Music Production, Technology, and Innovation

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  MANDO/CANTO-ELECTRO

  Ty(Jiacheng) Ou
  2026

  This project, Mando/Canto-Electro, proposes a research-based creative inquiry into the intersection of Chinese pop heritage and contemporary electronic production methodologies. Through historical analysis, genre deconstruction, and a series of original production works, the study investigates how the emotional expressivity, melodic language, and harmonic aesthetics of classic Mandopop and Cantopop can be reintegrated into modern electronic idioms with refined sound design, arrangement, and mixing approaches. The goal is to articulate a new hybrid production model that bridges East Asian nostalgia and Western electronic aesthetics, contributing to ongoing discourses on cultural hybridity, transnational pop, and post-digital music identity.

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  Shortcut

  Liam Roma
  2026

  Independent musicians increasingly bear the burden of both creating music and producing the content needed to build an audience. Studio sessions generate a wealth of authentic, compelling moments that are rarely captured in published content, largely because the time required to locate and edit them is prohibitive. ShortCut was developed as a Max/MSP-based tool to address this problem by automating the detection and extraction of potentially engaging moments from studio session footage using transcript-based keyword matching. The system employed OpenAI's Whisper automatic speech recognition model to generate session transcripts, which were then searched using a sliding-window n-gram algorithm against a scored keyword dictionary of over 596 phrases. Detected matches were ranked by score and displayed with video loop points, allowing the user to browse and export clips directly to Adobe Premiere Pro via a generated XML file. The project demonstrated a functional proof-of-concept pipeline capable of detecting and surfacing engaging moments from real studio session footage, while identifying ASR accuracy in music-heavy environments as the primary area for future development.

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  WHEN THE SUN HITS THE TOWER

  Jenavy Santana
  2026

  WHEN THE SUN HITS THE TOWER is a rock and neo-soul EP about tarot cards by the Boston based singer/songwriter Jenavy Santana. This project is meant to ask the listener to see relatable topics through a different lens. The author writes about the miracles that arise from misfortunes and how they present themselves through the Rider-Waite Smith deck of tarot cards and other tarot decks in her library. Santana’s lyrical content includes topics surrounding relationships, identity, and how they present themselves in her life in association with a tarot card. The producer uses inspiration from real life events, dreams, and astrology, with songs like “We Were Shooting Stars" and "Did I Tell You My Moon is a Gemini?” The opening of this EP starts at a dark point with the song “You Are The Car”, representing The Devil card written from the perspective of a deer, with distorted guitars and a heavy bass line. The EP then takes the listener on a journey of experiences of peaks and valleys, ending with the song “Silver Hoop Earrings”. This track represents the complete opposite of The Devil, the Ten of Cups card and The Sun card, feeling free with melodic guitars and strong drums. Drawing inspiration from Pierce the Veil, Paramore, and Jazmine Sullivan, Santana combines these styles by using a soul vocal approach layered on rock instrumentation. WHEN THE SUN HITS THE TOWER is a collection of personal experiences intended to comfort the listener, serving as a reminder of the beauty that stems from tragedy.

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  Songs for the Sun and Moon: Reapproaching the Limitations of Genre in Production Through Reimagining Songs for Day and Night

  Eva Sweekhorst
  2026

  Songs for the Sun and Moon is a double EP investigating how musical identity transforms through production. The project employs progressive musical replacement, in which one completed composition serves as generative material for a second, independent work. The Sun side draws from soul, pop, and R&B influences, while the Moon side explores experimental electronic, ambient, and atmospheric territories with subtle dance music undertones. Each Moon track originates from its corresponding Sun composition but undergoes vocal fragmentation, tempo modification, harmonic redevelopment, and complete re-recording until little original material remains. Inspired by the Ship of Theseus paradox, the project asks whether continuity can persist through complete transformation. The resulting compositions function not as originals and remixes, but as parallel works connected through lineage. Keywords: music production, genre, transformation, compositional methodology, identity, recontextualization

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  Unsent

  Maria Tsharakyan
  2026

  The basis of this project is to write, produce, and design an audio-visual EP centered around storytelling. Unsent aims to create a deeper and more immersive experience for audiences by combining music and visuals into a single narrative. Rather than presenting songs as separate works, the project explores how an EP can function as a cohesive story in which each song represents a different chapter of a larger emotional journey. Inspired by Kid Cudi’s Entergalactic, this project investigates how visual storytelling can enhance the audience’s understanding of a musical narrative and strengthen their emotional connection to the work. One of the key issues explored is the limited use of continuous storytelling in contemporary music releases. While artists often create visual content for selected singles, the narrative potential of a complete project frequently remains underdeveloped. By blending genres, collaborating with different artists, and experimenting with creative production and visual techniques, Unsent creates a unified world where sound and image work together to communicate a story. The project encourages musicians and producers to consider new ways of engaging audiences through immersive audio-visual experiences.

