Culminating Experience Project Abstracts

With the rise of the Metaverse, Dolby Atmos, and virtual reality, audiences are seeking out immersive media experiences now more than ever. Figures an audio-visual experience by Postmodern Talk Show that takes place in a virtual gallery, and gives users the power to explore an immersive surrealist museum with sonic accompaniment. Applying modern video game technology to musical experience, this project blurs the line between game, art exhibition, and concert.

Futurus combined performative music technology and transhumanist philosophy to create an impactful audiovisual performance. As humanity hurtles towards a technological future, it is vital that the arts provide a conduit through which to critique our blind acceptance of new global technology trends, and imagine the consequences of their use beyond the scope of the next market quarter. Futurus provided a memorable experience that spurred heightened audience awareness towards social action on the topic of human interaction with technology. In avoiding the common pitfall of prescriptive worldview, the lyrical and topical content of Futurus was open-ended to diminish the presence of the artist’s ego and encourage the audience’s own reflection. Electronic and technologically-reliant performances often lack the impactfulness of live instrumentation and band interaction. In Futurus the impact of the set was enhanced with careful attention paid to performative instrumentation choices. Through a collaboration with another student, Rubén Prados, and his Culminating Experience project, sounds were visualized as vivid, abstract projections to highlight the disparities and connections between human and machine.

This thesis examines the surrealistic art movement approach trough music as a way of creating and producing new sonic pieces.
The academic research aims to define an in-deep study of surrealism as a creative conceptual and practical tool for music production in order to create a three songs E.P. that represents the times we are living in. It all starts with the historic analysis of music production and how it was affected by the technological development. Moreover after defining the different production eras it was possible to notice the characteristic of surrealistic compositions.
The surrealistic movement analysis gives the inspirational paradigm to dig deep into the techniques used as tools to generate the final piece. All the musical influences involved in this research were studied from the music production perspective in order to highlight the creative and compositional cores implemented to generate the musical pieces identified as references. Once the fundamental aspects were outlined, it was crucial to design the final workflow scheme in order to proceed with the creation of the songs. After this phase, the document unfolds the entire process by providing the creative limitation list of instruments, allowed techniques that the team could use to produce the E.P., Studio Session list and the entire sonic technique transposition method.
The artistic direction was defined by a central concept: remove conscious decisions from art. Indeed dreaming experiences seemed to be the perfect tool to drive the storytelling of the songs.

Music is emotion. In most cases, people tend to base emotions off external experiences. In these experiences, humans feel certain ways that then results into internal emotion. Humans then tend to listen to music based on how they feel emotionally. This CE project consists of an EP by Wizrd Kelly (the author’s artistic persona) and is a love story. As most individuals may know, love stories do not always end in love. It starts off with pure bliss, but could end in heartbreak, and in some cases, leading to a depressed state of mind. The Ep will consist of four songs. The story is split into four major “themes/emotions.” The first of which is love. The second is lust. The third is resentment. The last of which is depression.

This one-year long experience is a conceptual project merging electronic music, hip-hop and indie rock through six songs and one live set video. It can seem difficult to draw bridges between music genres that each have their own characteristic. However, by integrating rap songwriting skills, live instruments such as guitar, and electronic music composition experience, it has been possible to find a cohesive yet unique that fits Yambow’s musical identity. Thanks to midi controllers and automation, the one-person band live experience is another challenge that this project overcomes. The live aspect of this project was captured in a creative live video of one song featured in the EP “No Borders”.

The basis of this project was to write, produce, record & mix an long play (LP) of original indie-rock music that will explore different techniques, especially in home recording and emulating a studio-level analogue quality inside of a digital domain, creating a new but nostalgic sound. This is a project for attempting to unlock secrets of the best bedroom producers, especially in the indie rock scene.

The author proposed for his culminating experience that he would redefine the current notion of what it means to be an electronic musician. The problem that was being challenged and resolved was that current electronic musicians were more enraptured with using DJ equipment and preparing quick sets rather than focusing on their own creative music and developing their own interactive live sets. Moreover, the majority notion that artists try to copy someone else or replicate someone else’s style was another ideology that the author attempted to redefine. Therefore, the author posited three solutions to these current issues: To redefine the live music experience of electronic music, re-innovate technology by combining hardware and DJ equipment into a new medium of interactive technology, and develop a new standard of electronic music that challenges the status quo of current modern genres.

This project aims to design and build a prototype for a fully interactive delay pedal (for guitars or any other instrument). Delays usually need to be controlled by hand, which means bending down to reach the knobs and also taking one hand off the instrument - unless the pedal's settings keep unchanged while playing. Another possibility is attaching a controller pedal to the delay, in order to change some settings by foot, which can be done while playing. But an external controller hardware is needed. The idea behind the Full Control Delay pedal and its main difference is that it allows any of the effect's parameters to be controlled while playing and without the need of an external controller pedal. One single piece of hardware will enable the user to handle a variety of effects and soundscapes, easily changing settings between songs or even between sections in the same song.

Keywords: delay, effects, pedals, guitar pedals, guitar effects, handmade.

Many people are unable to express their emotions, which can lead to many problems down the road. This Culminating Experience project aimed to help people express and process their emotions through song. The goal of this project was to produce an extended play (EP) that dives deep into the volatile range of the following human emotions: insecurity, sadness, drive, and excitement/happiness. This paper contains research on overall characteristics of what causes these emotions, and why certain people are not able to express those feelings. The paper also explores which emotions are triggered by music, and how/if these emotions can be manipulated by audio and/or music.
The EP creation process incorporated electronic composition techniques including sampling, remixing, field recording, and other types of audio manipulation, to enhance the quality of the production. The hope is that field recordings (e.g. birds chirping, cars honking) will tap into people’s connection to the natural world to make them feel present; remixing will tap into people’s nostalgic/recognition/comfort parts of the brain; and audio manipulation (e.g. panning, stuttering, echo/delay) will keep people engaged and on their toes while listening to the EP.

Rainbow for Tomorrow is a community and participatory art in the form of interactive audio and visual installation. This installation uses a MIDI controller built using an Arduino micro-controller, enabling the participant to create visuals and sound by moving the controller. The controller sends out data from the accelerometer, which is built into the micro-controller, which will then send data to Max MSP. Max MSP will then send out data through Open Sound Control (OSC), a network protocol, to Processing, a software that uses coding to create visuals that will be projected on a wall. Max MSP will also use the accelerometer data from the controller to send out MIDI data to Ableton, a Digital Audio Workstation, and output to multiple speakers in the installation. During the process, one of the biggest challenges was building the controller, coding in numerous software, and ensuring communication between the controller and software. This installation is an artistic concept. The mission is to let the various community participate in creating visual art and interact with the installation uniquely wherever the installation is held.

The culminating experience of the author consisted of an audio visual concept EP album inspired by both, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon” and Tame Impala’s “Currents”. The main focus of the EP surrounded a couple of deep topics in life like dreams, death, and love. Each individual topic was carried out by one song in the EP and they were all tied together by a single idea which was simply “moments in time”. The deliverables included two music videos and 4 different songs. All songs were produced fully in the box with virtual instruments and virtual analog gear modulations, except for the vocals. Songs were written, arranged, produced, mixed, and mastered by the author. Videos were recorded and edited by the author as well. This process taught the author a lot about songwriting, production, and mixing, he also learned about the process of creating music videos. He created this EP audio visual album to release it into the musical markets in the future and to use it as a showcase for future job opportunities.

This work intends to be a combination of two different pieces of work, one being an EP recorded by the author, and the other one being a set of visuals controlled by the activity of the brain, streaming the data from an electroencephalusgram (EEG) into MaxMSP. The idea at the foundation of this project is that every experience we go through is essentially a mediation of some form, and that complete objectivity is arguably impossible in any aspect of the human experience. The music is also inspired by the impressionist art movement, which conceptually originates from the same core idea, and the visuals try to match the stylistic features of the movement. Ultimately, the aim of the work is to fuse together the listener and the work of art, making the viewer a part of the work.

Almost 160 years have passed since the first recorded sound and, man is no longer satisfied with just passive listening but wants to be able to modify and interact with sound through other forms of art. Music, by its very nature, lends itself very easily to change, develop and evolve according to the needs and technologies of its time.
With the improvement of technology over the years, artists are more able to explore outside of the boundaries that were never able to be explored by artists in the past.
By using virtual reality as a medium, immersive virtual reality art is probably the most deeply interactive form of art1. This paper wants to describe with a practical example all the process that are behind an immersive audio/video installation that puts the listener at the center of the scene.

This project explores recording studio experiences and how they differ between men, women and gender diverse individuals. Data gathered includes 55 survey responses to an array of 18 questions, 15 multiple choice and 3 short answers. The underlying question to be answered is what barriers do women and non-binary people face in the studio in any role? These roles include producer, artist, session musician, engineer and/or assistant. This project also attempts to gather data points to quantify what a “good” session and a “bad” session look like depending on the respondents gender.

The project Refugio (shelter, in Spanish) has this title because the songs contained within have served as an emotional shelter for the songwriter and artist Paulina Parga. Once written, the project continued and was produced by Paulina Parga. These songs represent the vulnerability, intimacy, strength, and freedom of the moment that were written and they intend to portray this in the final produced tracks. With this project, the producer puts together some elements of latinamerican rhythms and alternative pop. The narrative of the songs of the EP can be perceived by the audience either as individual stories or as different chapters of one.

BEST Album, giga's debut work, experiments with familiar pop and electronic music conventions, while providing a fresh and unique take on what a pop album can contain. Each track filled with emotional depth underscored by melodies and beats that will make you want to dance, he explores the expression of personal vulnerability and inner truth as he struggles to implement these very themes into his day to day life. Topics such as love, balance, the meaning of life, and fun are all blended into the songs' layers with a light-hearted silliness to create an album that you've never heard anything like, but you can relate to all the same.

In this project, the artist wrote and recorded an EP of original music using Ableton live. In addition, the artist gave a live performance that showcased the hybrid nature of the music, utilizing both live instruments and digitally sequenced elements. There were four tracks to which the artist performed along, spanning an array of styles like rock, funk and pop.

This project combines piano performance, electronic music production, and creative vocal editing techniques in the context of an EP. At times, the techniques involved in creating modern commercial hip-hop or electronic music can leave the overall product feeling somewhat canned or lifeless, or free of a level of humanity and personality. This production counteracts that by showcasing both the capability of electronic music production and DAWs such as Ableton to create unique and innovative sounds and textures, while also maintaining a very authentic and captivating human sound through the instrumental and vocal elements of the project.

Joshua Hill’s Culminating Experience (CE) project features a 4-track electronic EP, being used to explore and challenge his identity as a producer. The higher aim of this project was to push the creative limits as to what has and is currently being done with the Dolby Atmos technology. The EP was produced fully in Ableton, using Atmos from day one as a creative tool. Hill has also built a special Ableton template that allows the Dolby Atmos Renderer software to be used seamlessly in Ableton.

Technology is one of the most relevant creative forces behind music creation. Apart from being a social and cultural phenomena, music is a response to the technological possibilities of a specific period of time. This project, for instance, is determined to explore the new possibilities encountered in audio and visual softwares to create a Conceptual Audiovisual Extended Play Album that consists of five songs that will be accompanied by a series of animated video clips for the artistic musical project: et Lūmen. The main objective is to explore the different ways music can be presented in the digital realm that can enrich the musical experience presented by the artist: et Lūmen. This project is meant to push boundaries of music creation by designing an immersive experience that is thought to be centered on the relationship between music and visuals. This will be done by taking advantage of new technologies to confront the boundaries of music technology resulting in a new perspective and approach to human expression and artistic endeavors.

Mental health disorders are becoming more prevalent and the research to fully understand it is becoming more discussed recently. Due to this, a lot of mediums have been used to work around in researching mental health and spreading awareness. In this study, an artistic approach to study mental health was done through an elaborate creation of an audiovisual representation of a major depressive disorder (MDD) crisis, along with the experimental approach of the stages a patient experiences during this process. It intends to explore sonically and visually the mysteries of the human mind, based on the author’s personal experiences with mental health disorders and scientific research. For this specific study, the author portrayed the phase of declining into a depressive crisis through presenting ten instrumental tracks accompanied by self-generated video content. The products produced were executed with the use of Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Max MSP, Logic Pro X, Protools and an iPhone 11 for the creation of the musical and video content.

Keywords: Depression, mental health, MDD, stress, psychiatry, psychology, therapy, antidepressants, meditation, mindfulness, society, brain, neuroscience, ambient, incidental, experimental, treatment.

Through this project, the author intended to solidify a unique and specific artistic voice. The aim was to create a four-song extended play in order to delve into various production and recording techniques, such as varied mic placement and choices, and the exploration of different subgenres, all to express distinct ideas. Additionally, the project included a music video with an overarching storyline to connect the ideas of each piece from one to the next.

Different methods of composition will aid in producing different results from an artist. Oftentimes, composers will have a thought along the lines of, “having an “image” in mind” and they will not know how to put it into existence. This project will be creating two Max for Live devices where creators can draw images, use a palette of colors, and have different widths for paintbrushes that will affect a composition. The images produced on this device will translate into midi or audio signals as designated by the user. This device will act as a different tool for composition, songwriting, and production, and it will also function as a method of creating visual music.

This project aims to develop a diversified portfolio as a music producer and engineer. This included research on multiple music styles and genres to understand the history and be able to effectively create music in the choses styles. This utilized different DAWs, MIDI, studio recording, recording techniques, analog synthesis, the student delivered four songs in four different styles.
The student worked with different artists and faced many challenges regarding communication, management, and honing music production skills. This project helped the student to gain confidence and built a solid portfolio to become a freelance producer and sound engineer.

Cultural appropriation is a real issue in the music industry where artists take certain cultural attributes from different countries with the simple intention of making money. However, other artists use different characteristics of foreign musical cultures to enhance the meaning and story of their music. Even though their intentions were pure, these celebrities have unfairly received negative backlash from social media. Therefore, this dissertation will analyze, evaluate, define and push the vague definition of cultural appropriation. The origin, adverse effects, current definition, and areas of improvement will be discussed by creating a combination of musical compositions that use varying cultural attributes. After, opinions from different social spaced will be gathered and analyzed to create a new definition of cultural appropriation that can condemn the right celebrities.

This research addresses the viability of triggering certain elements in the Max/MSP and Max for Live visual coding environment with atypical, gesture-based external control stimuli including cameras and infrared sensors in an effort to functionally incorporate them into a real-time live audiovisual performance as a New Interface for Musical Expression (NIME). This involves testing the usability of combinations of established hardware mapped to control specific parameters within the software and, in turn, the software’s response to the variable nature of these converted inputs, the required parameters for reasonable usability, and the artistic benefits of their incorporation in a live performance. The research methodology incorporates live trials of the instrument by users of random experience levels followed by completion of a standardized survey response to gauge general usability and intuitiveness. The challenge of this research centers around the highly volatile nature of gesture-based control, the added complication of blending multiple gesture-controlled hardware interfaces, and developing an appropriate software environment to effectively capture input data and manipulate the visual outcome. Conclusions of the research suggest strong interest among users in gesture-controlled visuals due to a heightened sense of connection with the performance process and visual outcome.

Keywords: Research Project, Gesture Control, Creative Coding, Audiovisual Research, Max/MSP, Max for Live.

This project serves as a practical model for contemporary artists seeking to explore the medium of NFT art as a means of revaluing their work in response to the economic unsustainability of the streaming-based music economy, as well as a model for ways in which NFT art can be used to support international mutual aid efforts while maintaining a commitment to environmental sustainability. To this end, an NFT art collection of original audiovisual work entitled "ORDINARY PEOPLE 4 CLEAN WATER" was created on Rarible.com's NFT marketplace in collaboration with the Grand’Anse Haiti based mutual aid foundation, the Julia&Jade Foundation (FJUJA). The proceeds of this NFT collection go towards funding FJUJA’s ongoing initiatives to promote sustainable and profitable agricultural practices, in this case with a focus on installing solar powered water pumps to provide clean drinking water and irrigated farmland for the people of Grand’Anse. The intention behind this project was to demonstrate that NFT art can be integrated into the contemporary artists' portfolio in a manner that is environmentally ethical and which opens new possibilities for both fan engagement and for international community building and mutual aid work.

Keywords: NFT Art, Blockchain, Mutual Aid, Fundraiser, Audiovisual

In the last 15 years with the exponential growth of the internet and social media, watching videos of live performances online is a common occurrence. However, often the audio and video quality are poor, or the performance is pre-recorded. The aim of this culminating experience project (CE) is to live record multiple intimate video performances in different locations and spaces, which will be edited and mixed to a professional, commercially viable standard, to be shared and promoted across various social media platforms. This CE will achieve a similar experience to the NPR Tiny Desk Home Concerts.

Keywords: Live performances, performance videos.

This culminating experience project (The Christening) is intended to be a 4-song extended play exploring the fusion of modern lo-fi boombap with Neo-Soul influences, Peruvian and Spanish hip hop grooves while honing on the new tools and knowledge to improve the final result. It is meant to be produced mainly by Nicolas Newton in collaboration with other music producers and artists from the Berklee Valencia Campus. It is also meant to be produced in the box by taking advantage of Ableton Live 11's tools to have the project be both songs and ready to perform live sets. The extended play will be performed live aided by automated effects done with Ableton Live 11 to make the transitions seamless while keeping the listeners attention throughout every piece. The songs will be played using automated effects on the vocals which will be prepared in advance inside Ableton so that they will be performed live over the instrumental tracks.

Nowadays in electronic pop music, people spend hours to make something feel “real”. Because of the lack of any real instruments or analog gear in most bedroom studios, analog instruments and effects are emulated. A large part of the old school of engineers argues this omits the analog feel of sounds and nothing can beat the real analog deal. This CE will aim to bring back the liveness and analog sound by producing the Italian singer Isabel Helene Mohr an as modern sounding eight track album as possible, while applying several recording techniques out of the 70s & 80s. A comparison will be made between emulators and the actual physical versions of analog gear. By looking backwards in time and experiencing the restrictions that music recording had at the time, the project will move forward to a newer and more creative sound. The process of this record will be fully documented on film, to serve as press material for the release of the album.

This project follows the creation of a five-track EP titled Aisling, by Irish artist, Ugolino. The EP fuses hip-hop and jazz, merging these two genres in the context of Irish music. This project distinguishes itself from other jazz / hip-hop fusions, which often use prominent elements of hip- hop instrumentals, and vocals consistent with modern rap. Aisling uses a more live sound, drawing on styles of 20th century jazz, and vocals in the style of spoken-word poetry. Ireland is a country known for its output of literature and poetry in the 20th Century, but not for its contributions to jazz. This EP imagines how Irish jazz could have sounded, thus offering an artistic commentary on Ireland’s culture, history, and place in the world. This project hopes to have enough reach and commercial appeal to increase the popularity of contemporary jazz and inspire more jazz fusions.

The inspiration of this culminating experience project was derived from a lineage of long- standing and modern musical styles to create an album that syndicates the former stylistic elements to offer a pristine final product. The record was created with the use of hardware synthesizers, software synthesizers, samplers, digital audio workstations, drum machines, MIDI controllers and organic instruments. The use of these resources in a congruent manner allowed the project to be borrowing from distinct musical styles in order to construct an innovative project. The album combined an extraction of classic and modern styles of electronic music such as subgenres of house and techno; combined with touches and influences from more traditional genres such as funk and jazz. Building the basis of the album electronically, and drawing inspirations, motives and ideas from traditional genres were the essential contributing factors on developing a vigorous work of art that is true to the past and paves way for the evolution of electronic music.

The idea behind this project is to write, compose, produce, mix, and master an album’s worth of music in various subgenres of pop/hiphop/RnB, in collaboration with my colleagues here at Berklee. Depending on the timeframe I am thinking about including a music video for one of the songs as a visual aid and extra marketing step for releasing the project. In terms of sounds that will be used, they are stylistically unique, so they will be changing from song to song, however there will of course be a few reoccurring ones such as jazz bass, rhodes, some live drums, and so on. One of the biggest challenges here I think will be choosing and gathering individuals that would fit for their respectful songs, as well as managing the recording process, as time is limited, and people have more projects to focus on. The goal of this project is to create a professional
sounding album that will showcase the talents and collaborative skills of my colleagues as well as my own.

The need for Digital platforms and alternative performance venues has become increasingly apparent. Live events have become a rarity while digital platforms like NPRs Tiny Desk, and KEXPs Live have remained able to share live performances in an effective way. This project focuses on launching a digital series of live music performances. The process examined the skills and techniques needed to produce at a professional level and the different aspects that contribute to its success. The series required pre- and post- production teams for both the creation of content and the promotion and marketing of it. It worked as a collaboration with specialists in A&R, Engineering, Event Production, Promotion, and Video working together on the production. A variety of different events brought challenges which will required a complete understanding of the tools and skills utilized in the MPTI program as well as skills required across each of the programs Berklee Valencia’s Campus. In the end we were able to create a powerful network and generate quality content.

The objective of this project was to produce a melodic techno album that combined an organic and emotive approach to songwriting, while maintaining the darker and harder themes of techno music. The purpose was to bridge the gap between synthesized electronic music and the use of acoustic instruments in order to produce a cohesive body of music. It was the culmination of the many musical influences the artist ‘Amalle’ has absorbed over the years. From the heavy bass synths found from the sounds of dubstep, the ethereal feeling of hearing a well-recorded guitar, to the atmospheric soundscapes heard within the realm of film, this EP became everything ‘Amalle’.

This culminating experience project consisted of a visual and collaborative Extended Play (referred to as “EP” henceforth) and a documentary of the process of creating a visual EP in its entirety. The most important part of the author’s culminating experience was a finished EP of three original songs. The author created visuals for each song, using a variety of different sources learned during her time at Berklee. The EP featured all original music written by the author and was a collaboration between instrumentalists, recording engineers, mixing and mastering engineers from Berklee. Additionally, each song featured a different analog or digital emulation synthesizer in order to expand the author's knowledge of music technology and of music history in the synth pop genre. The author chose to do an EP for her culminating experience project in order to expand her personal artistry, continue working on her songwriting, production and engineering, learn about new synthesizers, and to capture the entire process in an educational documentary in order to show how an EP is created from start to finish.

