On this page, you can find the Culminating Experience (CE) Projects for all graduate students from the Berklee College of Music master’s program Music Production, Technology, and Innovation (MPTI) from 2015 – present. Click on any title for more information and access to the full paper and other deliverables (if available).
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MURALLA: Composition, recording and production of Rey Lobo’s EP
Víctor Miguel Hernández Martínez
2018Muralla 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.
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OOPSYN: Out of Place Synthesizer
Tomokazu Hiroki
2018OOPSYN 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.
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Jasmine Olinga: A Debut EP
Jasmine Howard
2018This 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.
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EP
Jordan James
2018Create 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.
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Video Album: An exploration in visuals for music Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Music Production Technology and Innovation
Elizabeth G. Kereakoglow
2018This 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.
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The Chariot: A Narrative Exploration in the Digital World
Samuel D. Kittinger
2018With 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.
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GRAVITY DUO: A BRAND OF AUDIO VISUAL EXPERIENCE
Phui Kuan Kok
2018This 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.
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Chasing Trance: The Initial Tracks
Graham A. Larson
2018The 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.
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Cultural Intersection: The Exploration of YLOH’s Artistic Identity
Andres Llano
2018Andres 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.
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‘Chroma’: A Multimedia Immersive Experience
Eduardo Antonio Mariné Martínez
2018An 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.
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A Mixing Engineer’s Portfolio
Srikar MN
2018The 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.
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PMP: The Creation of a New and Solid Artist
Pedro Modrego Perelló
2018This 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.
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PROTEA: The Journey
Chavez C. Parker
2018The 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.
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Casper Jones: A Foundation For The Future
Mason Paul
2018This 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.
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TACTO: Textural Music Box
Francesca Pavesi
2018TACTO - 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.
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Paradigm Shift
James Rigney
2018Paradigm 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.
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It’s All Faded: Five Songs of Life, Lessons, and Learnings
McKinley Short
2018For 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.
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Chord Suggestions iPhone App for Original Melodies: App Name: ARIA Chord
Christos Stylianides
2018ARIA 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.
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Black Waves EP: An Experimental Journey at the Crossroads of Electronic Music and Jazz
Pablo Troussard
2018The 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.
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Projected Self
Colin P. Watson Jr.
2018Projected 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.
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INWINCCIBLE 360: A music artist producer innovator personal brand experiment
Soo Wincci
2018The 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”.
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MixSpaceVR: An Interactive Audiovisual Mixing Experience in Virtual Reality
Alexander K. Yen
2018The 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.
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Dub Mix Live Set & VJing
Na Young Joo
2018The 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.
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Seclude: Immersive Storytelling using 360 Film and Song
David Abrams
2017Seclude 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.
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Distress: Exploring Compositional Elements for Audio and Interactivity for Video
Andrea Almeida de Mendonça
2017The 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.