Music Production, Technology, and Innovation

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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Master’s Engineering Portfolio

Austin Corely
2016

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.
ESTUDIO CENTRAL

Sergio del Castillo Dueñas
2016

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.
DeSmet EP

Tate DeSmet
2016

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.
AISEO

Aislinn Dicks
2016

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.
Becoming a DJ: Turn the Wheels of Evolution

Allycia S. Floyd
2016

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.
Run For Your Life

Maria Guevara
2016

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.
Máquinas y Máscaras

Aly Haddad
2016

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.
Branding Project

Andrew Hlynsky
2016

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.
L’aVaaz

Harshit Jain
2016

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 complement our similar music taste.
Music Producer, Live Artist & Innovator

Mayur Jumani
2016

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.
CE Project

Nitish Kulkarni
2016

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.
THE CELNATIC EXPERIENCE: Celtic + Carnatic music

Shruti Kumar
2016

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.
Soul Found

Rebecca Liberman
2016

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.
Clutter Monster

Debbie YJ Lin
2016

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.”
CE project

William Lydgate
2016

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.
Sense 6 Project: A New Way of Listening to Music

Luis Miguel Castillo
2016

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.
Drum Track Hacks

Joe Miller VI
2016

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

Rafael Oviedo
2016

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.
Invisible Subtleties

Qiufan Qu
2016

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.
Indian Power Metal

Arjun Roy
2016

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.
The Polygong: A Polyhedronic Digital Instrument

Michael Samuel
2016

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

Reid Swartz
2016

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.
O.D. [On Deck] - kfoxproductions

Kevin Volpe
2016

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.
Multidimensional Multimedia Performance

Amelia Warren
2016

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.
Leap-motion Midi Controller Software

Wan Zhao
2016

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.