This Culminating Experience is based on a live-video software which generates different shapes with many possibilities to create intricate visuals that react and change depending on the input of sound. This could be seen as a kaleidoscope in which elements will vary depending on the signal.
This software has been developed with Max/MSP and applied to Ableton Live, presented as a patch in Max and as a plugin in Live. After the study and research on Max/MSP and different patches, many problems were overcome and made this plugin very customisable by the user.

This Culminating Experience (CE) was a multi-genre collaborative Extended Playlist (EP) in the language Tamil. It is one of the ancient languages from Southern India with a vast grammatical structure. The author worked in the past as an Independent artist and collaborated with other artists to make singles. But in this EP the author chose to make 4 songs where all of them belong to completely different genres. This was the first time a multi-genre EP was made in this language. The only common connection between each song would be the subject that was being discussed about. The EP collectively talked about different phases of a relationship and how it progressed. It was a combination of songs that portrayed a variety of moods ranging from happy to gloomy and dark. The idea was to give the audience a journey that took them through a ride of different emotions through different styles of music.

Keywords: Independent EP, Tamil, Multi-genre.

The objective of this CE, titled Alexa, is to write, produce, and record a professionally recorded concept EP complete with a full music video involving audio-visual elements. The Singer-Songwriter project focuses on themes of isolation and freedom through the lens of a music speaker playing alone in a room. Each song involves lyrical and production content reflecting the tracks story and intent. The corresponding music video, which includes each track on the EP, takes place in a single room, with changes and room arrangement and lighting to match the topic of the song in question. This undertaking involves the use of projected visuals created in Resolume Arena, with the video completed in Adobe Premiere Pro.

This culminating experience (CE) project is a four song collection composed, produced, and partially engineered by the author, Shankara Srikantan. The songs draw from the theory and influence of South Asian semiclassical and American Pop/R&B music, alluding to the two cultures that inform the author's musical intuitions. The production process revolved around the recording and processing of analog (and analog-sounding virtual) instruments and vocals. The song lyrics are in both Hindi and Tamil, but belong together sonically.

The Astronaut is a project designed to completely immerse the listener through Dolby Atmos. While bending the boundaries of genre morphing within hip-hop, Hughes takes inspiration from the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, Kanye West, and FKJ to create a work that redefines the walls of hip-hop.

This creative project aims to create an album that explores the collective experience of being a non-male person through sonic landscapes and gathered testimonies. The idea comes from the desire to bring up situations involving microaggressions and toxic masculinity that every non-male lives. For this, the project wants to translate the feelings those situations create into sonic landscapes for the listener to enter the experience together with some reflections in testimonies as interludes. This idea is carried out by trying to find the middle ground between the sound design of a scene and a musical piece that would be delivered in the form of an LP. The musical elements in this project are produced electronically although not tied to a specific genre as the sounds are at the service of creating a scene portraying specific feelings.

Keywords: creative project, recording, composition, electronic production, LP, MIDI, storytelling, interviews.

The multimedia, interactive and live-stream performance We All Freakz session wove together the broad topics of non-duality, intimacy, community, creation and healing. The focus of this session was to provide participants with a space to reflect, to connect and to observe universal connective strands within all beings. Through a January 2020 Q & A research conducted by this author (who is also the artist), disconnection, isolation and the unknown were the dominant, self-reported fears. Through the intentional use of sound design, video production and live-stream technology, this series enveloped the audience in a vibrant, flowing and reverent space. Strings, synths, vocals, sound design and percussion were the main instrumentation as they elicited a dreamy atmosphere. The aim of the We All Freakz session was for the participants to have an opportunity in the digital realm to solidify their authentic connection to themselves and to the world at large. This series gave hope to the philosophy that we can maintain a deep sense of connection and intimacy despite ever-changing personal and world circumstances.

Keywords: interactive, live-stream performance, sound design, video production, live-stream technology, and connection

The intention of this project is to create a sample library that utilizes a new MIDI protocol called MIDI-Polyphonic Expression, which will be defined from here as “MPE”. This is done utilizing new MPE features in Ableton Live’s sampler device and Ableton racks to optimize workflow for the modern composer. Ableton’s incredibly powerful audio stretching and time warping features are responsible for many of the sounds we hear in popular music today, and now with the addition of MPE they are going to allow the possibility of more creative human expression. This library contains multiple layered samples in order to achieve a perceived sense of three dimensions of sound. All of the samples are recorded using high quality microphones and preamps in order to achieve the highest fidelity in the audio.

This project aims to enable a collaborative and empowering space for female and non- male identifying persons within the electronic music industry. Through the development of a multi-sub-genre electronic extended play album, female and non-male identifying producers, engineers, artists, and musicians were given the opportunity to collectively work in a judgement- free environment. In an industry that is predominantly male, female producers and artists struggle to have their voices heard. This extended play album consists of five songs. Two songs are based off of previous projects, ideas, and stories. Three songs are collaborative projects between musicians, writers, and producers. Once mastered, this project aims to further the collaboration between female and non-binary people within the music industry by working to promote and eventually release the extended play album. In addition to the extended play album, an album, this project also contains the development of an all-female and non-binary electronic record label. This label will help promote female and non-male electronic artist’s work and educate others on the effects and struggles caused by gender discrimination. The goal of this project is to inspire future female producers in the electronic music industry to continue to learn, create, network, and discover their voice and feel heard.

Keywords: creative project, electronic music, female empowerment, EP, record label, collaboration

The aim of this project is to develop a system that allows biofeedback to be used as a creative musical tool through music generation and sound design. This system uses brainwave data from an electroencephalogram, as well as electromyography muscle activity. This biofeedback is then interpreted by a machine learning neural network which can be trained to classify the user’s psychological or physiological state. This determination will then be used to control a generative Artificial Intelligent MIDI generator or other MIDI Continuous Controller signals. The raw biofeedback, averaged brainwave amplitudes, and Fast Fourier Transform of the EEG signal can also be used to control MIDI generation and Digital Audio Workstation parameters directly, and for synthesizer generation and timbral control.

Keywords: Biofeedback, Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Improvisation, Electroencephalogram

Christian Pardo Bernal’s CE project is an R&B, Latin Trap, and Dancehall infused EP. The EP will consist of six tracks that will be utilizing production techniques and several production elements within the Latin R&B music genre. Through cross-national collaborations with producers and artists from Colombia, the United States, and Europe, this EP will show a unique yet familiar sound to all of the music mentioned above markets and tell six different emotions that say to the story behind the Artist Emoción. Moreover, the languages Spanish and English will be incorporated into each track consistently as bilingual lyrics. The mission to educate his audience will be introduced as one core value of Emocion’s artist Identity. Further, the goal of this project is to learn the best practices of artists and producers in the Latin R&B Genre and showcase an EP that introduces a unique yet familiar sound but also takes the lead in the new area of bilingual Artists like Paloma Mami.

This project presents a new interactive audiovisual game with applications in entertainment, music creation, and education. In the game, dubbed Juke, a gamer and musician team up to guide an animated character to the end of a song without falling. Unity, p5.js, JavaScript, and Python scripts are used to create the game, and original musical compositions are incorporated to engage the users. Unity provides a more comprehensive and versatile framework to run the game, while P5.js allows for quick prototyping and development of visual ideas. P5.js ultimately served as the platform for the game demo in this project. Juke’s vision is four-fold: (1) to inspire others to engage with audio and music on a deeper level; (2) to provide a new way to co-create music in real time; (3) to foster connection between musicians and gamers; and (4) to make learning and practicing an instrument more social and fun.

Keywords: technological application, Unity, p5.js, music education, video game music

This project aims to develop and prototype a groundbreaking interactive musical toy for infants age six months to two years old. Using technology including a single-board computer (SBC), Max/MSP for audio and multimedia programming, and touch and motion sensors, this toy creates an unprecedented interactive musical experience for the infants and a pleasant and unique listening experience for adults. Virtually all musical baby toys currently on the market offer limited interactivity and feature either playback of recorded audio or simple keyboard interfaces. For adults, the music generated by most of these is either uninteresting or quickly becomes annoying. This toy uses custom algorithms and digital sampling to create generative music based on input from touch and motion sensors that is both pleasant and interesting, and allows a profound level of interactivity without requiring any skill or intention from the infant.

Keywords: Musical Toys, Infant Development, Music Technology, Computer Music.

Since the fall of physical sales and the rise of streaming, Musicians and Artists no longer profit in feasible ways and often lose money from the content they create. This project seeks to explore and analyze factors that contribute to this widespread issue within the industry: namely, the high, increasing amount of content required to satisfy audiences since the creation of on- demand interaction with music, and software companies’ current business model that relies on Artists’ continual investment in creative tools, regardless of whether they can afford to. Recognizing that these factors create an impossible environment for artists to adequately participate in the industry, this project aims to explore and provide methods by which Artists can utilize free and open-source coding resources to significantly reduce expenses for the creation of content - by using those resources in the creation of an artistic concept that includes music, visuals, and an interactive component for audiences. While this project is focused primarily on solutions for Artists, it also explores the benefits of an industry model that embraces the community of free and open-sourced software for creative use and focuses on interactive experiences for audiences.

Keywords: Practice-based research, action research, content creation, marketing, creative coding, streaming, context-oriented experience, electronic production, generative design, composition.

This project aimed to create an EP with no commitment to genre consistency, that still retained a consistent artistic voice. This endeavor began with a review of existing works that have a diverse genre composition. This author (The Artist) conducted this review, and then wrote/recorded six songs, with the assistance of a Co-Producer, Engineer, and various session musicians. Each song was treated with complete creative freedom to incorporate any and all desired instrumentation or production techniques. The Artist and Production Team then discerned whether the work had achieved its goal of being stylistically inconsistent, while artistically consistent, or if the songs were too eclectic to work as a unit. They found it had met this goal, by virtue of having the same core creative team behind each song. Hopefully, this project will inspire other artists and producers to push the boundaries of genre, and use extreme variation to their benefit.

This project aims to learn all the aspects involved with the production of a cutting-edge multi-day music event and concert and concurrent music industry conference, both by leading the technical team that organized INOCON and through the collaboration with BV production department, in INOCON and in the Commencement Concert. Ensuring that all audiovisual assets are organized and meet high-quality standards, choosing a streaming platform that offers the best conditions for a high-quality event, and the coordination of the production team during and after the event are the key tasks for this project. This event will be streamed globally and will feature lectures, workshops, multimedia performances and networking opportunities. The production team needs to provide a high-quality virtual experience for each of the mentioned features. It is worth mentioning that this event will provide an opportunity for artists aiming to grow their careers and gain recognition from their performances.

Keywords: live performance, event, concert, production, streaming, inocon

The purpose of this Project is to write, record, produce, mix and master the first EP (Extended Play) released by Williaw (my artistic persona) which includes 5 songs that are influenced by his favorite music genres: House, Dance, EDM, Pop and Reggaeton. The songs arise from collaborating with two singer-songwriters that he met during his journey at Berklee. Apart from offering an auditory experience, this project wants to offer a visual experience that will consist of two lyric videos and a unique experience with the packaging. The release plan of the Extended Play consists on releasing a lead single available on every streaming service, its music video on YouTube and a post on every social media platform announcing the release date of the EP. It will be available to stream and purchase digitally and physically, being released on CD format. The lyric videos will be uploaded to the artist’s YouTube Channel.

Keywords: Extended Play, Lyric Videos, Packaging, CD, Digital Platforms, Electronic Music

The no13 album aims to be a genre and gender bending project. The listener will get transported through different musical genres and styles, each related to texture, colors, through visual and musical aspects. While selecting a combination of choices, the audience will discover many aspects of one genderless character discovering life in a unique way. The process of producing this project started with the tree of possibilities, selecting the music universes that match the different energies that need to be in the project. Then, writing the stories and the tracks, organizing recordings and shootings, go through them. Then mixing, editing, and for the final part, finalizing all visual aspects (especially video effects) to look professional and make sense. It is actually an amazing challenge to be able to reunite all these passions into one big project. It feels necessary to address gender identity, feelings, sexuality, isolation in this album. This project will hopefully inspire many more into creating and developing characters that differs from the social norm, and mainly to think outside the box.

Keywords: Creative project, inclusive, interactive creation, synesthesia, cyber-feminism

The project aims to create a visual ecosystem of analogue devices that will be used by Fortuno (the artistic name of the author) in live performances and during production. Through the development of two MIDI laser controlled devices, the artist will be able to use lasers to control various parameters of the sound. The project also aims to demonstrate Fortuno’s capabilities as a sound designer, an artist, a sound engineer, and a live engineer. Hence, he will use these devices for his electronic production and then utilize the sounds in his set. An Arduino microchip will be used to program the laser response for each device. The laser MIDI controller will be created mainly through the use of programing using C++/Arduino. Each device will be molded separately with different types of casings used. Each device will be tested and then implemented in the sound and image of Fortuno. Ultimately, making him stand out as a unique Dj and musician.

Keywords: MIDI, music sound design, live performance, digital production, electronic production, C++, Microchip, ecosystem.

This project aims to explore the inherent relationship that exists between music and architecture. From the design of concert halls to how architecture can shape itself to sound as a means of reflecting space, this cross-disciplinary approach aims to investigate beyond the interweaving similarities between the two in terms of proportion and underlying rhythms. Apart from the circumscribed aesthetics and acoustics, this project will delve into music and architecture as an immersive experience by interconnecting directly the design of a space with a composition of music and research the experiential quality of inhabiting a space. Through audiovisual elements and 3D modelling tools, each piece of music presented here will have an ‘architectural space’ that has been created specifically from the same elements presented in the music, to not only showcase the final product of making the ‘architecture of music’ but also the process by which it can a spatial experience can be achieved.

Keywords: Architecture, Music, 3D modelling, design, audiovisual.

This project aims to combine modern music with various elements to show the new possibilities of musical storytelling of the world we are living in. Within five tracks of pieces written in different styles and themes breaking and blending among genres into one album, this project tests the boundary of the capacity of music and sound, discussing human and nature, light and darkness, philosophy and logic, time and space, all through her lenses of seeing the world. The album is creates with the artist’s skills of songwriting, digital producing, hybrid recordings, and mixing with sampling and live
recording, immersive audio mixing. Features genres cross contemporary music, electronic music, futurism, minimalism, pop, rock, and various ethnic and world music styles.

Keywords: Contemporary music, Pop, Sampling, Immersive Audio.

The basis of this project is to compose and produce an EP (extended play) of three songs that is an amalgamation of Indian classical and electronic music. Each song is accompanied by a music video. Every song is different poetically and hence, is complemented by music videos that will have
distinct audiovisual concepts/ styles. However, to ensure coherence within the project and maintain synergy, all videos are in black and white. By tackling personal challenges like audio engineering and video production as well as experimenting with music production styles and approaches, the artist wants to push the boundaries of his own skillset and of the genre. The artist (an independent musician) hopes that this project (that is a fusion of Indian classical and electronic music) helps the genre become more mainstream.

Keywords: EP, Indian classical, electronic music, audiovisual, video production

The purpose of this project is to develop an Extended Play (EP) that blends traditional pop elements with contemporary production techniques and utilizes components of life’s environment to record audio samples into multiple songs. Both the musical and artistic direction are closely intertwined to provide a cohesive audio-visual experience that is comparable to that of a concept album. The audio recordings collected are layered with synthesizers in unusual yet intriguing ways in order to stimulate and provide the listener with an unexpected audio experience. Additionally, this project entails collaboration with different parties around the world. This project includes the participation of an American Singer named Lizzy Land, and photographer and visual artist named Valentin Folliet. Moreover, the visual components of the project heavily rely on inventive ways of using camera effects, color, and perspective to provide a finished product that invites the listener to discover the world that the music entails.

Keywords: Electronic music, collaboration, EP

This project seeks to produce a musical universe in the form of an Extended Play (EP) with seven songs and accompanying visuals. The EP is a concept album that is centered on themes of ego and success. This album blends rock, electronic, hip-hop, and storytelling. This project was recorded and mixed in the Berklee Valencia studios. First, a template was made for each part of the story and visual themes, and then the songs were recorded instrument by instrument. All the sounds, visuals, samples and music are original creations by the author of the project Michael Dodson. The author learned how to design sounds and visuals to represent thematic elements in the music. In the future, he will create a live show based around the EP. The show will feature live composing and live visuals.

keywords: creative project, recording, composition

This project aims to address the idea of looking outward to look inward by exploring the artist and the importance of collaboration on multiple levels. This artist series, where the interviewer is also an artist and collaborator, will show the audience the importance of community in music and artistic collaboration, while also being introduced to various artists, music and ideas. As the series progresses, the audience will gain personal insight into the interviewer as an artist, collaborator, songwriter, and producer. The interviewer acts as a story-teller providing a window into this collaborative music community, by taking them along on the collaborative journey with six visiting artists and sharing those experiences through audio and visual media. The goal of this project is to connect musicians of all kinds, inspire collaborations and reveal the collaborative process. The project is continuing in nature to provide new and interesting interactions and music.

Keywords: Collaboration, Community, Interviewer, Story-Teller, Artist, Collaborator, Songwriter, Producer, Process.

This project aims to develop a video game that combines traditional gameplay with progressive music rhythm. In the current video game industry, there are plenty of games that introduce musical elements into traditional gameplay. However, in the majority of those games, it is only achieved in a very basic way, resulting in the music aspect of the game being superficial. This project aims to develop a video game, titled Lateral Zone, that on top of traditional game play, challenges player with complex rhythmic pattern, requiring the player match their inputs with the rhythm of the background music, thus rewards the player with higher capacity for correctly repeating the rhythm. This project includes an original soundtrack with progressive metal-core elements, which is characterized with its complex rhythmic pattern. This project’s aim is to achieve the perfect balance between traditional gameplay and music, and inspire a new sub-genre in music games.

Keyword: Video game, rhythm game, action game, progressive metal-core.

Modern-day music education has changed drastically in the past decade. Globally, music education syllabi have started to include the use of technology in music, covering topics on recording and electronic music production through programs like Ableton Live. There is an increasing need to equip music-tech educators at every level with a set of tools that will aid in teaching various concepts within the software. This project aims to produce a set of customised Max MSP devices specifically tailored to aid educators in teaching the concept of audio effects within Live, hence providing a more standardised set of teaching materials at the disposal of the educator. The Max for Live (M4L) devices were designed with the needs of the students and educators in mind, helping to provide intuitive teaching material that boosts the overall learning experience. Covering such a large array of topics at varying levels of understanding proved to be difficult. Future cooperation and collaboration with Ableton and its Certified Trainer community will prove useful in bringing this project to its fullest potential. It is intended for this project to inspire innovation in music education and further integration of music technology in modern-day music education.

Keywords: music education, music technology, music production, Max MSP, Max for Live, M4L, Ableton Live

The purpose of this project is to establish a sample label called “Duson Audio” that will produce, curate, and distribute audio sample, MIDI, and VST preset packs online. Sample packs have grown in popularity recently, enabling producers to monetize their creativity. Indeed, since 2013, Splice has paid out over $15 million to artists, most of them being unknown producers and sound designers. One self-produced sample pack was curated and released, along with four collaborative projects, as well as two other community building initiatives that result in more content. The packs feature curated and categorized audio samples, MIDI files, and VST presets of a very specific subgenre – benefitting from the musical diversity of Berklee students, enabling them to generate revenue off their musical ideas. Duson proposes a cost-effective way for producers and sound engineer to recycle their unused ideas, musical theory knowledge, and sound design skills into income.

Keywords: Sample pack, MIDI, VST, loops, oneshots, producer, sound designer

This creative project takes live performance methods and techniques often found in electronic music and applies them to genres where it’s not usually seen, namely, soul, funk and gospel music. Further, it incorporates live and prerecorded elements into the performance in an engaging way as a result of social distance measures. In order to execute this project properly, further skill development will have to occur in the artist taking on multiple roles of creative director, playback engineer, producer, music director, and performer. The scope of the project includes becoming fluent in Pro Tools, achieving a live stream setup that works on an individual basis, producing writing and arranging songs, assembling a band or choir, rehearsing, putting on a live performance, and having that be captured and shared in high quality. There is much to gain in learning about what goes into a live performance, recording/streaming of performances, and the identity of the musician themselves. Future iterations include continuing to record performances and upload them to social media as well as apply production and engineering skills to others’ concerts.

This project aims to incorporate collaboration, multi-genre experimentation, and live performance into the final production of an LP to be delivered to Kro Records in Los Angeles, CA in 2021. The LP consists of ten tracks with pre-production starting during a six-month quarantine at the onset of Covid-19 in March of 2020. The goals for this project include: a) incorporating remote and non-remote collaboration among different musicians and styles; b) developing multi-genre representation across ten tracks; c) forming a group in Valencia, Spain to perform and record a “Live from Valencia” version of the LP; d) employing both professional and DIY techniques, and; e) delivering the LP and performance to Kro Records with audiovisuals and electronic remixes. Central to the purview of this project is the overcoming of isolation and separation in order to produce a unique LP that thematically explores these obstacles within the turmoil of 2020.

Keywords: quarantine, collaboration, LP, Kro Records, performance, DIY, audiovisual, production.

This project aims to explore and develop a methodology to effectively work on remote recording sessions. This is especially relevant in current times when we as a society are dealing with the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, typical methods for making music in a studio are not entirely viable. In order to test the suggested methodology, a collection of singles is being produced in collaboration with a group of artists that are responsible for writing all of the music. The selected songs will then enter the phase of production, recording, mixing and mastering. The final masters will be collected and included. The project aims to shed light and reflect on key problems around "remote-record making”, as well and provide solutions and ways on how these difficulties can be addressed. Furthermore, my work can hopefully serve as a basis for future projects regarding this theme.

