Possibly interesting Coursera offering

[RobA]

The course is called "Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics" and lasts six weeks starting on Feb. 3rd. I don't know anything about the course past what's listed on the web page (https://www.coursera.org/course/audiomusicengpart1), but the syllabus looks interesting and relevant to the interests of folks around here. This is the syllabus:

Week 1

Lesson 1: Introduction to oscillations and sound waves, simple oscillating systems, sound pressure, sound waves, the speed of sound, wavelength, frequency and pitch, sound pressure level, loudness, making sound, properties of musical sound versus "noise"

Lesson 2: Electronics fundamentals - charge, current, voltage, power, resistance, Ohm's law, DC circuits, finding currents and voltages in simple circuits

Week 2

Lesson 1: Reflection and absorption of sound, resonances in air columns, resonances in enclosures and rooms, diffraction and diffusion of sound, reverberation, principles of designing a good music studio

Lesson 2:  AC signals, phase and complex numbers, capacitors, inductors, transformers, impedance, AC circuits and AC circuit analysis, simple filters (high-pass, low-pass, band-pass)

Week 3

Lesson 1: Transistors, vacuum tubes, opamps, amplification, power gain, single-stage amplifiers

Lesson 2: Converting sound to electrical signals –microphones and guitar pickups, converting electrical signals to sound – loudspeakers   

Week 4 

Lesson 1: Electric guitar electronics, pickup design, pickup placement and tone, volume control circuits, tone control circuits

Lesson 2:  Overview of a simple guitar amplifier, power supply, volume control, preamp, tone control, power amp section

Week 5

Lesson 1: Designing speaker enclosures, basic principles, interaction of speaker driver with the cabinet, why a cabinet at all?

Lesson 2: Speaker designs for home stereo, crossover networks, guitar amplifier (open) speaker enclosures, bass amplifier (closed and vented) speaker enclosures

Week 6

Lesson 1:  Building the guitar amplifier, how to solder, getting the amp to work - systematic testing and troubleshooting

Lesson 2: Visualizing sound waves, frequency content and tone, signal modification in electro-acoustic systems, tube amplifiers and distortion, wah pedal, talk box

[madbean]

Looks interesting! I don't have enough to do so I guess I should sign up.

[jkokura]

I would love to take that class. It looks awesome.

Jacob

[chromesphere]

That looks pretty interesting, I could benefit from readin'.  It says its 'free', but is it 'free' or...'free' free...? I think it might only be 50 bucks to do the course anyway.

[miter53]

This looks great. I'm all signed up. Thanks for spreading the word!

Mike

[chromesphere]

Also is it possible that Brian can host the course? Now id definitely sign up to that

[miter53]

Looks to me like it's $50 if you want the handsome certificate with your very own name on it, free otherwise. No one asked for $ when I signed up.

[chromesphere]

Yeah I think so Mike.  well, nothing to lose then hah?

[madbean]

Free w/o cert. I'm signed up.

[chromesphere]

Me 2! We should have a madbean study group

[billstein]

Me 2! We should have a madbean study group

I was thinking the same thing.

My concern is the math part. I was an artist in school and had no interest in math whatsoever. So I never took any algebra. I wonder if someone like me can still make it through this course.

[jkokura]

I signed up cause it was free. I may need to take it again if I can't get through it all due to lack of time. We'll see how much work it is.

Jacob

[muddyfox]

I've tried and dropped out of several of their courses, mostly due to time constraints. With work and kids and soldering, I just couldn't find enough hours in a day to do assignments and such. I'll sign up for this as well but I don't expect it to end any differently. 

[Droogie]

Awesome tip! My goal for pedal building this year is to move from "can follow a recipe and solder well enough" to "actually knows something about why and how these things work". Perfect timing!

[Gledison]

Niiiice!
i liked the idea that Brian is helding some lecture
Paul´s idea of a madbean group is also cool!!
Thanks for sharing