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  A Glass Face in the Rain

  Yuri Velez
  2026

  This Culminating Experience project investigates how disability-driven adaptation functions as an essential catalyst for artistic innovation and, consequently, the evolution of music production. Through the creation of A Glass Face in the Rain, a 1990s alternative rock–inspired EP, the author documents the process of producing and engineering a record as a wheelchair user working within studio environments designed around assumptions of able-bodied participation. While the EP is not explicitly about disability, its sonic identity is shaped by the author's lived experience navigating inaccessible spaces and systems. Through technical documentation and critical reflection, the project examines barriers encountered throughout the recording process and the creative solutions developed in response. These modifications became defining elements of the EP, generating innovative methodologies that challenged conventional production practices, expanded its stylistic vocabulary, and produced sounds and textures extending beyond established genre conventions. The project demonstrates that accessibility is not only an imperative matter of equity but also a necessary condition for the continued evolution of artistic practice. The findings show that adaptive methodologies generate new creative horizons, enrich the artistic landscape for creators and audiences alike, and are not merely contributory to the development of music production, but essential to it.

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  Samuel Vivian - Box of Frogs

  Samuel Vivian
  2026

  This culminating experience project produced Box of Frogs, a nine-track instrumental album paired with a vector cover illustration that doubles as concept material for a future interactive game environment. The work investigated how instrumental composition can communicate complex psychological states through structure, texture, and timbre. The principal challenge concerned framing a sonic identity that did not fit cleanly within established genre categories; positioning the album as part of a larger audiovisual world preserved its intended character. Future development extends the work into an interactive audiovisual environment built in Wwise and Godot, in which musical layers respond dynamically to player movement and rhythm. The project demonstrated that disciplined constraint, conceptual packaging, and cross-disciplinary integration can produce cohesive work efficiently on a modest budget.

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  Surround Vocal Spectrum Visualizer

  Justin Yuen
  2026

  This project develops a visual tool in C++ using the JUCE framework that represents surround space to support the mixing and mastering process of vocal and choral-oriented music, particularly within a cappella contexts. Variations in timbre, tone, and intonation naturally occur among different vocal groups—such as treble, lower-voiced, and mixed ensembles—due to their unique physiological and acoustic characteristics. As panning and stereo direction are commonly employed in a cappella mixing, it can be challenging for producers to accurately perceive the spatial distribution and balance of individual voice parts within a dense mix. The software introduces two primary functions: first, to visualize vocal parts in surround space, enabling producers to make more informed mixing decisions and identify locational placement of different mix subgroups; and second, to perform a timbral frequency analysis implementing equalization monitoring to assist in achieving consistent spectral balance across varying vocal timbres. By providing an objective visual framework for both spatial and spectral analysis, the tool enhances clarity, blend, and cohesion in ensemble vocal production while bridging the gap between technical precision and artistic expression.

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  Elysium

  Peihan Zhao
  2026

  This project comprises a downtempo EP consisting of 4 tracks. The theme of the EP is Elysium, serving as an artistic expression of the author's daily life fantasies and perceptions of specific social phenomena. Each song clocks in at three to five minutes and is composed, produced, recorded and mixed by the author. This is the author's first attempt to downtempo music, as well as producing an entire EP, signifying a significant breakthrough in the artistic development. Therefore, in the production process, the author has drawn upon the production process of established EPs within the same genre. The final version of this EP is set to be released across all major music platforms.

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  Season Cycles

  Jingtong Zhou
  2026

  In the contemporary digital landscape, music consumption is increasingly shaped by short-form video platforms, where individual tracks are often experienced through fragmented clips rather than as complete works. This creative project presents Season Cycles, a five-track EP that uses the four seasons as a central metaphor to express the various stages and states of interpersonal relationships, while providing audiences with a complete listening experience by connecting the five songs together without interruption. Stylistically rooted in R&B and Neo-Soul, the project consists of an introductory piece that establishes the conceptual framework, followed by four songs each representing the emotional characteristics of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Through the integration of soulful melodies, lyrics, and cohesive production, this work seeks to offer a nuanced musical exploration of the transformation of human connections—much like the cycle of the seasons, and seeks to encourage audiences to engage with music as a complete artistic statement rather than a collection of isolated moments.

