional place with the confidence that comes with knowing what you're doing and especially, why. I aim for fluency in a workflow so that I may be creative without frustrating technical troubles

Great presentation! Did this having some experience in production already, and it was valuable and generally exceeded expectations. Amazing production quality, good material, well planned, pleasant to go through. Done over a weekend.

Excellent. Reinforced what I already knew and greatly added to my knowledge. Even somethings that I do, I found ways to make my workflow more efficient. I highly recommend this course for producers of all levels!

This course gave me a working knowledge of the many parameters of a DAW. I really have a base knowledge to continue my studies and not get frustrated with mental blocks in navigation of the software.

When you overpass the barrier and fear of a field is because you have a good teacher behind.

Loudon makes the difference. He is clear and knowledgeable when he explains.

Thanks

I believe that this was an extremely informative course, but the presenter could have spoken less than he did. I felt he was too verbose.

Mr. Stearns would be very helpful in a classroom; he speaks at length about these concepts, and he would definitely benefit from the in-person aspect of these lessons. However, his lessons often would include him talking at length about these concepts, but never really *saying* anything. I would find myself reading the transcript rather than the video, because there was no visual stimulation or practical examples for these lessons.

If anything, I believe a course like this would much benefit from more real-world examples. Maybe having more examples in a DAW, or plugging in a guitar and showing how each effect changes the instrument's tone rather than just showing a pre-recorded song and saying "This thing does this thing".

Despite all of the negativity I wrote on this review, however, this course really did help me pursue my passion for music. I did learn a lot about audio design, but it took me longer than I expected I did. If I ever came off as rude during this review, please forgive me. It was not my intention.

For those who want to understand the basics of sound movement in the environment and digital media.

For those who want to understand how the DAW system is arranged.

For those who just started working in sequencers.

For a beginner musician who wants to write quality music.

The course is very huge, but everything is explained very well.

There was never a misunderstanding of the material, everything was always chewed up to the smallest detail.

If something is not clear, there are comrades with topics on the forums.

For me, this course has removed all fears and I look at my software and all the equipment that I have.

I do not have a job of English, but despite this, even with Google translator, everything is very clear.

Now it is clear how this can be used, and most importantly, understanding what and when it will be appropriate, how to make the sound cleaner, more pleasant and atmospheric.

Many thanks to the team for the work done!

I found the course content to be efficiently delivered and engaging. I was also pleasantly surprised by most of the assessments: they addressed course content adequately with only a few questions which read as filler. Additionally, the presentation projects afforded a wide variety of options to suit many people's interests, experience, and knowledge. As with any MOOC, peer feedback was somewhat uneven, but that is the nature of the beast with programs and platforms such as this.

Overall, I appreciate the design of the course; I feel I have a much better grasp of the intersection of technology and music as a result of taking this course. Thank you for a great start to a Specialization I am looking forward to completing in the coming months.

Great course with tons of information to cover! For those who are getting ready to take this course, I would suggest to arrange twice more time to dedicate to it than you have planned. There are lots of homework and self-research involved and it is vitally important to get everything out of the course. Overall I would like to say thank you to Loudon Stearns for all the guidance and course development. I have enjoyed every single lesson of it and I would definitely recommend taking this course for those who are thinking to dive deeper into music production.

This was a great course. I really liked that the material was presented at a conceptual level instead of just being a walk through of how to get a particular pieces of software to do x, y, or z (the next course in the Music Production specialization does that). The presentations as projects were a very good idea since just watching the lectures, though informative, don't require me to engage deeply with the material. The presentation projects meant I really needed to learn a topic but without requiring that I be producing a particular track.

Amazing stimulating course on Technology of Music Production by prof. Loudon Sterns! Very clear explanations and implementation of the concepts with different DAWs, a lot of real world examples which emphasize the need of getting a new idea of sound, based on our relative perception of it. I am definitely gonna miss it, it was such a great experience, I've learned a lot and it perfectly matched my needs. Great way to break the ice and learn about Music Production from its roots ! Highly recommended.

This is probably one of the best courses I have ever taken. Although time was a limiting factor, a broad range of essential topics was covered thoroughly (given the time), and I really feel that I learnt a lot about hardware, software, sound engineering, and production skills. I also learnt a lot of terminology, which I was finding very confusing during my efforts to teach myself, and feel like I had a good foundation upon which to continue my learning and improve my skills.

Such a great course, all information is coherent and well presented. The teacher was amazing also, I will definitely get more courses from him. I like that the course is about concepts and not about a specific DAW or plugin. Going through this course is really much better then searching around for tutorials - you will much faster get to the point where you confidently can do production in any DAW.

This course is great! As a beginner interested in music production, this course taught me many basics that I had no opportunity to learn! I gained a basic understanding of music production without paying a single dollar! Thank you cousera and Berklee for offering the opportunity! I recommended this course to my friend and any one interested in music should definitely try this course.