Keywords: remote recording, music production

This project aims to combine skills from digital media and music production into a cohesive live performance that uses an electronic digital instrument fused with projection mapping to create motion graphic animations and Launchpad lightshows. These two visual mediums will use simultaneous MIDI message triggering in Ableton Live, and Resolume Arena, creating lightshows onto an installation as well as from a multiple Launchpad setup. The scope of the project includes learning new production techniques for music made for the show, as well as building and creating installations for the performance. Projection mapping and VJing are new skills that will help further augment the performance and act as the bridge between multimedia prowess and music. This project will explore new interactivity with sound and visuals and bring awareness to the modern EDI (Electronic Digital Instrument) musician.

Keywords: electronic digital instrument, EDI, projection mapping, MIDI mapping, installation performance, multimedia performance, launchpad lights

This project seeks to lay the foundations for a career in online content creation. Throughout the course of the coming year, each week will result in two YouTube videos related to music production, songwriting, and audio engineering. In addition to the main YouTube channel, an instagram, website, and other social media platforms will be created to direct traffic towards the content. By the end of the program, this project seeks to fulfill all requirements for monetization on YouTube, earn 1,000 subscribers, and produce a moderate monthly income stream. This paper describes the journey through developing an online content creation platform, as well as the challenges and future prospects for said platform. This paper will outline the struggles with content optimization, content scalability, personal health and mental development through the lense of content creation.

Keywords: Content Creation, YouTube, Digital Media, Electronic Production, Hybrid Recording, Microphones

The aim of this project is to create an interactive space in which the audience can partake in an artistic experience, as well as immerse themselves in the creative process of composing music. This project is important in creating a link between multiple artistic realms, with the goal being to have an installation that can function as both an interactive drawing experience, and for participants to further understand the link between musical keys signatures and their effect on colour interpretations. The scope of the project includes the creation of a circuit that contains a collection of sensors that can be programmed with a range of keys signatures that can correlate with different colours in the colour wheel, thereby delivering an interactive sound art installation. Using light-dependent resistors (LDR’s) set up in a circuit with an Arduino Leonardo, light is detected and sent to Max/MSP; allowing both music and colour to be produced when drawing within the air, directed at the camera. Undertaking this project, has also created a learning curve in how to provide an interactive experience whilst also maintaining social distancing. The aim is that this will be beneficial to installations that may take place in the future.

Keywords: Sound installation, light, interactive, sensor technology, artwork

This project aims to revitalize vintage recording techniques in the contemporary hybrid model of music production. Modern popular music has become increasingly electronic. While the current trend is to do everything “in the box”, this project seeks to find the best balance between analog and digital. Two full length albums will be recorded and mixed focusing on blending old and new. The coloration of tape machines, analog consoles, and vintage outboard gear will collide with modern immersive audio techniques and digital editing within ProTools and Ableton Live. The first album is a 13 song collection of jazz fusion compositions performed live in studio with the MarcO Poingt Trio and was recorded on a vintage Neve console. The second album is a 9 song psychedelic rock odyssey under the name Cloudgazer, which was initially mixed in the box but finalized through a 24 track tape machine, SSL console, and various hardware compressors. The author performed on, engineered, and mixed both albums and also produced one music video to accompany one song on the Cloudgazer album. Hopefully this project will inspire fellow musicians to look back in time to find new inspiration.

Keywords: Two Albums, Analog Recording, Tape, Console

The culminating experience is based in exploring in depth the world of recording engineering and its possibilities to build an innovative bundle (sample pack) that showcases Colombian culture. The main idea behind the bundle musical wise: Provide tools to beat makers and producers that are unique and interesting but that also showcase the beauty and cultural traditions of Colombia. Engineering wise is for it to be very intuitive and that any person new or experienced in beatmaking can make good use of it. Designed to be a very musical pack, the samples will work with each other, this with the purpose of making the creation process more effective without losing the musicality. The pack will be divided in the following categories: One Shots, Loops, Kontakt Instruments, digital synthesizer presets and an audio effect rack. This way it would be possible to play the instruments on all the octaves of your MIDI Keyboard and to change certain dynamic and modulation parameters to taste. After the release, an EP will be composed using the bundle, featuring talents from Berklee in an attempt to promote collectivity during these COVID- 19 times.

Though many applications for microtonality exist, few allow for the flexible changing of systems of microtonality during live performance. This project implements the M.A.F. Machine, a hardware controller implementation designed to facilitate live performance in arbitrary, and changing, systems of equal temperament. The hardware is a 3D-printed casing containing circuitry programmed to detect how many plastic blocks, or “keys,” have been placed in a single octave of the unit. This data is then sent to the software application using MIDI retuning algorithms, and the software application uses the information about which “keys” are in which slots to determine the system of equal temperament. Finally, the project explores compositional techniques and systems of notation for microtonality, culminating in the composition and performance of original music using this instrument along with percussion, fretless instruments, and other instruments that are compatible with microtonality.

Keywords: microtonality, equal division of octave, interface design, hardware development

The objective of this project is to create an album that gives voice to the non-males in a male dominated genre like pop-punk or punk-hip hop. Bringing a female voice to this style can give a new perspective to this kind of music. This album will include collaborations with some Berklee students, mainly specialized in voice and guitar. The author will study the referenced artists of this genre of music, and study their styles and how they/their team produce. All this process will be elaborated by non-males exclusively, one of the objectives is to demonstrate that non-males can also work with these music genres. This album will be delivered in digital format and attaching all the process and decisions in written form. This could be an opportunity to explore a new sound.

Keywords: Rock, Alternative, EP, Pop-Punk, Non-Male.

The purpose of this project is to develop an album where the author will mainly play the role of a music producer for the artist Jesús Pineda, from composition and arrangement, to mixing and mastering. The main objective of this project is for the author to gain experience as a music producer, as well as to provide portfolio content of songs the author has produced. The project consists of eight songs where the artist Jesús Pineda and the author, producer William Nieves (Billy Nieves), will collaborate from start to finish, combining elements of traditionally acoustic music styles like Latin American music with modern electronic production in terms of arrangement, instrumentation, and overall sonic quality.

Keywords: Portfolio, collaborative project, traditionally acoustic music, electronic production.

This project was created to to showcase the psychology behind the artist’s music and in particular, the sounds used to create the EP using custom synth presets, custom wavetables and a collection of custom high quality processed sample recordings. This project was designed to be focused on sound design to achieve unique sounds that fit the requirements of the 4 track EP which will be created using custom sounds specifically. The main creative idea behind this project was derived from the concept of “Quantum Entanglement”from the field of Quantum Physics which is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a pair or group of particles is generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance. The artist being from an Indian Classical Music background tends to inculcate rhythms and melodies from the music form blending with electronic sound elements. This project thrives solely on the kind and variety of sounds applied into complex rhythmic structures and melodies to make Experimental Indie-Electronic tracks which simply explain the idea of Quantum Entanglement by depicting the uniqueness of all the sounds which may seem far from each other but still come together to form renditions which are one in themselves and hold in unity.

Keywords: EP, Quantum Entanglement, Indian Classical Music, Experimental Indie-Electronic Music, Sound Design

This artistic research project is an audio engineering, sound design, and electronic music production portfolio which explores the social, cultural, and political potential for furthering traditional and folk music styles through creative music production techniques and spaces. This topic is explored through a series of collaborations with folk musicians around the world, resulting in a collection of acoustic music recordings, and an EP of ambient electronic music. A sound design library and educational content component are created to accompany each recording. This project seeks to define new paradigms for producing folk music styles and challenges the dichotomy of acoustic and electronic music.

Keywords: Folk Music, Electronic Music, Audio Engineering, Sound Design, folklore, folk- music, identity, cultural dialog

This project would not have been possible without the help of my supervisors Frederick P. Warnecke and Marta Verde Baqueiro. Their support and encouragement was paramount to the completion of this project. I would also like to thank Pablo Munguia and Elysha Zaide whose critique and advice have been extremely useful throughout the project duration. I am also extremely grateful to Krisźtian Hofstadter who has always encouraged me to pursue my ambitions regardless of their complexity. I would like to express my loving gratefulness to my parents and my wife for understanding my need to self-isolate for hours long before COVID-19 enforced that upon us. I would also like to thank my neighbours for not calling the cops on me while I carried on with my experiments in sound.

For this project, Brigitte developed her artistic voice and experimented with incorporating electronic elements into her original acoustic singer-songwriter music. She wanted to experiment with combining acoustic and electronic sounds since prior to her year at Berklee she had used almost exclusively utilized acoustic sounds. During the project, Brigitte experimented with different production approaches, striving to incorporate new techniques and software into her creative process. Some of the techniques she experimented with include adding MIDI, sound design and using Ableton Live as a compositional tool. By the end of this process she composed and recorded an EP. Brigitte wanted to experiment with combining these two genres because she appreciates when producers are able to combine a singer-songwriter style with an electronic production. Many times this is achieved through remixes or collaborations, but Brigitte wanted to experiment with doing this herself as part of the original composition.

This work is the result of recording and mixing series of live studio sessions aiming for an offbeat sounding record compilation by establishing a limited use of microphone types and the implementation of immersive audio technologies. The project represents a challenge due to its unconventional technical and stylistic approach, and pretends to deliver authentic music material that reflects current expressions from Berklee Valencia artists. In order to achieve this, different elements and technical decisions were previously taken into consideration, and a high level of importance has been given to the music and the performance.

The author, a recording artist from New Jersey, created a portfolio of original music that allowed him to explore songwriting, performing, producing, and engineering in various musical genres: pop funk, electronic pop, rap, and contemporary musical theatre. The purpose of the project was to focus the artist’s eclectic taste and discover his unique voice while allowing him to practice the technical and creative skills that the modern recording industry requires. The music created explored the interplay of mental health and LGBTQ+ issues, specifically illustrating the upbringing of Nicolosi as a gay man in the United States and his history with anxiety and depression. After nearly a year of attempting to find his ideal musical style in order create a cohesive body of work, Nicolosi learned that he didn’t have to commit to any particular genre as long as he stayed authentic to himself.

The nature of the author’s culminating experience is a collaborative EP titled “Journey”. Journey includes 5 songs that draw inspiration from different musical genres which are sometimes blended seamlessly. Collaborations include peers from Berklee Valencia, and other artists/musicians from the United States. The author will also produce a music video for his song “Euphoria”. This project aims to rebrand the author and put everything learned throughout the last 10 years by creating a portfolio as an Artist/Producer/Engineer.

Keywords: Collaborative EP, Different Musical Genres, Journey, Music Video, Producer, Engineer, Artist, Rebrand.

This project, titled Salt and Sand, is il Rosso’s visual Extended Play featuring musical and visual exploration of the stages of grief and forces of nature. Each stage of the Kubler-Ross Model of Grief, which has recently been shown to represent the stages of grief accurately (but not necessarily in order), is represented by a different song and corresponding visuals. The EP features natural phenomenon and synthetic elements as musical and visual themes. Each song was written and arranged at the different stages of the end of a long-term relationship, and thus contain a raw element that can then be explored and defined artistically. Each of the five songs musically represent one of the stages of the Kubler-Ross model, and the visual elements are looping animations – one for each of the five songs - that synchronize with the beat and follow the same themes.

Keywords: Grief, EP, Creative Project, Audio, Visual

This Culminating Experience Project is a portfolio demonstrating a large corpus of video content created and recorded for collaborative projects, work for hire, and any extracurricular activities that were taken up during the 2019–2020 school year at Berklee Valencia. The portfolio consists of sixteen (16) major projects the author either recorded or recorded and edited over the course of December 2019 – February 2020. The portfolio will ultimately be presented in an online only format on the video service Vimeo both as a single “megamix” video reel, as well as individual videos for each completed project.

Keywords: audio-visual, videography, mixing, engineering.

In order to be a leader in the field, the one needs to dedicate some time to cultivating the skills, connections, and behaviors exhibited by the leaders in the music industry. In order to accomplish this, the author positioned himself to work on original compositions and collaborations that would enhance his pre-existing skillset. Throughout the year, this project took many forms as a result of a number of factors – changing interests, available resources, and the global pandemic that affected every single person in 2020. The author compiled the best of those compositions into a portfolio that highlights the strong suits of his skillset.

This project combines three areas of interest that Delia Joyce grew up around — mixed media art, music, and social movements. It will be an EP of five original songs, woven together through watercolor visuals and abstract video. Each song will tell a different story. Themes of mental health, sexuality, intersectionality, social media, body image, sexual assault, and nature will weave throughout the entire EP. Delia’s objective for this project is to tell difficult and colorful stories from her own life in a way that is accessible to a diverse audience and connect those folks who share some of the same experiences.

Key Words: Storytelling, dream-folk, technology, nature, watercolor

This portfolio displays the processes of understanding basics of live sound through the personal experiences of a novice technician. Through observing how live sound is conducted within a male-dominated field, this project caters to marginalized audiences eager to learn live sound reinforcement with limited resources. With individual research, and partial supervision under the Berklee Production Team (BPT), the objectives presented explore the use of mixing boards, signal flow, set-up and more. This knowledge will be utilized by showcasing a live sound vlog series that includes 4-6 beginner tutorials, providing accessible knowledge to a diverse target market typically under-served within this field. A lack of live sound experience, learning terminology, equipment, and other crucial knowledge make it extremely challenging from a beginner's standpoint. However, a well-executed plan of both hands-on and technical application, engages other beginners to freely practice live sound engineering, while also supporting, and representing minorities within the field.

Keywords: live sound engineer, live mixing, live sound, sound reinforcement, women of color in live sound

This project aims to develop an interactive video game, drawing primarily on sound and music to guide the player through. Inspired by the 2012 indie adventure game Journey, the music of Horizon will be an integral part based on the players’ movement and actions. As they walk through, they’ll be given the task to solve a puzzle by following the music cues (similar to the ‘hot and cold game’). The game will be developed in Unity, using audio source components and scripts done in the programming language C#. Arguments in C# will be determined by the players' proximity to specific totems/items. The goal is to make a simple game more adaptive and unique to players, inspiring more creative game mechanics to be added in future releases and beyond (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Immersive (360) Video, etc).

For this project, the artist Gan Xu made the first personal EP with 5 tracks including four full-length tracks and an outro. The purpose of this EP was to express the artist’s emotion and stories throughout this year in Spain, with its main theme of love, pain and growth. The genres focused on R&B, Soul, and Ballad. This EP would also be a brand new chapter and meaningful journey for the artist Gan Xu transforming from a physicist to a musician.

Keywords: R&B, Soul, Ballad, 90s, creative project, EP.

This Culminating Experience project will be based on an inclusive portfolio aimed to explore the world of remote engineering, with a specific focus on everything entailed in adapting and offering high quality services to clients remotely. The project has been developed over the course of three months and inspired by the new worldwide pandemic induced lockdown, and it focuses on the creation of various types of services, all offered fully remotely. These services include: educational content, remotely controlled recording sessions, remote attendance mastering sessions, consulting and practical application in optimizing virtual concerts, and live streams for social media platforms. The deliverables will include a variety of video and audio content to demonstrate parts of the services of the adaptable audio engineer during the times of a worldwide pandemic.

This project aims at creating music based on the theme of Hong Kong. The author will use four Chinese music elements: instruments, performance techniques, emotional expressions, and flexibility of Chinese music instruments adapting to different music genres to create an EP that intends to talk about the history of Hong Kong, emotional changes, freedom, and hope. Four elements will all appear in each song. Four songs will be presented in the EP based on the four points of Hong Kong. By taking the advantages of technology in recording and social media platforms, Chinese music can be heard widely in the world. The EP will be focusing on using GuZheng to present by using audio visual materials, remixes, improvisation, and collaboration. The purpose of this EP is twofold: to break the stereotypes of Chinese music and to allow more people to know about the beauty of Chinese music.

Keywords: Chinese music, Chinese music elements, EP, electronic music, Hong Kong, protest, GuZheng

The overall goal for this project is to present an electronic music EP created from original sounds in the form of an audio-visual performance. The EP and performance, along with a website that includes a portfolio and sample packs, will reinforce the brand of the artist, “beanboi.” The sound design and music creation process strive to break common habits of mindless, improvised creation within a Digital Audio Workstation by providing limitations and an original concept. By incorporating unorthodox recording techniques, creative studio engineering, and reducing time spent solely in a DAW, this project aims to push the boundaries of sound design, sound recording, and sound manipulation. The EP will be performed live with synchronized visuals that match the style of music. This project will display advanced skills in engineering and sound design, provide new and interesting audio samples to artists and producers, and incorporate the production of an engaging performance.

Keywords: sound design, mixing, exponential mixing, electronic production, electronic, live performance, AV, audiovisual, recording, engineering, experimental, audio-visual, EP, sample pack, website, branding, artist, portfolio

5/23 is an extended play album (EP) that tells a compelling and relatable story of self- realization through heart break, addiction, debt and love. The lyrical subject matter is drawn from life changing personal experiences from the protagonist’s life. Musical elements of the EP are aesthetically contemporary and innovative in their presentation, style, and storytelling. This project is a means to process and express life changing events that led the protagonist to where he is today. The EP is roughly 10 minutes in length, with four songs that serve as acts in the overall storyline.

Keywords: EP, songwriting, hybrid recording methods, music production, storytelling, contemporary R&B, pop, electronic music.

This project from the artist is a springboard into the professional world of music and an establishment of a tangible online presence that is both professional and engaging, as well as provide a complete livestreamed concert, via YouTube Premier, in addition to the artists first EP release. By using a multitude of different platforms within the digital world, the artist has created a solid network for his work to be displayed and enjoyed by a growing fanbase, while using the concert to launch all channels. Despite various obstacles, the artist has been able to organize, curate and release content to the public through outlets such as Instagram and YouTube, as well as a website for a central hub. This project is perfect for the artist as it can always continue to grow.

Keywords: Instagram Live, YouTube Digital World, EP Release

This project aims to develop a visual EP that will position the creator as a writer, musician, music producer, video producer, engineer & programmer. Through the process of pre- production, production, mixing and creating visuals, a project titled Roaring 20s will be developed that will innovate and push the creative boundaries within the creator. The EP will consist of four songs that will carry a theme, and originally were going to have a visual cohesive story, but due to unforeseen circumstances, evolved to accompanying lyric videos that illustrate and evoke the emotions each song is conveying. The author comes from a background of home studio audiovisuals. Therefore, this project aims to elevate the author’s skills with the goal of developing professional audiovisual production. This will be accomplished through the use of studio knowledge and etiquette applying songwriting, production, engineering and video production/editing learned throughout the year at Berklee College of Music.

As an upcoming Music Producer, Artist and DJ, the branding and establishment of Kaneda in the music industry is the main focus from music creation, content and launch. This is presented through online set of calling cards and demo reels that will be put together which original music content that presents work as an artists, producer and DJ. The demo reels will include the ‘musical’ branding of the artists and the brand development through the name ‘Kaneda’ and the music genres that the producer creates as the calling cards will be set up through social media platforms and music streaming websites.

Keywords: producer, artist, DJ

This project aims to develop a signature style and a unique voice of the engineer as a working professional in the industry. The aim of this project is to mix and master several pieces of musical performances of different styles and genres. The engineer will explore different miking and post production techniques to make the artist’s vision a reality.

Modern music production has become limitless in the digital domain. From pre- production to final delivery, the entire process can be completed with a laptop computer, allowing one to simultaneously fulfill the roles of songwriter, performer, producer, mixer, and mastering engineer. Likewise, two overarching “hard and fast” music production practices have emerged: a traditional approach, where subtasks are delegated to appropriate personnel for completion; and an interdisciplinary approach, where production is completed entirely by one individual. The following thesis posits the existence of a third practice, where tasks are delegated according to the unique artistic and technical requirements of a project. This practice plays to the strengths of the core production team, whilst utilizing additional creatives to supplement weaknesses. The following work aims to characterize, demonstrate, and evaluate this practice pertaining to quality, breadth, and adaptability.

Keywords: contemporary music production, audio engineering, interdisciplinary teamwork, methodologies/ontologies of music production

Cosmic Consciousness is an audio-visual performance exploring the philosophical subject of mortality and whether our consciousness survives bodily death. The artist’s interpretation of this paradigm is on its way to the unfolding of the spirit and the self- revelation of divinity in all things. The intention of this project is to provide the audience with a multisensory experience that will resonate on a more expansive level. The performance consists of 3 songs with the inclusion of granular vocal processing as the protagonist giving depth to the abstract visual narrative. Cosmic Consciousness combines ethereal soundscapes through pads and synthesizers combined with electronic and polyrhythmic percussion. The artist hopes her work will inspire and motivate others to actuate their freedom of expression. One of the biggest challenges during this process was pushing limited knowledge on video editing and animation with a short timeline and budget constraints while still representing each visual aspect accurately.

Keywords: audio-visual, interactive art, abstract, vocal processing, philosophical project

This project is to further develop abilities as a music producer, primarily through expanding upon skills in writing, arranging, and sound design. I utilized my knowledge of brass instruments to create an EP (extended play record) and arrangement portfolio that combines previous understanding of music with the new knowledge gained through Berklee’s music technology, production, and innovation program. This was achieved this by utilizing knowledge of music theory and its foundational aspects, combined with newfound experience, applications, and techniques at Berklee to tell other people’s stories as well as a story of brass and its corresponding colors.

Keywords: brass, EP, collaborative arrangements

The goal of this project is to create a four song audio visual EP that investigates the importance and influence of close relationships with people, on an individual and how they affect their mental health. The concept is based on four things you can do have a thriving relationship. The significance of the project is to throw light on the individualist cultures, behaviour and how it is influencing the world. The idea will be conveyed using four animation sequences which are the four songs of the EP.

Keywords: audio visual animation, relationships, EP

This three-movement composition combines live-recorded instruments with digital synthesizers in a manner that reflects the individual sections of a symphonic orchestra. Additionally, the goal of this work is to defy any pre-existing genre, in a manner that draws on various influences to create something entirely unique. The combination of the live rhythm section and the synthesized orchestra allows for more creative sonic possibilities than a pure live recording. Musically, the work combines highly expressive improvisation with various amounts of atonality and quartal harmony. Stylistically, it pulls influence from jazz, contemporary classical, and hip-hop/neo-soul.