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  Why I am still here?

  Peizhe Zhu
  2026

  Why I Am Still Here? is a seven-track EP exploring how soul, hip-hop, R&B, electronic production, and Mandarin songwriting can be combined within a personal artistic context. The project began as a study of synthesiser use in Western popular music but later expanded to include sampling, orchestral textures, traditional Chinese instruments, and unconventional song structures. Its themes include belief, love, family, aging, social hierarchy, and self-reflection. Key challenges included adapting Mandarin lyrics to grooves shaped by English-language phrasing, maintaining consistency across different monitoringenvironments, and reducing unnecessary layers during mixing.Through the development of the project, the production process strengthened skills in sound design, synthesis, arrangement, mixing, and creative decision-making. The EP became an exploration of how qualities associated with soul and hip-hop, including groove, emotional directness, and resistance, could be reinterpreted through a personal cultural perspective and lived experience. Future work will focus on final mixing, track transitions, release, and collaboration.

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  Electroental

  Jeries Babish
  2025

  This project blended traditional Middle Eastern instruments and tuning systems with electronic music to create a cross-cultural sonic experience. Instruments such as the ney and the Armenian duduk were recorded live and integrated into electronic compositions using microtonal synthesis and contemporary production techniques. The project addressed the underrepresentation of modal and microtonal scales in electronic music, specifically Saba, Rast, and Bayati. Electronic elements were tailored to accommodate the expressive capacity of Middle Eastern melodic frameworks, particularly maqamat. Synthesizers were customized to replicate traditional scales, while acoustic recordings contributed timbral richness and authenticity. This project presented an alternative to Orientalist tropes by embedding traditional musical systems within modern electronic structures. It proposed a respectful and innovative reflection of Middle Eastern culture through a sound design approach.

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  Apodemia

  Valeria Bello
  2025

  What does migration sound like? Is it possible to speak of a common sonic identity? This short documentary serves to explore these questions through interviews with various subjects of study who have undergone migratory processes in different contexts. The research focuses primarily on the interviewees’ sound perceptions, with the questions structured around four thematic axes proposed by the author: sadness, discomfort, nostalgia, and peace. These four concepts are a standardized guide for directing the analysis, not an absolute truth about the topic. Thus, the research and its findings are captured in an audiovisual format, seeking to compile the experiences of ten different individuals. The documentary also features the development of an acousmatic/electronic composition, and an original soundscape derived from these experiences, allowing the sound design of the documentary to be integrated in the narrative of this research.

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  And You Shall Find() : Hip Hop EP using Underwater Recording Techniques

  Anoh Biju
  2025

  The author proposes an extended play in the hip-hop tradition combined with the electronic genre where the entire instrumentation is from underwater recordings of the author’s voice. This involves the usage of a hydrophone that can be used to record the vocals, processing them to create individual elements (like the kick, snare, bass etc). and layering them with rap vocals. The style of music is heavily industrial and gritty Hip Hop beats with melodic influences of electro pop and electronica and consisting of rap verses written in English and Malayalam. The project is an artistic representation of using the constraint of underwater vocal recordings to create unique melodic ideas that assist the genre thus partaking in the era of streaming music recorded over multiple mediums

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  Blue Line Sessions

  Marcos Cantu Medina
  2025

  This project centers around creating a portfolio presented through live sessions, developed to highlight and demonstrate my capabilities as an engineer. Titled Blue Line Sessions, the concept is more than just a recording project, it’s a brand built around collaboration, creativity, and technical experience. The sessions aim to feature a diverse range of musicians, each bringing their unique style, allowing me to adapt and apply various recording and mixing techniques. This variety not only showcases my versatility but also reinforces my commitment to quality sound and authentic musical expression.The focus is on capturing the essence of live performance in its purest form. By recordingin live room settings, I aim to bring out the natural energy, emotion, and dynamics that cansometimes be lost in multi-tracked productions. The brand’s identity is rooted in delivering high-quality audio that feels real and engaging, supported by a visual aesthetic that matches the sonic experience. Blue Line Sessions serves both as a creative platform for artists and a professional showcase of my engineering skills, combining technical precision with artistic collaboration.

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  NoteletMusic: A MIDI processing application for integrating common music writing practices into the Digital Orchestration workflow.