This Culminating Experience project is a collaboration with the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, where people donate mundane objects from their previous relationships in order to make peace with the past and tell their story. ‘A Broken Record’ is an album of original of music and visual compositions inspired by the objects in the Museum’s collection. This album will take the form of an interactive, user-defined audio- visual experience where each listener chooses their own unique adventure through the album depending on their answers to a series of yes/no questions relating to their own experience of love and loss. Each answer presents the listener with a different digital audio-visual experience where they hear a song and view a lyric video featuring the object from which the song drew its inspiration. Listeners will only interact with the songs and stories that resemble previous relationships they have had, resulting in a personalised heartbreak soundtrack.

Keywords: Broken relationships, collaborative project, original music, choose your own adventure album

Women are an overwhelming minority in music technology university programs throughout the globe and are subject to various forms of gender discrimination and harassment both inside and outside of the classroom. Improving the educational experience of these women is paramount, and distinct strategies can be employed to do so. One strategy is to provide these women with the opportunity to study in all-female learning environments. This study surveyed participants in an extracurricular music technology training program designed for female- identifying university students, and it found clear benefits to this learning environment including increased confidence and accelerated learning. Establishing and supporting this type of programming at the university level will improve educational outcomes for these women and better prepare them for successful careers in music technology.

The purpose of this project is to create a well-crafted animation that could then be used as music videos, live performances, surround sound experiences and installations. The theme of the project is space and more specifically the evolution of the universe, starting from nothingness and leading to the creation of human life. The timeline of the evolution of the Big Bang serves as the chronology for this project, and the science behind it as the main source of inspiration for all the creative content that was produced. The main challenge of the project was to create an interesting evolution in the music and visuals, all while tying aspects of the story to both sound and image. Through this experience was incorporated the art of sound design, instrumental composition, animation and video production. This project will hopefully serve as an inspiration to future students and any musician interested in audio-visual experiences.

The Culminating Experience (CE) project will illustrate the creative/innovative abilities of the Master student, Melissa Silla, whose moniker is Sílla, as a versatile artist in music and technology. Through the creation of original sound design, graphic design, and computer/mobile application design, this project is in the form of an extended play (EP) and an online sound design portfolio website. To construct the EP, original recordings, varying from vocal sounds to nature/outdoor sounds have been used, utilizing new software and synthesizers. For the online portfolio, a user friendly/simplistic interface design has been constructed that will serve as a virtual portfolio, where users will be able to locate the artist’s music/video projects, contact information, and other creative projects. It is with aspiration that this project will aid in cultivating the artist’s personal brand and will serve as their music/technology portfolio.

Keywords: music, technology, instrumentation, sound design, personal brand, production.

The objective of this project was to explore the different kinds of traditional, modern, and progressive Valencian music. This was done in an educative, informative, yet entertaining way, via a pilot episode. This was executed by filming according to the documentary format. The audience will see venues, local entertainment areas, and have an opportunity to watch the selection of the local talent interviewed. As such, the project will be a pitched series idea for the purpose of educating, informing, and entertaining an audience about a variety of music from around the world, which the average audience member may have never had a chance to see, and enjoy.

The purpose of ‘Tales of the Lost Worlds: An Immersive Audio Approach to Storytelling’ is to compile an online immersive audio portfolio of three short stories made for YouTube and Facebook. The material is a mixture of pre-existing and new audio and visuals, each focused on an original story. The motivation behind this research is to consolidate a storytelling approach utilizing immersive audio to enrich the experience of a surrealistic world. A variety of techniques and plugins have been researched in order to mix ambisonics. The result is a diverse and coherent portfolio that displays competence in immersive mixing and a future of captivating storytelling.

Keywords: creative project, portfolio, immersive audio, binaural, storytelling.

The purpose of this project was to create and produce the first album for the author’s music and find her artistic style and uniqueness through the process. The concept of it is oriented to celebrate human emotions, arts, and earth, as well as addressing climate change issues in the journey to create awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution because this is one of the artist’s main concerns. The first step was the production of eight songs, each named after one element of nature, followed by the design of the cover art. For the sound design and style, this album mixes tropical beach vibes, warm rhythms, fun pop melodies and electronic synths mixed with organic sounds recorded using recycled waste for example plastic and glass. The author hopes this album will deliver a message of wellness and inspire people to take action against global warming through small changes in their daily life.

“Complicated” is a pop album produced with genre fluidity in mind. The album provides a window into the artist’s psyche, comprised of seven songs exploring concepts such as love, fantasy, identity and self-doubt. The ultimate goal of the album was the production, mix, and master of a pop album that retains a central and unquestionable identity, while also exploring a number of genres and influences. The album was composed and produced in Ableton, and then mixed and mastered using Pro Tools. The album will be released under Berklee label Disrupcion’s subsidiary imprint – TALA records. The biggest challenge in producing the album was attempting to create a web that centered the different music throughout the album, and allowed the songs to be reminiscent of one another, while also taking risks in the explorations of musical style.

This project consists of a live audiovisual performance inspired in astronomy, using analog modular synthesizers and sounds that correspond to astronomical spectra captured in Chile by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio-telescope, converted into a sound pattern by previous project ALMA Sounds, which results are opened to the community for free artistic use. For the purpose of driving the audio of astronomical signals, a code-based music performance software is utilized, loaded into a dedicated small single-board computer which counts as another element of the modular synthesis setup. The idea is to formally relate the author’s two professional paths: astronomical instrumentation and music production. As astronomy and related images are in the public domain, one key aspect is being able to develop visual content that does not feel overused or predictable to the audience. The aim is to show this ancient science from a fresh but still rigorous perspective.

Keywords: analog, astronomy, audiovisual, digital, real-time, sound, synthesizer, telescope.

This culminating experience project is to create a real-time interactive intermedia composition oriented by custom sensor-based balloon instruments. The impulse of creating this project stems from the creator’s passion for creating art music that features a data-driven instrument, namely the balloon in this case. Through the process of creating this project, the composer strived to organically project her emotional journey in narrative and creative methodology with visual content, sonic composition, instrument design and performance. The ultimate objective through this project is to dedicate and contribute to the massive library of electroacoustic and art music.

Keywords: data-driven instruments, audio visualization, electroacoustic music, intermedia composition, multimedia composition, real-time performance

This project is an original cross-cultural music and visual performance. Graduate student Ryan Vazquez plans to blend the genres of Reggae, Latin, and Electronica, spanning a variety of styles from each throughout history to create a modern and eclectic fusion sound. By conducting research on the various aspects of these genres over time, including rhythm, instrumentation, and cultural influence, Ryan narrows down the similarities between them in order to blend them, and accent their differences to give contrast. He uses a system where he can create, loop, layer, mix, and manipulate sound and video in real time with the combination of a keyboard, digital vocoder, Theremin, turntable, and digital controller. Using his knowledge from class along with research, innovation, and practice, he expands his capabilities as a performer using sound, video, and lighting that combines Reggae, Latin, and Electronic music to create a captivating, and new audio/visual musical experience.

Keywords: Reggae, Latin, Electronica, genres, history, audio/visual musical experience.

This culminating experience serves to captivate the audience by taking them on a musical journey by using the real-life experiences of the author and conveying them into a musical domain, allowing listeners to feel the emotions that the author felt. The album itself consists of 11 original songs that are very versatile and unique, but maintain a consistent theme. The genre of the album is Alternative R&B with a splash of Hip-Hop, as the artists look to use a modern and original style of musical harmony to translate these experiences to the audience. The album was produced entirely by the author, but the singing and songwriting was done by one of the authors’ close friends who offered her voice to help bring the project to life. The research consists of a wide variety of artists of different musical styles who have graced the world with meaningful music and visuals. The author has studied how these artists have reached success musically through lyricism, emotional significance in music, and unique visuals that have contributed to a forever evolving industry, as he wishes to touch the listeners on a deeper level than just hearing.

Masculine pre-eminence is an observable reality in various working environments. One of these is the music industry. This project is created to take over the role as a woman working as an engineer, electronic music producer and music video maker. A portfolio of various projects with acoustic and electronic elements will be presented to show the skills as an artist, engineer and producer. Eleven songs were recorded, mixed and produced to develop skills in a wide area. Throughout the process, knowledge such as mixing and producing were broadened. Hopefully this project will be an exemplar for women in the music industry to be encouraged to be able to accomplish many different tasks in a male dominated field.

The objective of this project is to construct an environment for creative collaborations amongst future industry leaders across gender, culture and genre, to close the representational gap found in mainstream media. The project’s constituent parts are a songwriting retreat, a web application, a massive collaboration music video, and an EP, all as diversity driven collaborations. All four projects will engender cross-pollination of diverse groups of creatives to cultivate innovative collaborations. By the end of this process, the author will have a clear idea of how to better represent second generation
Asians in mainstream music and entertainment through guiding collaborations with individual backgrounds.

Keywords: third culture kid in music, creative collaboration, cross medium, second generation Asians, Asians in media

The purpose of this project is to compose, record and produce an extended play (EP) of six songs influenced by psymbient electronic music and experimental art rock music that blends the earthy sound of analog world and digital ambient tones, inspired by some of the life changing experiences that motivated the author to leave his eight year corporate job to pursue his passion for music. The EP will musically reflect the authors struggle with depression and anxiety during the transition phase and how he overcame it. On some of the songs the author aims to use a different approach where he composes the instrumentation completely and get his collaborators to write and compose vocals over it. Coming from a rock and metal music background, the author aims to improve his skills in the production of electronic music, analog synthesis , sound design, hybrid recording and stereo mixing with this creative project and aims to find his artist identity through the process.

Keywords: Electronic music, Extended play, Composition, hybrid-recording, analog synthesis, Creative sound design.

The Culminating Experience (CE) documented in this report concerns the development of a music studio booking platform for the East African market. The service, called tempo, seeks to connect musicians with existing studio resources. The project draws from the on-demand model that steers away from asset proprietorship. Consequently, tempo’s platform saves potential customers from having to purchase the expensive hardware and related resources that they may need to invest in their craft. Within the confines of the CE, the most important decision made was to design tempo as a website and build a prototype of the booking interface to run on web browsers. As the first of its kind in East Africa, tempo seeks to advance the nexus of music,
technology and innovation in the region. The project was advised by Pablo Munguía, Music Production, Technology & Innovation Programme Director, Berklee College of Music, Valencia.

Keywords: studio booking, website, East Africa.

In the year 2020,Covid 19 came as a shock as the entire world was in a lockdown. Several places were hit really hard with the virus, leaving many people infected and unfortunately, many lost their lives as well. This project aims to convey the journey that the artist Sparsh Narang experienced through the creation of an extended play (EP) called Born In Quarantine,consisting of Electronic, glitchy, atonal and ambient elements along with visuals for each track, that take you through a journey of emotions and makes you accept the reality of this challenging times.

Keywords: extended play, Covid -19, electronic music, Music production, Electronic music production, Audio Visual, Reactive visuals, Atonal, Ambient, Glitch

This Culminating Experience (CE) Project consists of writing, recording and producing a full-length album during the course of study of the MPTI program, along with preparing it for digital launch. The album includes 8 songs, in the style of indie-electronic pop. The instrumentation includes: vocals, electric/ambient guitar, electric bass combined with electronic subs, synths, drums, live percussion, and electronic beat arrangements mostly composed by Tati Rabell (singer-songwriter-producer), with featured collaborators. All live instruments were recorded in the Berklee Valencia studios, and all
electronic compositions have been created from scratch as part of the MPTI course of study. The album will be launched as a digital LP on all online platforms, and subsequently each single will have its own video launch each month thereafter, combining original art, reactive visuals, and performance recordings. This album additionally launches Tati Rabell’s rebrand as “Rabellion”, her new indie-electronic project.

This project aimed to diversify the stylistic output of the artistic moniker Chakram under his burgeoning umbrella production company Runthika Creative Collective. Previously, this moniker focused on composing abstract and experimental music for the films also released under this moniker. Moving forward, this portfolio will grow to incorporate produced music from a lyrically driven EP to expand the range of audiences this moniker’s work appeals to, examples from the upcoming film, In Search of Sumitra, entitled ‘Mirror Image Neurons’ and ‘Elevator to the Dream Plane,’ a vocal single ‘Turtles,’ as well as a commissioned production ‘Evolution’ for Emily Shek, MPTI 2020. While this portfolio will retain the textural emphasis associated with previous work, its focus is to bridge the worlds of experimentalism and pop and join these often disparately categorized genres and divided audiences. Furthermore, at the crossroads of this unification, there will be a liminal space for cinephile audiences to explore the fringes of pop, while simultaneously introducing casual music listeners to accessible, yet uncanny reimaginations of lyrically driven content. Innovation occurs at the interdisciplinary confluence of two seemingly unrelated concepts, marrying pop with experimentalism is essential for the growth of both genres. This juxtaposition softens formulaic songwriting structures while utilizing the framework of established structures to allow for the diaspora of alternative music to new audiences. Ultimately, this portfolio contains a range of pieces that expand this producer’s musical skills and repertoire to unexplored territories with the challenge to package challenging and fringe artistic visions within an invitation to potential new audiences.

Keywords : Alternative Pop, Experimental Music, Lyrical Music, Fusion Music

The purpose of this Culminating Experience (CE) project is to address the climate crisis by creating an immersive Audio-Visual presentation. The first step is to carry out background research on the causes and effects of global warming, such as the melting of glaciers and rising sea level. Then, the creative process consists of video capturing known environments (i.e., seaside, mountains), editing and adding effects to the videos to give an abstract depiction of the alterations that are happening daily to our ecosystem, and composing music to reflect those visuals. The project is delivered as two main music videos, and four short animations, with the aim to raise awareness about the emergency and inspire spectators to take action.

Keywords: Audio-Visual, climate crisis, research, creative process, immersive music.

Unrequited devotion has many women underrepresented in the Haitian Music Industry (HMI). Blending new-age African rhythms with melodic Compas styles, this project focuses on a 6-track debut album for artistic alter ego: Widdo named Venom. Showcasing talented efforts of a new-age artist, Haitian Kompa and R&B styles will empower women in the HMI; inspiring the rising generation. With the ongoing political crisis and social unrest in Haiti, part of the EP will shed light on its never-ending protests allowing its people to have a voice. Overall, it showcases Widline’s ability to produce, songwrite, and be an artist. Using electronic music with innovation by uniting different styles and technological skills. This will build Widline’s portfolio, allowing her to apply the knowledge she’s attained from her undergraduate journey to her tenure at Berklee Valencia maters.

This CE project consists of a songwriting portfolio made up of twenty individually written and co-written pieces. These songs range between a number of different styles of music including pop, folk, indie-pop, and indie-rock. Their production styles similarly range from purely acoustic performances to fully in-the-box productions, making use of professional studio recording equipment as well as at-home production techniques. Each initial songwriting session lasted approximately two hours, and final production was performed within Ableton Live and Pro Tools. The development of these pieces has been accompanied by research concerning the best practices for songwriting, the state of the songwriting industry, as well as new opportunities for songwriters to compete in the current marketplace. This thesis should serve as a guideline to other songwriters interested in practicing the craft at a professional level.

Keywords: songwriting, music portfolio, sync, production music, creative project

While hip hop music is considerably one of the most popular music genres in the United States, the hip-hop industry in China is only slowly merging to public starting from the late 2000s. The main purpose for this paper is to discover the history for hip hop industry in China and especially analyze reasons behind the rapid climb in the industry beginning from late 2017. There will include not only detailed historical data for Chinese hip-hop, but also promotion strategy and commercial operation analysis involved along the whole journey. The author collects the research data through multiple online sources like online traffic reports, social media, searching engine, etc...and gets in touch with many rising local artists to capture their opinions for the “Rising of Chinese hip-hop” as objectively as possible. This is the first time those history has been documented in English, and the author hopes to give readers outside the mandarin world a glimpse of what Chinese hip-hop industry has been developed so far.

Key words: China, Hip-hop Industry, Research, Documentary

This Culminating Experience Project is a creative project consisting of a visual EP, titled ‘VV’. The purpose of creating this EP derives from the lack of South Asian representation in Western media, and the desire to utilize South Indian Classical music, more specifically Carnatic music, with popular music such as the RnB and Electronic genres. Utilizing information from cross-cultural studies, the EP thematically focuses on second-generation (the children of immigrants) identity and self-love. This project was multifaceted in nature and challenging as it required the author to engage in the following with limited prior experience: producing, songwriting, experimentation with hybrid recording techniques, electronic production, mixing, video production and editing and collaborating with others. The main body of work is a five-track EP, and features self-produced, self-written music that explores themes such as identity, heritage, mental health, and love in the context of navigating through two cultures as a second-generation British Asian immigrant. The music falls into the genre of Alternative RnB and Electronic music, but also feature elements of South Indian Classical music. To accompany the music, there are two music videos that illustrate the themes further. ‘VV’ requires further development, but nonetheless fills an evident gap within contemporary music.

Room 90 is a project by Wavewalk that will mark the beginning of the true emergence of him as an artist. Since he started making music in his dorm room three years ago, Wavewalk has been working hard to create electronic music that evokes emotions and truly captures the story he is trying to tell. The project name comes from the current room number of his residence in Spain, which is where most of his ideas have stemmed from throughout this academic year. By capturing sounds and feelings that he has experienced in this apartment, Wavewalk will create a cohesive body of work accompanied by a live performance video and branding across social media and a new website.

Chemistry is an audio-visual performance exploring your body’s physical, emotional, and chemical reactions to falling in love. The aim of this project was to create a live performance around a single concept while combining music and video all controlled by a single performer. The performance consists of six songs each linked with a hormone that affects your physical and emotional state when falling in love. The music consisted of pre-produced instrumentation to give space for singing and live effects processing. Most of the issues that came about were due to time and resources. A major challenge that was overcome was downsizing elements to fit practical implementations, without losing the effect on the overall performance.
While this is only the first implementation of this project, there is great promise for iterations in the future utilizing the many audio-visual skills introduced throughout the year.

For his Cumulative Experience project as a part of the Music Production, Technology and Innovation Master’s program at Berklee College of Music, Atman Sheth produced an EP with 6 original songs incorporating different genres and music styles from around the world including influences of Indian Carnatic, Brazilian, West African, American Pop, Mediterranean, and Arabic styles fused with Electronic, Future bass, Trap and Ambient Chill music.

Keywords: Creative, Collaboration, Multi – genre, electronic music, EP

The culminating experience project called ‘‘Lady Blackice’’ is a 12 tracks album. This project was achieved by the female artist Audrey Cousineau. This album demonstrates different genres and influences like Electronic Dance Music, Deep House, Reggaeton, and Pop music. This Canadian DJ from Montreal is presenting the final project at the end of her formation in the Music Production, Technology & Innovation program at Berklee Valencia. A concert and listening party were also a part of the whole plan. For this event, the pieces were introduced by a live performance at a venue in Valencia (Spain). This project is the first album in her career as a DJ and producer. She integrated other musicians to her project as she wanted the music to be more collaborative and not only performed or created by one person only.

Love U Be U is a compilation of a track, lyric video, and live performance that weaves between the genres of house, disco, funk, r&b, and rap created by Avril Shawn Pryce. This project aims to examine the topic of self-love and being comfortable in your own skin. The end goal of this work is to engage the viewer and educate them about self-love and acceptance of people that are different from them. There were many challenges faced including the lack of finances, expertise, and time. Against all odds Avril was able to successfully complete Love U Be U with having acquired music production, video editing, and project management skills. Love U Be U fostered Avril’s self-innovation and is the first step in starting his career as an artist to create future innovative works.

This project produced a pair of multiple driver headphones which are intended to reproduce ambisonic audio for the listener. Three discrete drivers are placed in each side of the headphones, arranged in a triangle surrounding each ear, allowing sound to be localized in a 360 degrees sound field. The second step of this process was to add a gyroscopic sensor to the headphones which tracks the movement of the user’s head. Information from this sensor is delivered to an encoding program which modulates the audio based on the user’s head position.

This project has been pursued with efforts to develop a production portfolio and online presence unlike any other. By integrating audiovisual elements with eye-catching aesthetic into a website format, visitors will be introduced to an interactive medium that welcomes professional collaboration alongside an easy to understand business model. Completed song masters and video productions that can be readily streamed directly from the website will showcase qualitative service suited for specific artistic needs. BrianZani.com will serve as the foundational business model for current and future productions, collaborations, visions and services for the local and global scale alike.

Keywords: engineering portfolio, audio production services, collaboration, audiovisual

Paradise Divide is a 5 track EP that tells emotive stories of transition and growth, accompanied by complete artist branding. The goal is to combine authentic lyrical storytelling with original sound design and production to develop a fusion of genres and a sonic journey that ultimately leads to the artistic presence of Celestine. This “identity” is complete with branding, two separate EP releases, a performance portfolio, and a documented live debut of the new EP. Between the business elements of release, the struggle of songwriting, and the difficulty of learning a new DAW, there were a lot of challenges along the way. However, now the project can be used as a portfolio to pursue music after Berklee.

The goals of this CE are to create a portfolio piece that illustrates proficient knowledge of spatial audio recording and mixing techniques, and to demonstrate the relevance of the use of spatial audio in today’s entertainment forms. The project consists of making a virtual reality (VR) experience through the use of 360° video and audio recordings of live musical performances. The user is taken to a space where they are able to rotate and see the room in a full circle; their movement is tracked so the effects of spatial audio can be heard through headphones. The challenges encountered included the time-consuming process of stitching and rendering 360° videos and finding platforms that support high order ambisonics. This CE showcases the effectiveness of spatial audio as a medium to create realistic experiences and in the future this research will be used to develop a course to teach ambisonics.

This project aims to find a new medium for conventional teaching environments by incorporating www.twitch.tv as a streaming platform to engage students. Using a program called Open Broadcaster Software, the author was able to simultaneously record and stream video of myself giving lessons on music production aspects such as compression, EQ, sampling, etc. The full streams remain on the author’s twitch channel (twitch.tv/cojemo_) while edited versions became part of the Cojemo_ YouTube page. While growing the viewers remains a challenge, this project was successful in that these videos can be used by future students, as well as whoever finds them online.

Keywords: Twitch, teaching, tutorials, streaming, audio production.

ConnorSchon.com is a mixing and engineering website showcasing Connor Schon’s portfolio, services offered, biography, contact information, and recording journal. It was a challenge to design the website, but moreover to make sure the six new songs for the portfolio material were properly recorded and mixed with the scarce studio time and poorly designed recording spaces at Berklee Valencia. The website will continue to be revised and updated with Connor’s newest material and used as the launching point for his freelance career.

Keywords: creative project, recording, business, portfolio.

The project entitled “INTNSE” deriving from the word intensity. The grammar writing was changed for personal and esthetical reasons. “INTNSE” was Dana Fakhoury’s music production portfolio as Earlybird during her year spent at Berklee College of Music. It included a full branded show-reel portfolio that samples some of the producer’s best work in a creative and easily accessible manner through a website. The purpose was to feature her on the music market as an up and coming producer, artist, mix engineer, and a live programmer for Ableton. In the future the author would like to perform her own set as well as collaborative sets live and help artist reach their ultimate goal in production.

Keywords: Producer, Artist, Mix Engineer, Live performance, Earlybird.

The basis of this project was to create the emergence of an artistic identity. The idea consisted on inventing a creative persona that throughout a look, a sound, and a concept incorporated Contemporary Christian music within Trance (Electronic Dance Music) as an EP of 5 songs and one remix. Essential resources needed for the completion of this project came from people contributions and the facilities provided by Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. The overall purpose of this project was to represent the world of Christianity through the language of Trance. Current generations, as well as the emerging ones not only will connect to this music genre, but also will relate better to the world of spirituality.

Keywords: artistic identity, contemporary Christian music, remix, trance electronic music.

Amor8 A/V Performance Project is a master project which includes a live act combining original music compositions in synchronization with live video content using programs such as Resolume Arena 6, Max 8, After Effects and Ableton Live 10. These compositions will be performed by the artist “Diego Amorocho” by using a live set and a visual projection on stage. The musical compositions will unite traditional Colombian rhythms with electronic music and modern mind set and techniques, using sampled and real instruments from the Caribbean region with beats like Cumbia, Bullerengue, Chande, Terapia and Andean rhythms. This thesis main objective is to reinvent the personal brand of “Diego Amorocho” into a hybrid all rounded artist, innovative performer and producer.

Keywords: andean, bullerengue, caribbean, chande, colombian, terapia.

This Culminating Experience consist in the creation of a portfolio made of a set of recording engineering work made this year 2018-2019 at Berklee College of Music, along with a webpage to reach out possible customers in a personal and familiar way.

Keywords: recording engineer work, webpage, personal approach.

Fly on The Wall is a visual-audio installation that incorporates an interactive walk thru; staged lighting, props, and visual components for each movement of the eight-minute piece of music. It utilizes and applies dramatic theory; French Scenes, color theory, and character development. The set is cyclical in design and shape, and divided into three sections, bestrepresenting an exposition/point of attack, climax and denouement. The purpose of the installation was to serve as an experiment in the delivery of character, narrative, commercial audio and reactive interaction with the individual listener. All challenges throughout the process were met and resolved with ease. Ultimately the installation was completed and opened to the public at the Centre del Carme Museum in Valencia for a weekend. Moving forward it is the intention to erect this installation again in varying venues, as an integral way of marketing the future business endeavor for the creation of community computer labs and creative space. In addition, the artistic hope is that Fly on The Wall will develop into a multi character series.

Keywords: Installation, Audio, Visual, Ableton, MaxMSP, Resolume, Adobe, Projection

This CE project consists of Hugh Herber’s second album off the beaten track, that contains eight tracks of original music. The album merges organic instruments with electronic music production and it glues together genres like trip hop, chillout, ambient, fusion, rock, world, and EDM to form what Hugh calls “progressive trip hop.” His latest work will be released on all streaming platforms as well as a limited tape cassette edition in late 2019.

Spiral is music video production divided in tree parts. The theme of the first part is the Universe, the creation and evolution of galaxies. The second part is about nature and its vastness, its richness and the interconnection between the micro cosmos and the macro cosmos. The final part of Spiral is about civilization and its isolation from nature and the Universe and his direction to an uncertain future. The artist will use the skills acquired in video production, photography and sound design to make his CE project.

The Singularity project is a three part visual EP that displays electronic music production, live performance using drums, keyboards, MIDI controllers and visual projection to showcase a one- person band experience. Each video is a multi camera video that shows the performer from different angles performing live in the studio. The second and third videos include the elements of animation and visual projection, respectively.

The motivation for this culminating experience project was the desire to develop and further the music industry in the Cayman Islands in conjunction with the author’s personal aspirations to further expand on their personal knowledge as a musician, producer and audio engineer. This culminating experience project consists of a recording and mixing portfolio, and the launch of a website and personal professional brand. The project required recording and mixing with different producers, artists, musicians and bands from different backgrounds and in different recording and acoustic environments, building connections and relationships with those people and creating new ideas for future projects. This project ultimately lays down the foundation for the authors long term business plan of opening a destination studio in the Cayman Islands. The project acts as a tribute to Charles Gregory, an iconic Caymanian musician, producer and audio engineer, and the author’s personal mentor who sadly passed away in September 2018.

Astral Voyage: The Big Electric Orchestra is a thirty-nine piece ensemble that performs a fourteen movement original suite of music called Our Heart. This music blends the jazz of the past with the technology of the present, creating a unique sound of the future. The concept of the suite is based on the seven chakras of the human spirit and takes one on a journey through the cosmos and the essence of the human condition.

The CE “The Beauty of Living” encapsulates three main projects: the production of a three songs EP, the development of artist branding and look, and the accompaniment of the music with visuals. With the songs the aim is to finish three songs at a professional level, leaving them ready to be released at a record label. With the visuals, complete visuals for the whole duration of the three songs, so there’s always a background and a story for the music. And the purpose of the artist branding is to have the presentation material ready when releasing the tracks in the future.

This paper will discuss Javier Martin’s contribution to “Electro Shock”, the final project for his Master’s degree in Music Production, Technology and Innovation. Electro Shock is a collaborative project between two peer students, Javier Martin and Leanne Moser, based on the idea of experimenting with mixing EDM and rock music. It will be presented as an EP containing 4 songs and also as an audiovisual set, with interactive live performance and original visuals. Javier’s official part in the project was to mix Leanne’s Rock demos and blend them with his own electronic parts. He found it difficult to remix them without diminishing their strong social messages and their old structure. But with an open mind and respect for the demos, Javier gained skills in the field of mixing several new instruments and musical styles and Electro Shock was completed successfully and showcased proudly during his final Master’s defense.

This project concerns the development of the Indie/Hip-Hop musical brand Morsifire through recorded material, live performance, and artistic branding. The project will see through the writing, recording, and mixing of an EP, live set creation using Ableton Live and full band, as well as visual branding. The goal is to fuse the genres of indie rock and hip-hop in with both recordings and live performance, as well as establish a strong digital footprint to propel Morsifire to the next stage of his career.

Emerging is a multimedia performance that involves the improvisation and communication between the movement of dancers and visual synthesis, ambient, electronic West-African and Afro-Cuban music and live percussion triggered and manipulated by a live musician. Emerging is the result of Joyce Lindsey’s exploration in finding her style as a multimedia artist and collaborator. She aims to provide experiences where she can combine her skills as a sound designer, composer, percussionist and visual artist, in service to collaborating with choreographers and filmmakers to actualize the vision and/or theme they seek to express in their work.

Keywords: West African, Afro Cuban, Mediterranean, Modern Dance, Max MSP, Ableton live set, djembe, doumbek.

This culminating experience project is an experimental approach to producing two music videos, each of a different style, that contain elements of field recordings, sound design, and original music with scenes from the city of Valencia, Spain that create interesting and compelling results. Both are titled Veo Valencia, and have Part I or Part II added to their title, respectively. Part I is a colorful and abstract look of Valencia that contains an original musical track produced in Ableton Live, titled, Mister Synther. With a visible difference in color, effects, and music, Part II is a more natural and clear way of viewing the city. It contains an original piano and strings music piece titled Endless Journey. The music videos do not contain professional actors or dancers, dialogue, or narration. Upon viewing them, the viewer will be brought into an artistic and creative world of hearing and seeing Valencia in an exciting and innovative way.

Atomic Age is an electronic album that offers listeners a maximal sonic experience through the use of minimal resources. Created with a portable production set up during two years of transcontinental travel, this body of work breaks the perceived limitations of consumer-quality hardware and software by demonstrating what is possible when an artist sets out to share their story using affordable technologies. Through forward-thinking songwriting, unique sound design, and lyrical storytelling, Atomic Age seeks to inspire creators and listeners to honor the resources they have at any given time or place, and remind our society that much can be accomplished with very few resources.

Keywords: digital music technology, album, music production, independent music.

For her Culminating Experience project at Berklee College of Music, Leanne Moser used her composition and engineering skills in collaboration with a talented electronic producer, Javier Martin, and created a 4 track EP of original music, which was later on performed as an audio-visual set. Their goal was to combine their strengths, and produce audio and visuals united to highlight messages for social change. The tracks are hybrid electronic compositions with lyrical content that promotes social themes, the visuals showcase the discussed themes in a hyperbolic, ironic sense. She was challenged by cooperating the several different styles together in her arrangements, and the amount of new technologies she needed to get comfortable with. She learned how to work as part of a duo, and how to use several new software and hardware. With hard work and passion, the project was successfully completed and presented as part of her master’s degree.

The EP, Spatial Illusions, will be presented in the form of a traditional CD album, but instead of opening up to a compact disc, a pop-up structure will emerge when opening the CD case, and that will be the object that is to be projection mapped with some original music. The music itself will be in a hybrid genre called Melodic Dubstep. This genre was chosen because it embodies the beautiful and lush elements of genres like Trance and Future Bass, but also have the grittiness and the sprightly energy of Dubstep. The music will be accompanied with vivid, vibrant visuals to create a unique audiovisual experience which will be executed via projection mapping. This paper will not only address the different audio and visual aspects of the project, but also the challenges faced and next steps of the EP.

Keywords: projection mapping, video mapping, projectors, melodic dubstep, pop-up, CD case, CD album, abstract, audiovisual.

A personal professional website is essential for an audio engineer who wants to showcase their work and be accessible to potential clients. This is why Madly has chosen to build her own. Not only did she want to go through the process of designing her own website, she also wanted to work on the content that she was going to showcase onto it. Music that she has engineered, produced, mixed or mastered. In the timeline of this year, Madly had challenged herself to have at least 15 pieces of music that she would put on it, and ended up with more. This website will remain her official professional website as she enters the industry.

Keywords: website, audio engineer, engineered, produced, mixed, mastered.

The present project consists of a full twelve songs album, with a specific common concept and aesthetic goal: to respond to unanswered questions regarding how Chilean popular music would have developed if the 1973 coup d’état, which resulted in seventeen years of military dictatorship and an ensuing cultural disaster, had never occurred. Because of this political intervention, the previously vibrant music scene in Chile was suddenly and deliberately persecuted. However, since the turn of the century, after decades of cultural obscurity, a new movement has come along and Chilean music is finally recovering its identity. The recorded songs attempt to not only imagine what the current cultural energy would be had its development not been cut off, but also to channel this into a new and exciting movement.

Keywords: Chile, Chilean music, dictatorship, coup d’état.

This purpose of this project was to grow and evolve as a storyteller. Ti is of great importance of the author to be able to communicate her ideas effectively while being able to affect the emotions of those around her. It explores the process of taking words from a piece a paper and turning them into a living breathing sonic environment, in the hopes of developing the voice and music production process for the author. Interestingly enough, it resulted in a full length spoken word album. Each track (or piece) consists of an original prose or poem, musical composition, and sound design. Major challenges, originating from mental illness, greatly impacted the project execution and its contents both positively and negatively. The resulting album will be released on all digital platforms in September of 2019. This entire process allowed the author to realize her artistry and grow not only as an artist, but as a person as well.

Keywords: poetry, spoken word, composition, recording, mixing, sound design, storytelling

With a mission to convey the fun and lightheartedness that can be had with electronic dance music, this project is a creative video portfolio broken down into three original video series: LIGHT-hearted, Mini Racerz, and Ableton Live Performances. It is entirely self-produced and the videos utilize many different digital and technological mediums, including dance music, phone screens, animation, LEDs, and simple dance choreography. One of the biggest challenges faced was figuring out the longevity of the video series, and whether videos within each series should be tied together through a unique storyline or should simply be made to showcase the technical and creative processes explored throughout the year. While it was ultimately decided to go with the latter to maintain the videos’ fun and momentary nature, future projects conducted by the artist may be pushed further and will continue the mission of bringing fun and lightheartedness to music and art.

Keywords: electronic dance music, fun and positive message, creative 2d animations, art on Instagram and social media, multimedia video portfolio, Arduino LEDs, music with smartphones

This paper analyzes the current state of the record label in hopes of building the foundations for a new one. The project focuses on the present structure of the label and current innovations in the music space that have disrupted some of the historic strengths of the record label. The first part of the paper gives a brief overview of the organization structure, different types of labels, and current “pain points”. The second part highlights ways The New Label (aka Family First Records, LLC) seeks to offer healthy change to the space. The final section of the paper reflects on the year spent at Berklee Valencia and future implications of the label, Family First Records, LLC.

Matthew Struble’s Career Preparation CE project, is a hip-hop and bass music infused EP, in addition to the branding of Struble’s digital footprint under the producer name Stroobz. The EP consists of five electronic lo-fi hip-hop tracks utilizing newly learned techniques in sound design and vocalists from Berklee Valencia, Germany, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. This EP will be showcasing Struble’s production in electronic lo-fi hip-hop, and will be highlighted on Stroobz.com, a website created by Struble to present work and skills to potential artists and employers in the New York City market. The goal of this project is to showcase the new-wave of Struble’s hip-hop sound, and establish a digital footprint and identity to his unique production style. With the need for a stable career upcoming on the horizon, Struble’s CE project will aim to provide proof of concept and a foundation for professional connections upon his graduation in 2019.

EXLO is a hardware/software-based system that can turn any surface into a musical instrument or controller. EXLO technology gives life to inanimate objects by enabling them to be used to create music. Producers and performers will no longer be confined by the layouts of traditional controllers; they will instead be able to incorporate their ideal workflow into their existing workspace. The EXLO system is driven by a piezo sensor, or contact microphone, which translates physical vibrations into an electrical current. EXLO’s custom software runs in the visual programming environment Max. The software analyzes vibration data from the EXLO sensor and uses the data to manipulate an organic sound as well as trigger synthesized sounds when familiar gestures are detected. The synthesized sound source can be any Digital Audio Workspace (DAW) that accepts messages of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol.

Keywords: music technology, human computer interaction, music production, music performance, electronic music.

The utilization of visual elements in a live music show has been proven to be significantly effective in the delivery of the content over the past decades. The synchronized video clips on the display can help the musicians enhance the emotional communication with the audience. This culminating experience has tried to integrate real-time and audio responsive software with visualizers and live shows. The goal is to ease the complications and expenses of visual effects in a musical event for an independent artist. In order to further develop as an artist, four music tracks have also been recorded and produced to showcase the visualizer. The music is about the personal experiences of the artist and political circumstance covering his home country, Iran.

This project is an instrumental EP, consisting of five tracks which the author wrote, produced and mixed. The goal for the project was to create a complete project that would serve to showcase the author’s abilities as a musician, sound designer and engineer, in order to assist in the search for career opportunities after graduation. The project combined modern Hip Hop influences, with the author’s love for 1980’s era film soundtracks and their synth heavy scores, into a blend that highlights the music the author is passionate about, and how he can contribute to its creation.

This project aims to produce four music tracks and videos through the production of a Visual extended play (EP), Unplanned. The goal is to merge forms of Indian folk and fusion music with electronic music and explore the dynamics of the relationship between music and video. The current Indian Electronic music scene and sound design methods were studied along with several film-making techniques. Tools like Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras and softwares like Ableton Live, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop were used to produce the videos. The challenge was to produce compelling music videos with limited resources at hand and to create an interesting fusion sound. This project aims to showcase the sound design and video production skills to the music and film industry at large and hopefully, inspire future sound designers and video producers alike.

Keywords: EP, video, sound design, film music, Indian music, animation, film-making

A digital portfolio website will be launched and continuously updated, featuring content produced by R. Glade Music, either in part or exclusively, including video, audio, and images, centered around professional studio services. The intended audience of this digital portfolio is primarily future employers, including: music performance solutions teams, recording studio managers, festival bookers, and university faculty. Peripheral audiences for the digital portfolio include artistic collaborators, like-minded researchers, and fans of R. Glade Music’s productions.

Keywords: audio, engineering, digital, portfolio, videography, recording, studio, production

This project represents the emergence of the artist BPad through the creation of a 9- track album. The album is entitled Light Shift and it is an instrumental beat tape inspired by multiple musical styles including jazz, hip hop and flamenco. It represents a transition for BPad from sample-based production to live instrumentation. The title refers to a shift in environment for the artist as well as to changes in musical approach and lifestyle. Light Shift can be broken down as follows: 6 full-length tracks, introduction, outro and interlude. It uses varied instrumentation including: harp, keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass, piano, synthesizers, turntables and saxophones. The project makes liberal use of resampling which is defined as: “A feature of some samplers which allows the performer to assemble one or more patches and samples, possibly with layering and effects and then play notes while the sampler simultaneously records new samples of the played notes.”1 This album was composed and recorded using the Digital Audio Workstation or (DAW) Ableton Live. Using Ableton was one of the many challenges that the artist faced during the creation of this album.

Keywords: resample, recording console, flamenco.

Klipknob is a max software that enables users to create engaging visuals for a live performance. The software allows musicians to use midi and audio to manipulate visuals to further drive the narrative for their live performances. It is aimed to make the visual making process fun, fast and easy. This is achieved via a simple user interface that can source content from the user’s hard drive or from simply copy and pasting a youtube link into the software.

Keywords: Technology, visualization, live music, experience economy, DIY musician, Kir, projector

Jamais Vu is a physical representation of a journey taken and realized. Essentially, the project itself is an instrumental EP. It will tell a story to listeners that will evoke emotion that they themselves can tie into their own lives. The goal of the project will be to produce an instrumental EP that can stand on its own to be a playable body of work, and also be used by artists and other producers to make their own songs.

This is a culminating experience, titled, Breaking Down the Break Up! (BDTBU). BDTBU is a five song EP by the author, Tommy Mills. The songs on this EP span a wide range of genres such as rock, electronic, funk, orchestral, ragtime, and pop. The goal of the project is to explore different approaches towards making marketable pop music. This project challenged the author to modernize his composition and production techniques. Upon graduation, the songs on BDTBU will be released on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music.

Key Words: EP, popular music, modern production, composition, sound design.

This CE consists of an EP titled “Iter Musicis”, Latin for “Music trek”, which signifies a musical journey. As such, the scope of this project is to engage the listener in a melodious venture. This is done by combining the composer’s influences into a blend of progressive rock/metal, electronic, and classical music. In turn, the music is accompanied by oscilloscope visuals which are programmed using 3D modeling and sound design. The visuals accompanying the tracks revolve around the composer’s reflections on his own compositions and what imagery they bring forth when listened to by the artist. The tracks featured in this EP will be part of a full-length album. By completing this project, the composer has gained experience in composition, sound design, mixing, as well as 3D and 2D modeling.

Keywords: EP, Progressive rock, Progressive metal, 3D, 2D.

White Leaf Music is creating a website to demonstrate multiple aspects of professionalism and talent. Along with displaying a sonically unique professional that will compete in the music market. This website project will double as an incentive for potential investors and contractors.

“Rosy Mercury” is a 5 track EP produced and vocal performed by Zhang Siyuan, featuring instrumentalists at Berklee Valencia. This EP is inspired by artists like Moses Sumney, Daniel Caesar and JMSN. During the process of production, Zhang Siyuan used his new skills such as analog synthesis, sound design and different recording techniques. He also conquered challenges of vocal recording and working in two DAWs for the same session. Finally, this EP is completed and he plans to release it in August 2019.

Keywords: EP, cosmic concept, music production, collaborative project

The goal of this project is to offer a more abstract and visual approach to understanding how to mix audio, while also being a creative and immersive way to interact with music. The basic design of the game is a 3D space with several colored spheres floating against a wall. The spheres could be moved and manipulated with a laser, and based on where they were moved in respect to the back wall, the sound associated with that sphere would be manipulated as well. The game consists of not only the program Unity, a major game development platform, but also Max, Max for Live, and Ableton as well. During the course of the project, the student will have explored techniques like scripting in the C# language, creating three-dimensional interactive game objects, and using OSC to create game interaction with outside programs such as Ableton. The final result of this project should be a fully immersive audiovisual mixing experience, that will hopefully inspire others to understand more about audio, and the possibilities of music technology.

Andres Llano, known as “YLOH”, is currently in search for a specific identity as an artist. For this reason, as his culminating experience at the Music Production, Technology, and Innovation program at Berklee College of Music, he decided to create a 2 EP project titled Cultural Intersection. The whole project aims to combine audio and visuals of what inspires him the most – his Latin roots, and electronic music. To better promote his art, every track is accompanied by its own unique music video. Cultural Intersection begins with his first EP, Accentus, which consists of 3 experimental tracks drawing inspiration from his time living in Europe; it then follows with his second EP Spirit of the Desert, which is a 3 track Latin/House EP that aims to showcase his beautiful hometown in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. The musical exploration behind this project will reflect YLOH’s inspiration, and growth as an electronic music producer. He now faces the challenge of building his brand and creating traction with his audience. He hopes this project will assist in his development of additional tools for his music and live sound, while giving a cohesive point of view towards his position as an artist in an ever-changing music scene.

Keywords: music production, audiovisual, video, music, electronic.

This project aims to set the foundation from which to build a career in music production. Through creating a portfolio of music and designing a website, the intention for this project was to discover, develop and build a brand around the producer’s musical work. This goal entailed collaboration with various singers, songwriters, and musicians, a production calendar of deadlines and studio sessions for both recording and mixing, and the design and implementation of a website, through which the portfolio can be showcased along with visual and descriptive content about the producer. The result of this project consists of ten songs, featuring six different artists and several talented musicians, picture and video documentation of the production process, a self-designed website and brand, but most importantly, a deeper understanding of the producer’s strengths and weaknesses, and the challenges that come with producing records.

Keywords: creative project, recording, songwriting, hybrid recording methods, instrumentation, mixing, editing, production, portfolio, producer website, studio recording, rock, r&b, acoustic, singer/songwriter.

This project is focused on a long live tradition of the Siona culture (an ethnical group of the Ecuadorian and Colombian tropical forest): The Yage ritual. Which consists of a soul searching and cleansing personal activity, that temporarily connects you with Mai Ja’que (the creator god) and the spiritual world. This is achieved by creating a virtual reality environment with an Oculus Rift (Virtual Reality headset) and B-format audio to place the user inside of a magical Ecuadorian tropical forest. The exploration inside it triggers different sounds, musical samples and imagery inspired in the different stages of the ceremony.

Keywords: Culminating Experience; Siona; Yage; Virtual Reality; B-format.

The purpose of this project is to create an E.P with instrumentals that combine ethnic musical elements with modern electronic music, accompanied by a virtual reality experience. The music of this E.P is inspired by African traditional rhythms, Arabic chants, Indian and Asian traditional instruments combined with Trap, Hip-Hop, House, and Ambient music. The motivation behind this entire concept came as a result of being in a diverse environment and believing that if we can combine the different regions together, something great can come to life. After spending hours of studying ancient music, it was time to get inspiration from other sources like movies, television shows and having old fashion conversations. The visual aspect of this project initially started as a challenge but later it became a new acquired skill. During the process, multiple programs had to be learnt in order to successfully create the virtual environments. Ultimately, the plan is for music to be experienced in a new way along with new textures that might not be familiar to your everyday music lover and we hope to spark the flame of a new trailblazer.

ARIA Chord is an app that can suggest chords to accompany an original melody in real time. The users can import their melody through a MIDI file. ARIA Chord focuses on suggesting unique chord variations that can make a progression ideal for any music genre. Its purpose is to allow anyone to write like a guitarist, pianist or any other polyphonic instrumentalist. Additionally, the suggested chords can be filtered out by using the emotion filters, which will then show the most related and desired chords. The emotion tool can help the user find more complex variations of chords that can access more complex emotions. Also, ARIA Chord will give you the option to filter out chords according to the genre you write (more complex chords and inversions for jazz, simpler catchy chords for pop, more aggressive chords for rock, etc.). What makes ARIA Chord unique is its ability to analyze an inserted melody and, after the user has set the desired key, show all the available chords that belong to that scale.

Projected Self is a solo audiovisual performance from the artist C. Watson of original experimental music & video. Using pre-rendered visuals and live manipulated effects, the performance explores mental health themes of anxiety, depression, self-hatred, rage, and finally acceptance. Instead of simply telling a story about a mental health journey, Projected Self uses light and sound to bring the audience on the journey along with the artist; to evoke the feelings in the audience and not just explain them. The music borrows heavily from experimental music genres such as noise and drone while also retaining more rhythmic themes present in electronica and trap. The project went through multiple iterations until an ideal technical setup for one performer was developed. For the artist, writing, editing, mixing, filming, synthesizing visuals, and prepping a performance performing all while dealing with anxiety, fear, and depression was exceedingly difficult but after sharing the multiple versions of Projected Self with peers and Berklee faculty, the response started to show that people did in fact feel the emotions portrayed. In the future, the project has the potential to evolve into multiple new mediums—film, art gallery installation, interstitial during a longer set—but all in all, the project was a successful study in shared emotional experience.

The goal of my culminating experience is to create an audio/visual synthesizer in Max for Live. My creating this tool, I will be able to create unique content as an artist that I can then use as a platform to establish my identity in the world of electronic dance music.

For his culminating experience, Daniel Gazzola, whose producer name is ZOLA, intends to release an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) EP on Soundcloud, and Spotify/ other streaming services through the use of Artists Without A Label (AWAL). This project is about ZOLA developing his artistic voice and style through the production of EDM. The EP will include 4 original tracks, three of which will contain collaborations with vocalists and lyricists. While the end product is a fully produced 4-track EP being released by ZOLA, some other goals include developing a powerful artist presence on social media, and posting photos to keep followers updated with his journey. This is intended to be achieved through the implementation of powerful visuals, using a common theme to tie all social media accounts together and to the released EP. Through the development and growth of his artistic voice and social media presence, ZOLA hopes to establish a strong brand. While these goals are a little more quantitative, a final qualitative goal that ZOLA intends to achieve is to produce music that he himself is proud of and enjoys listening to. He intends to do this through improving his sound design, composition and recording skills.

The current project focuses on the creation of “Gravity Duo”, an ensemble comprised of Phui Kuan Kok and Diego Demarco. One of the main features of this culminating experience is live performance combined with electronics and visuals. The musical setup consists of live vocals, vocoder, piano and guitar, and is supported by a custom-made library of visuals that interacts with the audio in real time. This report will provide an in-depth analysis of how the music, visuals and live show were developed from the ground up. This culminating experience has ended up being a success, and with high expectations for being performed in a variety of different venues in the coming years.

An EP of original music was written, produced and recorded; which was accompanied live by a full audiovisual setup that was constructed under the idea of combining sound, light and visuals to create an immersive experience that aimed to give the audience a synesthetic experience and that served as a strong artistic statement of linking what we see with what we hear. Lights were controlled real-time by using both MIDI and audio sources and the visuals responded to the same principle and were projected onto screens on the stage. This served as the groundwork for an ambitious stage setup that will enable the synchronized performance of music, light and visuals as a unity without the need of an incredibly expensive configuration.

Keywords: EP, live, performance, lights, DMX, visuals, creative, color, MIDI.

This Project explores the present day's increasing visual relationship to music and to the musician/producer/artist. In Challenging myself as a solo musician I wound up exploring and incorporating new visual skills into my creative projects and process, and began to traverse a new sensory world to be explored and created in. In the end, I learned a lot about the art of video editing and how to employ different video programs for specific musical applications. The result of this project is a 39-minute visual album, 13 individual music videos and a 45 minute resolume VJ set. I hope by realizing this project I inspire other solo artists and writers to gain the new skills and experiences that will help them create new dimensions to their art.

TACTO - Textural Music Box, is an experimental instrument developed by Beatswin that uses commonly found materials to develop a type of organic sound design which adds a new dimension to the Artist’s sound. In essence, TACTO is a wooden box with a motor and electronics controlled by a laptop to create motion that will generate sounds which are then amplified using contact microphones. The sounds are then sent through Ableton Live and modified with real time effects to create rhythmic textures, noises and drones.

The purpose of Chasing Trance is to experientially explore trance production by creating three tracks. New and essential tools include Ableton Live 9 Suite and Xfer Records’ Serum. The primary challenge this project aims to address is learning to generate imagined musical ideas accurately and professionally. Smaller challenges encountered on the way include organization, sound design, and track arrangement. Through this project progress has been made, but the three tracks do not meet the author’s standards. More time practicing with Ableton and all it includes is required.

This project aims to convey the power and efficacy of a combined audiovisual performance by a solo musician to the average audience or concertgoer, embodied through D’ANTONIO. Using simple, effective, self-designed audioreactive visuals organized and implemented through Ableton Live, Resoume, and guitar loops, the hope is that artists with no prior experience in electronic production or graphic design can express themselves and bring new life to their work in an all-encompassing way.

Keywords: Max MSP, Adobe After Effects, Resolume, Ableton Live, C++, Arduino, audioreactivity, CC, MIDI

In this new era of technology and globalization, the competition in the international and local music scene is increasing and it is necessary to have an online presence which gives an encompassing view of one’s work and personality. In order to have a unique position in the current market, it is an advantage to have a diverse set of musical skills. This objective of this project is to create a personal music production brand by portraying and combining diverse music production and artistic skills into an online platform. The deliverable will be a website containing a portfolio of works supported by audio, video and pictures that represent music production skills and strengths in a variety of fields. The portfolio will include music produced for artists, examples of original songs, collaboration with artists, guitar work, engineering and mixing, composition for media and sound design. The challenge is to connecting the different trades into one concise website and brand that will serve as a modern day, multimedia business card.

Keywords: Music production, website, creative project, portfolio.

Paradigm Shift is a short narrative film with audio-visual interaction centered thematically around two quotations:
“And those seen dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.”—Friedrich Nietzsche.
“I became insane—with long intervals of horrible sanity.” —Edgar Allan Poe.
The dichotomy presented here is one that is explored through the cinematography, audio-visual interaction, and the compositional methodology.

This project aims to engage listeners in a serene and cinematic soundscape filled with fluidity and depth, soulful vocals and organic compositions. By bringing together elements of multiple musical styles and genres, this body of work allows diverse influences to surface and blend together in a refreshing and accessible combination of Latin pop, indie folk, impressionism, and acoustic soul. The deliverable of this project is the artist’s self-titled debut EP, exploring themes of nature, human connection and love. The process included writing, arranging, rehearsing, workshopping, testing out six different vocal microphones, recording, re-recording, overproducing tracks and backtracking to more minimal production in Pro Tools and Ableton Live. Over months of trial and error in recording and production, with the help of three engineers and nineteen musicians, the artist was able to translate their vision into reality. Hopefully, the music can serve as a source for healing and lift people up when they most need it.

Keywords: creative project, recording, composition, performance, songwriting, singing, studio recording, microphones, multicultural

Create a 5 Track EP with accompanying website and branding. The EP will focus on a deep house aesthetic influenced by the sounds of Disco, and New York Techno, and deep house. Ideally the EP would be premiered at a club in Valencia such as La3, Latex, or Play, and would be able to fit into the artist’s own DJ set organically.

This CE is an Audivisual Live performance appealing to the audience’s sensory experience and introduce them to different characters from Karakter’s musical world. The performance is a study of abstraction that is influenced by sound design and colour inspiring thoughts and dreams; composed using a sequence of instruments, tones and tempo. The visual images showcased derives from themes of daydreaming and imagination with regard to animations mapped, performed and manipulated on stage. Reactive MIDI and motion controllers achieve innovation in live performance, also keeping in mind the limitations of having only essential devices during touring and sticking to a budget so that it is profitable. A short documentary is shot about Karakter’s journey exploring state of the art developments, discovering his vision and learning the necessary techniques for building his project throughout the year in collaboration with artists and capitalising on professional opportunities.

This purpose of this project was to create a visual EP in the indie-folk electronic style that builds upon and enhances my artist persona and brand ‘Lily Byrd’. The project consists of five songs and five accompanying videos as well as a live performance with VJ content. Through the songs themes of loneliness and growth are explored through the lyrics while the music combines American traditional folk, electronic, singer-songwriter and alternative. Inspiration was also taken from genres such as drone and experimental music as well as unconventional songwriting form. The videos provide a simple backdrop enhancing the mood and world when listening to the album and have been adapted into clips one can VJ. The project was successful and made better through collaboration with other artists and mixing ears. I enhanced my music production, sound design, engineering, songwriting and video production skills during this project and I am very pleased with the result. I plan to release and promote this album and use it as a starting point for my career.

Keywords: EP, indie-folk, electro-folk, visual album

This project aims to develop a professional music portfolio for Casper Jones while simultaneously constructing and executing a unique and memorable brand. In today’s digital age, an artist’s image and online presence is arguably just as important as the music they make. By tackling these two problems concurrently, this culminating experience builds a foundation for the music to live upon. Overall, it will be a showcase for record labels, managers and the music industry alike. The six songs that have been created are meant to live alone as singles. While they all are a little different in sonic idea and execution, they are an example of Casper’s progression and evolution as an artist. Casper’s brand is built to engage with fans while also creating an aura of mystery. The biggest takeaway for Casper after this year at Berklee is that the only formula for success is time, practice, and most importantly, failure. Hopefully this project will inspire other emerging artists to take a wholistic approach for their growth, and make choices with future endeavors and dreams in mind.

For her Culminating Experience project, McKinley wrote, recorded, and produced a 5- track EP exhibiting her original artistic voice, reflecting the elements of her past and present influences. Additionally, McKinley developed and performed an interesting and engaging live set which showcased her new music. During the creation of her EP, McKinley drew from her influences to create an original sound that combines acoustic elements, soulful melodies and harmonies, original sound design, feel-good chord progressions, and electronic beats. The main influences for McKinley’s EP include Norah Jones, India.Arie, Corinne Bailey Rae, Sza, Frank Ocean, FKJ, and Noname. McKinley was able to develop a unique artistic voice by combining acoustic elements, soulful melodies and harmonies, feel-good chord progressions, and hip-hop beats with original sound design, sample manipulation, and a wide range of percussive and melodic timbres. The inclusion of jazz and classically influenced instrumental solos served to supplement this original sound.

The purpose of this CE is to make three dub live performance sets with VJing by learning and exploring dub mix and DJing skills. The innovative aspects of the project are focused on bringing new elements to Korean classical music. Ableton Live, MIDI controller, DJing skills, and Visual tools were the most useful and inspiring programs and skills acquired during the process. The project is linked to the author’s future plan, which is to widen her ability as a producer and collaborator so she can enrich Korean traditional music by incorporating sounds of dub music and other sub-genres.

Keywords: dub mix, Korean traditional music, DJing skills, VJing, future generation.

The student set to create an EP combining elements of two different musical genres; namely Jazz and Dance music. In order to create the music the student composed chord progressions to be used as the basis of the songs. The student then recorded jazz musicians from the Berklee roster improvising on the chord progressions. Using the recordings, the student manipulated the recordings to resample the musicians. Following this, the student started to focus on the electronic sound design of the EP along with the mixing and mastering of the EP. The student then realised that the EP project was expandable into a flexible live performance. The organic sampled parts of the work could be replaced by real musicians and could include instruments which were not originally featured in the EP. This led the student to present its live version of the work in a concert alongside two other Berklee musicians.

This culminating experience is about creating a body of work with songs composed, produced, mixed and mastered by Pedro Modrego Perelló under his stage name PMP in the time he is at Berklee College of Music - Valencia Campus. By doing this, PMP is going to establish himself as an artist, as this will make him develop his own and distinctive sound, discover the direction of his music and have a catalogue of different songs that will be scheduled to be released after Berklee, in order to build a fanbase by putting music out on a monthly basis. By working this way, PMP is going to grow himself and help his own label SUPRMODE grow with him. The final deliverables are five single tracks which focus on two main musical genres: Bass Music (Electronic Dance Music) and Urban Music (Hip-Hop/RnB). During this process, special emphasis has been put on sound design and originality, and new musical challenges have been pursued.

Keywords: Bass Music, Urban Music, Electronic Dance Music, Ableton, Sound Design

This Culminating Experience (CE) is Gravity Duo: a project to create a brand of audio visual experience through chill/ ambient electronic music. This project is a combined CE between Phui Kuan Kok and Diego Demarco to design and generate live performance experience that is a cross breed between a Tomorrowland (an electronic music festival concert experience) and an Adele concert (challenging live vocals). Through this project, we have produced and recorded 8 original electro acoustic music, along with original visuals that is incorporated into the live performance. Inspired by the high energy scene from the electronic music festival and the captivating experience from a power house concert, this project was started to capture the best elements of both through an audio visual experience. The goal of this project is to challenge creating and curating an experience that pairs the usage of both electronic and acoustic sounds with luscious visuals that indulge both senses.

This project entailed the creation of electronic music and visual material. These were later combined in an audio-visual live performance. The end objective of this project is to add a different style of spectacle to the Nocturnal Status project. The latter is a combination project founded by Rohan Bhatia-Newman and Ben Ricketts, based primarily in Miami. The process of this project included creating the music first, followed by the custom visual content. Ableton was used to create the music while Photoshop, After Effects, and Synesthesia were used for visual content creation. Finally, the audio-visual set was built in Ableton and Resolume Arena, allowing the performer to control different parameters of the visuals. The short fifteen minute performance focuses on the demonstrating a high level of synced parameters in the audio and visual components, truly showing that they are interacting and complementing each other in a meaningful and creative way.

Keywords: Audio-visual, electronic music, Ableton, Resolume

This visual, spoken word, three-track EP was born out of an experience that Gracie Hays had in her own personal life. She went through a manipulative and emotionally abusive relationship, and in the time after it when she came to Berklee Valencia, she decided to make an EP about it. Since many women go through the same thing, Gracie’s main goal with this project was to help and unite these people, and tell people who haven’t gone through something similar, what it’s like. Writing and composing these three songs, and three spoken word pieces was truly a challenge for her. In order to write the songs, Gracie had to relive her own past, and it proved harder than she originally thought. However, she was able to overcome her writer’s block and continue on to recording, mixing, mastering, storyboarding, filming, and editing the entire project. Gracie did 100% of the work for this entire album, from start to finish. This is what truly makes this project innovative. Gracie was able to fill every single role in the process, and create this album within a period of 9 months. She plans to release her EP second track, “Gone,” as a single on June 22, 2018, and the entire album, Not for You, with accompanying video on July 27, 2018. Gracie is extremely proud of the final product, and can’t wait to share it with the world.

With music now being consumed almost entirely in a digital realm, musicians today are tasked with not only creating compelling work, but distributing it with a unique approach that gives listeners another dimension to enjoy the music. Using the web is the most obvious route nowadays for music delivery, but this is rarely executed in an elegant way. Utilizing the web as a medium of artful expression, the Culminating Experience by Sam Kittinger, titled The Chariot, implements web design and development to create an online experience that showcases the conceptual narrative of a five-track original EP with an accompanying music video and interactive ancillary graphics.

This project is made up of a concept album which consists of 4 songs that are influenced by experimental music, electronics, jazz, Arabic and hiphop along with visuals that are influenced by surrealism, minimalism, abstract , dada-ism and neo-realism. Just like many artists who have produced a concept album, she uses technology as one of her main tools of production. A great tool to be taken advantage of, but she questions , are we only using technology as a tool? Or are we dependent on it? For our mental and physical health, it is important to be able to reconnect with ourselves and each other and to be aware on the usage of technology. However, when it comes to music/art making, she questions; who is the creator of your work? Is it pure love and passion? Or is it the program? Who or what is the reflection of your work? Is it both? If so, can you differentiate between the two? What happens to us as artists if we eliminate the program? Consideration of internal and external issues happening in ourselves and in society; this project reflects her process of thoughts and emotions towards these issues. These questions inspired Serena to find answers through a new approach in music/art making. A reflection of her process of creating art and music out of the program and through an experience which was delivered and presented in a showcase through an audio-visual installation. Most importantly, throughout this journey, her main goal was to find her artistic/musical voice and ground it. In the end of this project, a new aspect of her artistic character emerged within her; which a part of her appreciates.

The international music scene has evolved with the explosion of technology. Artists must have diverse or hybrid skills in order to create a unique personal brand identity to break into the international music scene. Also, it is important to cultivate the knowledge of new software, technology and music production skills in order to communicate on the international music arena. However, there is a lack of artist personal brand research and experiment in the music production and innovation areas. Therefore, this personal brand experiment aims to reinvent own artist personal brand “Soo Wincci” into a hybrid music artist producer innovator personal brand called “Inwinccible.” This project will first analyze the current state of art for traditional mask changing, some cultural world instruments, aerial circus art, technology arts, experimental electronic music and 360 music video. Then using technology, innovation and electronic music production skills to produce a new hybrid combination of audio and visual experiences into an innovative 360 music video project titled “Inwinccible 360”.

Keywords: 360 music video, electronic music, experimental music, inwinccible, mask changing, music production, music technology.

The project is a cooperation of engineering and mixing skills with the talents of student artists on Berklee Valencia campus. Collaborations with student musicians of various genres and musical backgrounds is the main course of the project. The goal is to enhance mixing skillsets to be able to deliver world-class sounding music of various styles and genres in terms of the soul of the music and the sound of it. The approach for mixing music is totally dependent on the creative and technical aspects of the music, the purpose and also the market it is focused to cater to. To be able to capture the essence of the artist’s creative vision with the state-of-the-art methods and technology has been the main focus of the project. Innovative techniques, based on the old tried-and-tested methods to record and mix have been explored for future prospects. A variety of mixes of varied genres have been accomplished throughout the course of the project.

OOPSYN is a Sci-Fi, steampunk virtual reality musical environment(VRMIs). It is a series of virtual sound making objects and musical instruments that a viewer interacts with to create their own sounds. Aesthetically, the virtual environment uses a Steam Punk look. The sound design will mirror the visual universe by using metallic and industrial sounds, which gives users an immersive experience in creating music. The goal of this project is to make art installation within a Virtual Realty (VR) universe where users can experience the process of making their own sound. A documentary/demonstration video of the making process and the work will be also provided. VR/Cross Reality(XR) has a lot of potential such as media, and further musical contents will be created in the future.

Form Constants is Vittoriano Di Vaio’s first project as VDiVaio. It is a solo performance of music and video art narrated by the artist himself, a story that recalls feelings of nostalgia in the aftermath of heartbreak and his coming to terms with uncertainty on the road that lies ahead. To tell this story the way he wanted, this artist needed to explore tools that were previously unfamiliar to him. In the process, he developed a custom audiovisual performance system, a skill set in projection mapping, and most importantly, a workflow for developing music and video content in parallel. Aside from the steep learning curve associated with these tasks, this artist encountered another challenge: finding his ‘sound’ within the music, and producing something that feels both original and authentic to himself. Going forward, this artist hopes to continue performing and adapting Form Constants for different live settings, while he works on publishing and promoting his flagship singles as VDiVaio.

Muralla is an EP of 5 songs that has been recorded and produced in Berklee College of Music. Conceptually, the EP evolve around the Arab Wall of Murcia, which plays a central role as an arch to tell a story of a character trying to tear down the wall to reach Murcia. The production is based on traditional latin singer-songwriter music, combined with elements of electronics that distance the genre towards a more authentic and unique sound. The main objective of the project is to create a new image for the Rey Lobo brand, allowing the group to evolve musically and eventually be embedded in the panorama of indie electronic folk music.

The basis of this project is to write and record an extended play (EP) in order to explore different tools and inspirational sources for composition. In addition, this project intends to offer listeners an audiovisual interactive experience for one of the tracks.

EP of 5 tracks making a fusion between traditional Latin music and electronic music.

The basis of this project is to develop a portfolio of works as a multimedia producer in the increasingly intertwined fields of music, sound and visual production. The final deliverable for this project will be a collection of works and documentation presented in the form of a website, focusing on but not limited to the role as Head of Music and Sound for a film produced in conjunction with fellow MPTI candidate Matt McIntyre, who is the head visual producer for the film. It will be shown at the City of Arts and Sciences IMAX Hemispheric Dome in 6.1 3D Sound in June 2017.

Choreosphere is a portable microcosm in which dancers come to terms with their art by designing spaces to ft their needs. Dancers will be able to transform their personal spaces into places in which they imagine themselves dancing whether it be for body strength training, inner confdence building, or as a choreographic aid. It will be constructed as a simulation foor plan of holograms encapsulated by a projector and semi-orthogonally arranged, transparent lenses.

For years, many people have listened to different kinds of music and decided they may not like a certain genre because of how it sounds. The purpose of this project is to bridge the gap between all genres by creating a new genre called “UniverSol”. An extended play (EP) of the UniverSol genre will be created and published on streaming sites such as Soundcloud and Bandcamp, along with a videotape that documents the production experience.

My Culminating Experience at Berklee Valencia will be a live-loop performance incorporating acoustic/digital instruments and custom visuals in a downtempo/electronic style. In addition to the performance, I will be starting a website and getting all social media accounts up to date to help brand myself as a music producer/performer.

This project is a study in the juxtaposition, and fusion of traditional classical instruments with electronic and rock textures. A traditional quartet set beside synthesizers, electric guitar and electric bass will be the main focus of the work. The goal is to explore what elements of each style blend most beautifully alongside one another. Visual accompaniment to the music will exist in essence to both enhance and mirror the fusion of the traditional with the modern. Fusion of practical effects with digital manipulation will be the route towards creating stimulating visuals.

Divergent Realities is a dark room installation that provides divergent perspectives between a black and white computer-generated audiovisual experience and a synesthetic perspective of that same environment through a binocular headset with technology similar to augmented reality. It explores and contrasts our perceived reality through technology and is meant to inspire reflection about how our reality could be perceived through machines.

Seclude is a three-part film series that explores the concepts of identity using storytelling, emotionally driven music, and first person immersion. This project explores the intersection of 360 degrees immersive video content, storytelling, and songwriting which gives perspective into the identity of the storytellers. The purpose is to provide the audience with deeper understanding of the storytellers – to explore the world through their eyes, to live their story, and to feel their emotions. Songwriting, storytelling, and immersion are all powerful means to connect to an audience, and this new content model will provide songwriters with full access to these tools so they may create art which moves human cultural understanding forward.

Stranger Devices: Performer Suite, its manual and demo videos and original music were developed throughout the 2016-2017 academic year from its proposal to the execution of the different project stages. The project comprises four Max for Live1 devices oriented to improve the workflow of live performances that include one or more computers with Ableton Live2 as a source of digital generated sound as well as outboard gear (analogue or digital) and traditional instruments together.

Creation of an art installation that focuses on chaotic phenomena as a better model to understand reality. The main goal of the installation is for the viewer to assimilate in an artistic way the concepts of reductionism, sensitivity to initial conditions and strange attractors and how these can be associated with our daily cognitive processes. In this way, identifying ourselves as chaotic systems.

Trip_Seat is an electronic music persona. The goal of this project is to develop and explore what it means to create interactive music experiences. These experiences will be manifested in the form of a dynamic A/V performance, and an interactive video game rich with lore. Taking inspiration from such artists as Damon Albarn and his Gorillaz project, Trip_Seat is intended to be a unique character with a fantastical origin story of betrayal, rage, and vengeance.

This CE project will combine my engineering and Dj’ing/ Live performance skills into one cohesive final product displaying my ability’s in both subjects. With creating each stem compiling my entire piece, I would like to perform my track using each stem on separate turntables and mix them during a live performance. My Culminating Experience project will consist of an original track produced by myself while featuring artists and instrumentalists from Berklee Valencia, Berklee Boston, and my contacts within the states. I would like to include a male vocalist as well as a female vocalist to feature on either my track’s hook, or harmonies thought-out the song. The track will be tracked, mixed, and mastered by myself in Studio A and AKSS scoring stage. The track would release on Spotify, iTunes, and Tidal as the first track under my own name on any of the 3 streaming services.

Journey through a Tempest is an audiovisual live performance for solo drummer inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. The sonic material is composed of recorded and processed material from natural environments, the city and acoustic instruments. Visuals are derived from footage of water as well as drums. The performance involves a drum set prepared to trigger audio and visual material in real time. The composition lasts for 11 minutes and takes the audience from pleasure to distress, from quiet calmness towards an ear-piercing and chaotic climax.

“Travel Far” is a 6 song EP immersing the listener into a fantastical realm of songwriting and sound-writing, with themes and emotions influenced by experiences in the real world.

The objective of this project was to create a diverse, wide-ranging professional sound library by the end of the program, accompanied with the release of 12 original productions and suitable artwork. This project will include a live DJ set, which will include the music, along with an attached press kit and streamlined social media presence.

A creative endeavor to build myself as an artists using hip-hop, funk, rock, soul and electronic influences in one. That includes six performance sets built in Ableton Live, live audio/visual performance set, branding, social media presence, website and portfolio that will be distributed to several electronic music labels. All of the samples used will be ripped from vinyl and chopped in a way that is my own. The main focus is to combine elements from Hip-hop, Funk, Electronic, Soul, movies samples and live instrumentation into a cohesive live set broken into six pieces that include a live band incorporating samples being triggered from the Ableton Push and visuals generated by Max MSP.

Artificial Irrelevance tackles the difficult task of writing song lyrics. The project explores the relationship between an author and his tools, and ultimately culminates in a long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network algorithm for generating song lyrics, and an EP of folk songs co-written with the algorithm.

The purpose of this Culminating Experience project is to develop an interactive music based on analog and digital instruments to explore its potential in production of music as well as live performance. An extended player or EP consists of four (4) songs were produced and mixed with different tools of software and hardware equipment that inspires the source for the composition in this project. This project may offer an interactive product that involves a custom-built analog rig that would be integrated to digital instruments to produce meaningful EP. It is hope that the demand for an integrated experience with physical products that participants have the chance to engage with and be inspired the products and services that will not be purely digital or purely analog, but hybrids of the two.

Noceur Pneuma is the name of the audio/visual artist, that's me, who performs live A/V live performances with/without installations and also aimed to have A/V experience exhibitions in Europe, related to his own music produced. His music is based on Minimal/Ethnic Techno.

The evolution of concerts throughout the years has enticed the inclusion of technological elements to enhance the musicians’ performance onstage and the audience’s experience. This inclusion has evolved into practical results achieved by using modern tools that bring about numerous possibilities. The addition of visuals in live shows has been a logical path in this audiovisual generation and it’s becoming even more recurrent in preset-day acts. The main focus of this project is to create an audiovisual performance that generates visuals reactant to the music being played in real time. This approach opposes a typical modus operandi of prerecorded videos, which are sequenced to play at specific points throughout a more conventional (but not limited) concert setting. The music is broken down and arranged into sequences that are triggered to recreate and remix original electronic music tracks while visuals are generated and manipulated by audio and MIDI. Through improvisation, spectators are able to appreciate the relation of the music with the imagery.

This is an immersive audio-visual performance in el Hemispheric theater that explores cognitive science through music and video art; using the interpretation of electrical brainwave data recorded from human minds.

The purpose of this document is to document the process of creating, editing, mixing and mastering for an engineer and performer.

Stray from the Path is a four song EP written in the style of Latin rock fusion. The EP will have two produced electronic songs, and two live recorded songs with real instruments. All of the money that will be made off of the EP will be donated to a charity to help recovering drug addicts.

The objective of this project is to create a three-song world fusion/experimental EP with folk songs from three different regions around the world.

ONAI is an audio/visual duo that makes Electronic Bass music, combining complex soundscapes with captivating visual narratives. ONAI guides the listener through a journey that is carefully curated by both members of the group who specialize in audio and visual live performance. ONAI is pushing the envelope by experimenting with crowd reactive technologies, and harnessing the energy of the audience to enhance the A/V experience.

Intangible discoveries can be obtained through the thought provoking frequencies of rhythm and poetry. Once melodic dynamics and subtle elements arise, there exists an infinite force in the eyes of the beholder. Mindful by Amato PM is a conscious hip-hop/rap album that has a clear and concise focus: to elicit inner greatness. The various layers to this concept are expressed both lyrically and sonically throughout the long playing. The intention is for the record to be played throughout, while each track blends to form a larger movement. Each stands on it’s own two feet, but the full listen through generally brings forth a more transparent version of the artist’s vision. It is our daily actions that define who we are as a person. The jagged slope of life, with ups and downs, allow for us to discover new concepts, practices, and habits. These days then make up the time we spend in the world have. Chance is quite a powerful concept, which makes an appearance in Mindful through the compositional structure and generative tactics. Other topics, such as astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics, also state cases in several tracks. It seems as if the topics each play their role in the larger matter or in better expression the motivation as a whole. It is as if you can sense the ocean’s waves flowing in your veins, when the light bleeds through and you change your ways. Dream. For a dream is never false, unless you deem it so.

The purpose of this project is the development of the Audio/visual brand, ONAI, for festival performance and as a basis for post-grad school artistic development. The project will consist of an EP release of original music, a film about the brand aesthetic, and the creation and development of the live show.

Moove is an automated, motorized, professional music video motion controller, cater for both enthusiasts and professionals.

The basis of this project is to compose, produce, mix, and master an extended play (EP), using custom acoustic and digital sounds, that blends electronic dance music genres in unique ways. Additionally, a construction kit of loops, one-shots, and Serum presets will be reverse engineered from and sold alongside the EP.

VOCALOMO​ is a 4-track vocal productions which Martin Lo ​(Artist Name: Martin Lucy​) produced in this academic year. The concept of this project is to explore into vocal productions with various technologies which we may come across with in live performances, the goal is to fuse A Cappella music with technology in a new way. This project serves as an artist portfolio (himself as an A Cappella Bass Singer)​ and a production portfolio (himself as an Audio Engineer​). VOCALOMO​ consists of various types of genres which includes pop, alternative folk, classic rock & classical instrumental music. Moreover, one of the four deliverables is an original track that Martin Lucy worked with Sean Goldman (a student from SFTV programme), and the other three tracks are songs that he arranged into *A Cappella covers and remixes. This whole project has been changing its scope since the first day he entered the school, modifications of the project were made during the three prototypes from December 2016 to May 2017, and here are the final deliverables.

The basic concept of the project is to record a 4 track EP which mainly focuses on the collaboration between classical and electronic music in particular. In addition, this project will include am audio visual interactive performance for one of the tracks, which will involve projection mapping on a 3D sculpture synchronised with the music.

Abroad is a short film that serves as a music video for two original compositions that I have produced. The story consists of a fictionalized version of myself, who reflects on his life one day during his stay in Valencia. The music discusses adulthood, relationships, and partying, as well as some other themes. The project also serves as my debut production in both film and music, and the film is intended to launch my professional career.

An artistic and scientific exploration in the field of artificial intelligence, and how computers might “choose” to create music.

The project will be a 5-track EP, with 4 original tunes and an arrangement of a jazz standard, with each song conveys a certain emotion. The genre will be pop music, with the pianist/keyboardist the primary artist, featuring different vocalists. For the music aspect, the project will focus on developing a personalized sound and style on piano/keyboard. For the technology aspect, the project will focus on recording and mixing for acoustic instruments.

For my Culminating Experience, I would like to invent myself as an artist. At the moment I have absolutely no online presence related to my musical identity. This places me in a unique position to control my first impression to the world as AISEO. I will make and release my first album of original music. I intend to record, produce, mix, and master the entire album myself. I will create at least three professional music videos to show that I am skilled in a variety of technological areas. This will serve me well for potential employment opportunities. I will start my own website where I will post any information relevant to my artist persona, as well as a Soundcloud page, YouTube Account, Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram account as AISEO. My long-term goal is to become an electronic music producer, and be able to make music and perform for a living. This project would benefit me moving forward because of the importance of making my music available to the world and having a strong online persona.

My culminating experience has been a collaborative effort between myself and three other peers, where each half of our group represented the MPTI class and the other half from the Global Entertainment & Music Business (GEMB) class. The MPTI students consisted of Aly Haddad and I as the creative participants. The GEMB students consisted of Brielle Blount and Alicia Callier as the marketing and event coordinators. Máquinas Y Máscaras was a multimedia immersive event that bridged the world of fashion with the music industry. We developed an interactive space with the local store Santo Spirito Vintage (SSV) that displayed 90s vintage street wear accompanied by music and art installations. The overall concept of the event was to have two representations of “classes” that spectators could identify with in a world dominated by Machines & Masks. The machines represent the musical component that is operated by the mechanical turntable and the masks represent the clothing and fashion component merging into a cohesive atmosphere.

My culminating experience is creating a multimedia body of work to be featured and presented as part of a particular immersive event titled Máquinas y Máscaras (“Machines and Masks”). Our primary goal when curating this event was to bridge the world of fashion with the music industry using media that already exist in each field. To fully realize the concept, we partnered with Santo Spirito Vintage, a Valencian boutique located in Barrio El Carmen. One of our main focuses was to bring groups of people with some shared interest to an event hosted at a local store. The theme and framework of the event was built around three “classes” to appeal to a wide range of potential audience members. The first class is Machine, targeted to individuals who are attracted to and fascinated by technology. The second is Masked, targeted to individuals who express themselves through music. The final is SSV (Santo Spirito Vintage), targeted at individuals interested in 80s and 90s streetwear.

This project will be a live multimedia performance using three dimensional visuals and original music, which have a unified concept and story arc. Not dissimilar from a musical theatre performance, the audience experience will be an immersive one. Visuals and audio will be synced so that the audience perceives itself as both inside and outside the story.

Developing ways to present myself has always been a difficult task. Although my skillset is broad and tool kit is sharp, I’m often told that it’s difficult to pin down exactly what I do. It was the goal of my CE to figure out how to talk about who I am as an artist. I spent the first half of the year researching “personal branding” and experiment by writing different biographies about myself. I noticed that there were two very distinct styles, one extremely dry and professional, the other more experimental and abstract. I developed these two identities into the AH! brand to represent the mad scientist, and Odd Object Studios to represent my more professional work. In addition I decided to release music under a new musical moniker “Oddman.” For each of
these projects I developed a visual style that will be used in my websites, business cards, and letterhead.

For my CE, I intend to produce, compose, record, mix and perform a collection of 5 power-metal songs, with a professional level music video to accompany one song.

For my CE, I’d like to craft a Master’s Engineering Portfolio of 30-45 minutes of music that I will track, mix, and master myself. I will mostly be operating out of my established comfort zone - focusing on styles that I don’t typically produce, such as jazz, electronic, world, r&b, hip-hop, and acoustic singer-songwriter music. By exposing myself to new musical and technological frontiers, readjusting the way I listen, and finding new ways to translate emotions effectively from the mind of the artist, to the ear of the listener, I hope to build a portfolio that will show more than enough professional and artistic prowess to open doors to new opportunities all over the world, whether that may lead to working in top-tier studios, pursuing my education even further at another academic institution, or becoming a pedagogue myself.

For my culminating experience, I would like to create an album of electronic music that builds on music I am already making but focuses on the concept of what it is like to have a speech impediment. I plan on making this album mostly instrumental, with a few guest artists mostly in the form of vocalists. I would like this album to be composed of eight songs total, and progress in chronological order of my experience as a stutterer. As is true with any struggle humans have to overcome, I have had a lot of ups and downs, thus there will be a lot of tension and release throughout the album. With the release of this album, I would like to have physical releases with my label, MelodySoul, as well as have a music video that I direct and edit for the “single” of the record. As an artist, I am a hip-hop and Neo-Soul producer, focusing on vibey grooves with hard hitting drums and vintage-sounding keyboard and synthesizer sounds. I would like to further expand my repertoire by adding new-age bass sounds, focusing heavily on intricate sound design to this record. Combining easy-going grooves with hard-cutting bass will also help illustrate the drastic changes in the my ups and downs of my speech impediment.

This Culminating Experience proposal therefore seeks to promote an analysis of changes in popular EDM in the last five years and to highlight successful trends and developments. By analysing these developments, estimations into future developments of EDM might be revealed. These estimations will then be incorporated into the creation of an EP of five songs that draw influence from different genres in each song. This EP will be ready for distribution by the end of June 2016. This process aims to create a unique product that is appropriate for commercial distribution and promotion. The uniqueness of this product is hoped to generate a great deal of interest promoting the artist’s potential success.

d.Cluttering is a narrative exploring the relationship between physical/digital clutter in our daily lives and our individual mental/emotional spaces. Expressed through an installation composed of sound and video, the piece comments on the correlation and contribution of the clouding vision and our collective culture’s obsession with stuff. Building on this topic, made popular by the recent NY Times BestSeller book “The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up:The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organzing” by Marie Kondo and ancient traditions of Chinese Feng Shui, d.Cluttering questions the attachment to material goods that are often superimposed with meaning. Similarly to every day objects, sound (music) and words can also be conceived as clutter. By intentionally using methods of “participatory culture” to comment on “consumer culture,” the piece uses text, sound clips and video footage deliberately composed and arranged as ‘symbols’ to represent “clutter” in a collagery fashion, with digital “cutting up” of sonic palettes, letters, punctuation and visuals. Playing with unorthodox methods in sound creation, d.Cluttering is composed to represent sonic clutter, by aurally illustrating the duality of near-silence and chaotic mess to depict a sensory process of mental de-cluttering. In addition to the auditory portrayal of ‘clutter’, the piece utilizes video footage to create visual collages inspired by the historical narrative initiated by “dadaism,” “sound poems,” and “sacred art,” this piece intends to comment on the importance of being mindfully aware of clutter and the decluttering in our very own kind of “sacred space.”

My Culminating Experience consists of the creation, producing and performance of material for an EP. I expect the final EP to contain at least 3 tracks that I feel satisfied with, and confident releasing. To reach this, I intend to compose at least 10 songs that I can select from, having in mind that the EP tracks are stepping stones toward building a repertoire for a full album that can be performed on stage. My aim is dual, as I first of all, wish to challenge and develop my own musical identity, and at the same time improve my musical productions skills and ability to write music for the use of other artist. Behind this dual aim is a wish to manifest what my own musical vision is, and how these express itself in every song a write and produce.

A standalone acoustic-digital instrument, evolved from the flamenco cajón, that expands the percussionists’ toolbox and fusion the organic nature of the cajón with the endless possibilities of the digital universe. Using pressure and sound sensors to capture playing information, this instrument will be able to communicate with existing and most used applications through hardware and software bridges like Arduino and MAX. This instrument will be an evolution of the flamenco cajón, and will start from a regular cajón that expand its capabilities using sensors, and a micro-computer to make a complete sound and effects generation system controlled by the cajon player that could be plugged directly into a speaker or amp. It will also serve as a MIDI controller that you can plug into a computer or a MIDI device. The micro-computer could be a single board (like Arduino) or a board arrangement (Arduino + Raspberry Pi, Arduino + Extensions...).

My Culminating Experience is a collaborative project with a student from the Performance Program - Danielle Turner. Together, we have formed a duo under the moniker L’aVaaz, under which we will produce music with electronic, indie and dance music influences. The final product will be an EP consisting of 4-6 tracks, all written and recorded at Berklee Valencia. We will be writing one track each week until the time comes to decide which compositions will makeup the EP. Danielle and I are from different parts of the world (New Delhi, India – Austin, Texas, USA), which acts as one of our biggest strengths as our unique backgrounds and influences compliment our similar music taste.

My CE Becoming a Digital Humanist: An Autobiographical Nonlinear Digital Story (BDH) is a six episode nonlinear digital story demonstrating the power and importance of autobiography. It tells the story of my educational journey from Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) to Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain (BV). Within the story I explore the themes of race, tradition, individuality and my desired place in the academic area of the digital humanities. Through experimental music, conceptual art and basic documentation viewers are invited to decipher my personal sense of becoming and discover their own sense of self-actualization through observation of my story. This digital story has been created through the process of artistic research as related to the practice of music and music technology within the MPTI program. The six episodes are to be watched in any order viewers choose, as long as all episodes are viewed in their entirety.

My CE is an open source collection of drum tracks for the upcoming musicians and / or producer.

My project consists of building a chair that solves all the problems related to inconsistencies within acoustic spaces. With this product you will be able to listen to your monitor speakers with the best possible response in any space. This project will be based on acoustic and architectural research, making sure that your ears are placed in a correct acoustic environment. To achieve this, I will be following some principles of physics such as “the head should not be situated in a space with parallel walls, to avoid frequency cancelations issues”, “the correct placement of acoustic absorption materials” and “The Lyon method of measured acoustic reflections”.

The creative process of O.D. [On Deck], the name of the project, has been rewarding. It is a five track EP featuring collaborations with seven artists and two producers. What makes this EP innovative is that its productions consist of recording, composing, sequencing, sound design and sampling. The skills I acquired over this year consisted of recording techniques, production within Ableton Live, and mixing and mastering techniques across all DAW’s. These skills were put into practice and made this project come to life.

Project W/A\V began like any innovation, as a solution to a problem. As a violinist, I wondered how I could implement electronics into my own performances. I toyed around with guitar pedals and ran into a couple of major problems. My largest concern was that the effects that I wanted to use were static. What if I wanted to make a filter sweep? What if I wanted to change the size of my reverb? What If I wanted to change the rate of my tremolo? What if I wanted to mix the signals of each effect? I would have to stop playing, reach down at my pedalboard and change those settings, and even then, the effects would stay unwavering. With this in mind I began to research more into what was already available at the time within modern electronic music. I was enamored of the flexibility that some of my favorite DJ’s had with their sound. They were able to manipulate the sound in every which way possible. I was envious, and I decided that that type of flexibility would be something the I would like to implement to the instrument that I know, the violin. My goal with project W/A\V is to be a developer in the world of electro-acoustic music by shedding new light on a fresh way to manipulate an acoustic instrument live. With a growing audience for progressive modern music. With our growing knowledge of music and technology and a expanding taste for electronic music in the mainstream, this only seems to be an appropriate and strong step forward in the world of electro-acoustic music and new music as a whole.

The objective of the project Sense 6 (S6) is to have a very unique experience while listening to music and to become aware of all of your senses involved in the process. The sense of touch through vibrations; smell, through fragrances; sight, through visuals; taste, through flavors; and hearing, with an original piece of music; to boost the senses into a memorable adventure that will create an amazing number of new possibilities to express and perceive art. S6 brings the artist the possibility to create a complete masterpiece, which means to be able to show the total artistic perception of the composer, and deliver to the public a song with an original and interesting sensorial combination. It is important to add that for the reasons exposed, this experience is also directed to people with any kind of sensory disabilities, offering them the possibility of perceiving a song with their other senses.

1. Produce an EP called “5”, the number five has a lot of significance in my life and also is the number associated with communication, and I would like to communicate through music.
2. Create a Mobile App/ Running campaign “Run for your life”. This goal is related to the song “Run Chata Run” a very special song to me because I
created it while running next to my friend Chata, whose story is related in the lyrics.

As an electronic music lover, my main complaint with electronic dance music events has been the lack of a ‘live’ element to it. Throughout my life, I have been involved in different fields including Music Production, live performance, Technology & Design. As technology progressed, my fascination towards midi controllers increased and I was overwhelmed by the infinite possibilities of live electronic performances. So I knew my cumulative experience here at Berklee had to be more than just original music. In brief, my project was to identify my artistic brand by developing a custom live show with excessive use of Innovative technology (including a custom designed controller), original music and multimedia elements for a unique audio/visual experience.

The polygong is a new kind of conceptual instrument that maps familiar theoretical harmonic and melodic structures to a geometrically intuitive physical interface.

My Culminating Experience project will feature a new album of original instrumental music accompanied by a variety of supporting visual materials that will aid in promoting the album online and across social channels.

12 song album and live show multimedia experience that goes with it.

The work is conceptual sound installation. It embodies its meaning and aesthetic through its appearance, the components, the sound and the process of the making it. It mainly explores the idea of Minimalism and its impact on mass culture.

My project is based on the same ideology of MIDI, but through a microphone, which I intend to call a MIDI-MIC. This microphone will allow us to seize the moment of inspiration. Without a means of capturing that particular idea at that particular moment, the inspiration is often forgotten within minutes. This project, for example, will allow us to log into Protools, add a MIDI track and by pushing a button on the MIDI-MIC, we have the ability to select the key that we want the song to play in. The MIDI-MIC will automatically transpose the notes we sing or hum into the selected key and tempo of the song. We can then assign any musical instrument into the track, which will then create "our master piece". Through this automated process, we can take advantage of that moment of inspiration that is often times lost from not being able to seize the moment before the inspiration leaves our head. The MIDI-MIC will also have the ability to be used for live sound concerts (performance), professional productions, recording studios, etc. Quite simply, just by giving a tune with our voice and choosing an assigned instrument, you can create complex compositions quickly without scores and without forgetting the idea.

I am going to create an EP of original music belonging to a genre I would like to popularize called soulful pop- technically falling under popular music but with more grit and spice than your average radio hit.

Moving to a new place can often be difficult and uncomfortable. I would like to create an interactive installation which uses live tweets to show instances of relocation and immigration throughout the world. If successful, the project will allow viewers to feel some kind of connection between their own experiences and the stories shown in the installation.

For my culminating experience I plan to compose an original seven-track electronic album and produce four associated studio videos. The album will showcase my personal style along with my findings on the underpinnings of electronic music. To learn about these substructures in electronic music I will employ research, active listening, and personal musical experimentation. The four studio videos I create will each correspond to a track on my album and essentially function as online tutorials of my techniques and theories on electronic music. However, they will also document my journey making my album, further my online presence, showcase my teaching abilities, and market my music. I will release both my album and the studio videos on YouTube (individually spread over time, as well as Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, Soundcloud). My individual tracks will feature visual audio spectrums made within After Effects (similar to many record label YouTube channels such as Monstercat).

There is little to none-Spanish speaking content about Audio Engineering and Music production on the internet, even though Spanish is the one of the most widely spoken languages in the world with 414,000,000 native speakers. English speaking population in Latin America goes between 4% - 12% depending on the country, because of this English Audio Engineering and Music Production content hardly achieves popularity on such countries. Globalization is becoming a reality, people all over the world are uniting in one common thinking entity but there is still a lot to develop in terms of non-English electronic knowledge sharing. Estudio Central is going to be the first platform of audio engineering video content sharing for Spanish speakers in the world. Through educational and informative videos, I pretend to share the basis of audio engineering and music production to all those who wish to acquire the necessary skills to record, edit, mix and master their own productions or 3rd party projects. My main exposure platform will be the free video- sharing website YouTube. Since the creation of the Internet, multimedia-sharing experiences have become the main medium for knowledge exchange in the world, I want to embrace this tendency and deliver all my content through audiovisual productions. The reason I chose YouTube is mainly because it is the biggest video-sharing platform in the world having over 1 billion users, and all their content is free of charge. I believe knowledge should be free of charge and available to everyone that wishes to learn a specific trait or subject.

It is rarely that phenomenon takes place in this world. In the world of Indian art music, the advent of trinity changed the course & perception of music. This project is my initiative to revive the famous compositions of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar, a famous composer of Carnatic Indian classical music
whose compositions are famous and he has left behind a legacy to cherish. As a project I want to lay my hands on the publications of C.P.Brown (1833) and that of Manali Chinnaswami Mudaliar (1893) and create a fusion performance of this using the school ensemble, fusing the vocals with piano, western strings and wind international rhythms maintaining the original identity and spirit of the compositions. I would like to take up this project due to my predilection towards this field of art, this genre of music. This project is a collaboration with Ms. Sahana Kumar from the Global entertainment & Music Business program who will be heading the management aspects of this project- dealing with event management, marketing and production activities throughout the process. We have kept Sporting Club Russafa as a probable venue to perform.

Using new technology, my Culminating Experience project is producing an E.P replicating the sonic characteristics of music that was recorded before digital technology. Creating this vintage style of house music, I hope to break the barrier between modern electronic dance music by using resampled vinyl sounds and live percussions to fabricate the dust and authenticity of where this genre originated from.

My CE will focus on building Midi controller software, which can control by Leap-motion. And side project of my Electronic Music Productions for my controller software demonstration. My Goal is build one Leap-motion Midi controller desktop software and one Leap-motion Midi controller software under virtual reality world that have 360-degree controllable faders.

The new sound: I will make a record, featuring myself as an artist/producer. I will sing, I will make tracks, I will dub mix, I will make my beautiful music, as Ben put it, my Dark Side of the Moon. I will try every technique I can, quantity, to arrive at quality. My years as an engineer/producer have taught me how to flesh out tracks, make them solid, and shine. Now it’s time to use the resources of Berklee Valencia to add some captivating details and future roots dubs to that experience.

In fulfillment for my Culminating Experience, Yogi Jen Kaiser and myself produced a unique movement medicine and guided meditation experience. It included a live Dj set, projected visuals, a live percussionist, and lighting designs, centered around the theme of love. My goal was to create a musical presentation that people would respond to with sentiment and emotion. In addition to this response, when one experiences remarkable distinctive sets, it takes longer for positive memories to fade away. Thus leading to my primary objective and questioning; how the aforementioned had the ability to internally change us in the way it does and to the extent that it does. Consequently, this was experimented and provided prospective on where and how I would continue this journey.

My name is XANDR. I am a singer, ongwriter, producer, keyboardist, and dancer. Those last two things have never really gone together; being a pianist and dancer. Hence I set forth to manipulate music through means of my movement in order to organically incorporate my dance into music. It was a long road, but I developed a performance utilizing gestural control to manipulate my voice, music, and projected visuals.

During this past year at Berklee College of Music Valencia, I have been working on my thesis project, also known as my Culminating Experience. As a producer and DJ, I wanted to tie both of these elements together within the project. Therefore, I chose to do a live performance, as well as compose, produce, and engineer an EP. The third component of my C.E. is a documentary, which highlights the creation process that went on throughout the year as I developed both of these projects.

For my Culminating Experience, I will be completing my first EP under the moniker Chudan, which translates to middle ground or center of balance. The EP is titled Dojo and contains four tracks. A Dojo is a martial arts training hall dedicated to refinement of the spirit. The EP will be completed on the 28th of June and was presented on June 27th at Club 76. Although not a part of the thesis, I will also release a remix EP shortly after graduation.

My culminating experience project is the creation of four specific things; the creation of an EP with the George Lacson Project (GLP), a promo video for said video, two recorded tracks or original work, and an artist portfolio. The GLP EP is the direct result of collaboration within a group of people that I have been working and performing with since September 2014. We have created songs and done over a dozen performances in Valencia and its surrounding areas. We are a group whose music is influenced by funk and R&B. In addition, to this I have created a promotional video for the EP that is approximately 2 minutes in length. Moreover, I have created two original solo tracks using the TC Helicon Voicelive Touch2 and an artist portfolio video that will feature myself as an artist and these two pieces.

interim is an immersive sound installation that blends generative musical structures with live improvisation to create a meditative auditory experience. It explores the efficacy of ambient music in a controlled environment to induce a state of relaxation and introspection in the audience. The installation was first held in Sala C, where we provided four hammocks in which the audience could relax. The lighting in the room was kept dim, lit primarily by projected video of soothing abstract imagery while we performed an extended set of ambient electronic music. We joined forces in order to create a venue in which to present our music and further define a structure around which it is oriented. In the process, we solidified our direction and philosophy: music as nap therapy. With this goal in place the project rapidly took shape, with the room chosen and organized in order to provide minimal sensory input, and furniture selected to provide a relaxing and open way to experience the music. The original plans for an interactive audio/visual installation evolved into a minimalistic, generative electronic performance, a sort of anti-concert, in which the performers are out of sight, the visuals are designed to be utilitarian and the goal of the music is to put the audience to sleep.

Our Culminating Experience is a six track album titled “Wild Prison of Youth” to be finished by June 28th with an additional live performance on July 3rd as part of the Lagos de Conciertos Series at Berklee Valencia. Our CE melds analog hardware and digital software with an emphasis on creating studio and live versions of each song. Our music does not fit into any particular genre. Instead, we have blended musical styles from our two countries of origin, the United States and Ecuador, as well as those of our fellow classmates at Berklee Valencia with whom we have collaborated. They go from House and Techno electronic music to folk music from different parts of South America.

For the music portion of ‘Holy Heart Punctured Lung’, I wrote, arranged, recorded, and produced nine original songs, and I arranged, recorded and produced one cover, ‘Video Games’ written by Lana Del Rey. My goals for this LP also titled, ‘Holy Heart Punctured Lung’, were to improve upon my recording, arranging, and producing to better communicate my musical ideas in a cohesive and innovative way by reimagining any sound as an instrument.

Dawn of the Wylde is a compilation of electronic music tracks. These tracks use elements from traditional styles of music such as classical, jazz, tango, and latin rock. These are fused with the darker, dance-oriented genres of trap and dubstep. Some experimental sounds are thrown into the mix when appropriate in order to complement the blend as well.

My Culminating experience project is a band live performance that features custom made technology and visuals. The musical style is electronic rock and the band features drums, electric guitar, Stick and electronic backing tracks. My purpose with this multi dimensional project was to think of the creation of technology and its use at the same time. This was for a simple reason: Applicability. Whenever we think of innovation we must start from the problem, not the solution. Starting with the need or problem we try to solve is a must for building something useful others can relate to. If we start from the product or a beautiful idea, and then try to find its use, it is much more likely we end up building a gadget or technology that is useless for others.

My culminating experience will be a live performance demonstrating new skills I have acquired during my time at Berklee Valencia form Fall 2014 to Summer 2015. The work is as follows:
• Live Performance – Original songs from newly released EP on Berklee’s Disrupcion Records.
• Writing, producing, recording, mixing, and mastering five (5) original songs, in conjunction with band members, released on Berklee’s Disrupcion Records.
• Custom 3D Projection Mapping Structure designed using Sketchup CAD modeling software.
• Creation of visual performance interface using Adobe Premier, Adobe After Effects, and Resolume
• Live controller and MIDI Interface (Orbit)

The DJANK YUCCA Performance System utilizes a production technique that DY has coined audio-quilting. Audio-quilting involves aspects of DJing – threading together short musical fragments into a larger, cohesive musical journey – and yet, audio- quilting involves production along with performance. Rather than focusing on producing complete tracks, DY focused on creating segments that would fit together and move the narrative forward. This catalogue of segments can be arranged in a variety of sequences in Ableton Live’s session mode, all the while maintaining cohesion and momentum.

My career in music began in Puerto Rico in 2003 at the age of 16 as the bass player and founder of the reggae band Natural Soul. From the first sound I was able to make on my instrument, I knew that music was what I wanted to dedicate my life to. Since then I’ve played in many bands, toured, graduated “cum laude” from Berklee College of Music with a dual major in Performance and Electronic Production & Design, but most importantly I have discovered my passion for DJing and producing electronic dance music; Techno and House, to be more specific.

The technology industry that specializes in music is highly established, resulting in a period of transition and introduction of a majority of new products in the process of production and live performance. The aim of this work is to integrate an iPod touch in the body of an electric guitar, giving the artist the ability to control speci=ic parameters of his own music from different applications in order to enrich the performance. Together with this innovative project, I will write and produce an EP of electronic rock music.

interim is an immersive sound installation that blends generative musical structures with live improvisation to create a meditative auditory experience. It explores the efficacy of ambient music in a controlled environment to induce a state of relaxation and introspection in the audience. The installation was first held in Sala C, where we provided four hammocks in which the audience could relax. The lighting in the room was kept dim, lit primarily by projected video of soothing abstract imagery while we performed an extended set of ambient electronic music. We joined forces in order to create a venue in which to present our music and further define a structure around which it is oriented. In the process, we solidified our direction and philosophy: music as nap therapy. With this goal in place the project rapidly took shape, with the room chosen and organized in order to provide minimal sensory input, and furniture selected to provide a relaxing and open way to experience the music. The original plans for an interactive audio/visual installation evolved into a minimalistic, generative electronic performance, a sort of anti-concert, in which the performers are out of sight, the visuals are designed to be utilitarian and the goal of the music is to put the audience to sleep.

The work contains three major concepts in research: Recording, Promoting and Live Performance. The application of this work is applied to the Music Project FERRER, a Latin American Rock & Pop project where my tasks are: Singer – Songwriter, Lead Performer and Creative Director.

Ecuadorian Grooves was born in the Spring of 2014. Its main goal was redefining and innovating Ecuadorian music by rescuing traditional rhythms and music styles and fusing them with contemporary music genres, thereby creating new sounds that will attract a young audience as well as future generations. The main objective of this culminating experience was to produce an EP called ALMA (that means, soul), comprised of two original songs, written using traditional Ecuadorian rhythms, and two modern arrangements of folk songs, with redefined contemporary music elements, including hybrid composition and innovative technology. The second objective was to produce a live performance focusing on the interaction between Ableton Live and a live ensemble, creating unique compositions that combined the organic sound of the musicians on stage with the new electronic sound design.

For my Culminating Experience I decided to create a professional multimedia portfolio that would capture my identity as an artist, engineer, and producer.

As I embarked on my second year here at Berklee Valencia, I made a choice from the beginning to do things different. I didn’t want to take the easy way out. I wanted to challenge myself by dong something I never thought I would or could. After some careful thinking, I decided to combine my two years at Berklee into a project that would have real world applications (no pun intended).

Imagining Colombia is an interactive performance in the form of a story tale that recreates the Pacific Region in Colombia with the help of sound design, music and technology. Putting together the perfect elements Children will be able to imagine smells, sensations and the entire environment while learning specific facts of that part of the Colombian culture.

An array of sensors to be mounted on a standard Ping-Pong table to feed a computer application that will interpret the timing and score of every match into an original piece of music representing the contours and dynamics of the match.

Where We Go is a soundscape built in Virtual Reality. Using over 300 unique sound sources, a virtual space roughly equivalent in size to a commercial airliner factory, and several simple AIs, the piece aims to create a surreal space that is both musically generative, as well as reactive to the user as they move through it. As Virtual Reality is a nascent technology, I've had to teach myself a lot about working with it as a new medium for the creation of audio-visual art. From initial conception to final execution, the work has gone through several major revisions, and throughout the process, I've been able to holistically incorporate in to it the new understandings and techniques that I've learned along the way.

Culture, a debut EP, consists of 5 tracks and is approximately 20 minutes in total. Each track represents a different era or influence that has shaped my musical influence.

Reggae and dub are really two separate genres. Take a song like Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” for example. By itself it is obviously a Bob Marley song, with him as the main creative engine and focus behind the song. But if a dub producer like Lee Perry were to take the master tracks of that recording, strip away the vocals and instruments periodically, add an enormous amount of delay and reverb, and possibly talk or sing over it himself; you now have not only a new song by a new artist, but an entirely new genre of music that exists almost completely in the electronic realm. This in a
sense is what I’ve been trying to accomplish this year for my Culminating Experience.

The DJANK YUCCA Performance System utilizes a production technique that DY has coined audio-quilting. Audio-quilting involves aspects of DJing – threading together short musical fragments into a larger, cohesive musical journey – and yet, audio- quilting involves production along with performance. Rather than focusing on producing complete tracks, DY focused on creating segments that would fit together and move the narrative forward. This catalogue of segments can be arranged in a variety of sequences in Ableton Live’s session mode, all the while maintaining cohesion and momentum.

My Culminating Experience is the end of my search for an artistic identity. It is also the beginning of a path full of hard work, continual learning and innovation. My work consists of an EP called “Noespor nada.” It features 3 original tracks, produced in Ableton Live, that merge Ecuadorian sounds and rhythms with styles like hip-hop, glitch and bass music. I am making ‘’Postcolonial’’ electronic music under the alias Fantoche. In addition to the EP, I created a live performance that includes visual projection onto a mapped structure and a custom mask equipped with LEDs for a mini light show on my face. Both visual elements are synchronized to the music to create a synesthetic experience.

My focus at the beginning of the year was on creating music that was pleasant enough to be played at the beach during a sunset. I thought that this was my CE. But as time passes, I decide to push my limits by creating music outside my comfort zone. The fall semester is over, and I realize that I have acquired the right skills to produce, compose, and mix any genre of music I can imagine. Then suddenly it hits me! It’s not about a specific theme (sunset music) and it’s not about the music either. In this world, we have to define ourselves. By doing so, it is easier to see the bigger picture. All of a sudden, everything is clearer. I have to choose a symbol to represent my music, my work. It is the same as a superhero trying to protect his identity, by day he is Bruce Wayne and by night he is Batman. In other words, I work on my music and whenever I perform, I choose to become the symbol that represents my work.

The Culminating Experience Project is three out of the five movements. Apart from playing music with body movement, it is also a hybrid of everything I have learned in the Music Technology Innovation Program, including Composition, Programming, Sound Design, Controller building, Live Performance, Real time Arts and Logo Design. I use Max/ MSP/ Jitter to generate real time visuals and control information from motion sensor and send information to Ableton and Arduino. Ableton Live is mainly used to build back up tracks, triggering clips, loops and sound samples, manipulate sound in real time and send transport information to Max using Rewire mode. I also designed sound using Massive, Z3ta+2 and Stutter Edit, built LED Table by Arduino, and used Leap Motion, Hot hand and Orbit as performance tools.

Our Culminating Experience is a six track album titled “Wild Prison of Youth” to be finished by June 28th with an additional live performance on July 3rd as part of the Lagos de Conciertos Series at Berklee Valencia. Our CE melds analog hardware and digital software with an emphasis on creating studio and live versions of each song. Our music does not fit into any particular genre. Instead, we have blended musical styles from our two countries of origin, the United States and Ecuador, as well as those of our fellow classmates at Berklee Valencia with whom we have collaborated. They go from House and Techno electronic music to folk music from different parts of South America.

For my culminating experience as part of the Music Technology Innovation masters degree, I have produced an extended play (EP) album under my artist name “Tsunami Tsteve”. The album is entitled “The Russafa EP”. Russafa is the neighborhood in Valencia, Spain where I lived during my academic year at Berklee Valencia, and as such is the place where I officially got my start as an electronic music producer. Also, Russafa is an Arabic word that means “garden”. A garden is a place where one plants seeds, cultivates things, and watches them grow. For me, this album represents me cultivating my production skills and growing as a professional.

I am extremely interested in Augmented reality, and its application toward sound – specifically spatial audio. Thus, for my Culminating Experience I made an augmented reality panner in Unity. I did this by mounting a Leap Motion on an Oculus Rift (Leap-Rift), and downloading the Leap Motion assets package for Unity. This allowed me to get my hands in the scene with near zero latency hand tracking.

My culminating experience, entitled “When Worlds Collab”, is a portfolio of collaborative studio recordings where I filled roles such as songwriter, guitarist, producer, engineer, mixer, and mastering engineer. The project highlights several different musical genres and production styles; spanning jazz, pop, R&B, metal, and EDM; also representing nationalities such as American, Spanish, Ecuadorian, Puerto Rican, Chilean, and Chinese. This worldly project highlights my overall skills as a Swiss army knife in the studio displaying versed musicianship, modern and competitive engineering/mixing skills, and hopefully, some hits! The main component of the physical work consists of four original studio recordings, along with a promotional video and original album art all available for free on YouTube and SoundCloud. Each song was a completely different and innovative production process, in which I had to wear many hats, in order to achieve high quality studio track. This project is embedded with state- of-the-art recording, editing, mixing and mastering, techniques.

My culminating experience is a live performance incorporating theater and music. I have weaved a short story based on the life and death of my brother. The performance is three original fully developed a cappella compositions and three short stories celebrating his life. The ideas for a lot of my sounds are influenced by experiences I have had in Egypt in 2010.