  Esteban Carrasco
  2025

  Digital Orchestration (DO) has become a common practice to create music for film and television. Thanks to technological advances, DO has provided composers with cost- efficient, accessible, and flexible tools, allowing them to create high-quality scores entirely from their computers. Despite the positive aspects, these kind of procedures in composition introduce new challenges in resources, workflow and digital tasks, one of which is specifically the MIDI sequencing process. Primarily computer-directed, this ‘inserting notes’ process is not well-aligned with composers’ workflow in sheet music writing: it does not take advantage of common music writing techniques for melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic material, making it a time-consuming task not related to the music creation process itself. This project aims to bridge the gap between MIDI sequencing process and composers’ approach to music writing by creating NoteletHarmony, a standalone application for MIDI processing that incorporates these common writing techniques, specifically harmonization techniques, directly into the DO workflow. The application works for any of the DAWs with MIDI routing capabilities used by professionals in film and television scoring, and has proven to be useful for MIDI mock- up processes by optimizing MIDI sequencing task times, and as a tool for computer-assisted composition by facilitating experimentation with music writing techniques.

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  From classical musicians to audio engineer: A Mixing Engineer’s Portfolio

  Tin Yan Chan
  2025

  The widespread availability of high-speed internet has significantly transformed music consumption, enabling listeners to enjoy music anytime and anywhere through portable devices. Modern albums are primarily distributed digitally, which has increased the importance of recording, mixing, and mastering engineers. In response, the author is focusing on the recording and mixing aspects of music production, creating a mixing engineering portfolio that aims to refine mixing techniques and develop a distinctive style. This portfolio will feature ten songs across various genres, achieved through collaborations with different musicians at the Berklee Valencia campus. It will serve as a platform for the author to explore diverse musical styles and the corresponding mixing and recording techniques. As the author transitions from a classical musician to a well-rounded audio engineer, the primary objective is to deliver professional-level mixes through dedicated practice and learning at Berklee Valencia.

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  DAWN-AFourSongsEPOnMentalHealth

  Yi-Ting Chen
  2025

  People nowadays started to pay more attention to mental health issues, yet how mental health is still not something that is commonly brought up in public vision. Even more, it is still a challenge for caregivers to understand how it feels when people with mental health struggle facing the issue. This EP is called DAWN and it is about mental health struggles. This Culminating Experience project aims to help caregivers and others build awareness about mental health issues so they can understand how their loved ones feel when walking through this tough journey with them. The EP contains four songs and one music video, so people can understand the scene not only through music but also video.

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  Reflections EP - An Exploration of Ultra-Portable Recording Systems

  Mitchell Decker
  2025

  "Reflections” is a 5-track ambient tape composed, produced, and mixed using the Teenage Engineering Field Recording System; a collection of ultra-portable music devices designed to replicate traditional analog console and recording techniques in a package small enough to fit in your pocket. With this project, the author pays homage to the founders of Ambient, Hip-Hop, Turntablism, and Dub styles through a collection of instrumental soundscapes weaving synthesis, sound design, and eclectic sampling to forge a unique sonic vision. Building on experience with professional mixing and recording, the author attempts to break free from the confines and restrictions of the studio environment and demonstrate what can be achieved with minimalist hardware micro-setups. The author utilizes new and innovative recording equipment, wireless connectivity, digital turntables and tape machines to present his vision for the future of music.

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  Breathe: An Energy Healing Soundscape Performance and EP Combining Electronic Dance Music with Healing Frequencies and Ambient Sound

  Isabel Estes
  2025

  This project explores the integration of sound healing practices with electronic dance music through the creation and performance of a seven-track EP, Breathe. Drawing from ancient Vedic and Tantric traditions, the EP is designed to sonically activate and support the body's chakra system using specific tuning systems, analog synthesis, and intentional sound design. The work combines historical research—such as the use of Tibetan singing bowls—with modern production tools, including binaural audio and modular synthesis, to create a hybrid listening experience that is both therapeutic and immersive. Through this process, the author examines the physical and emotional impact of sound frequencies, the evolution of meditation into movement-based healing, and the potential for live performance to serve as an accessible alternative to traditional sound healing sessions. The final deliverables include the mixed EP, live performance videos, and technical documentation. The project not only showcases creative and technical growth, but also reflects the artist’s personal healing journey.

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  Vecindario: A Portfolio of Latin Music Collaborations

  Gustavo Fuentes Amaya
  2025

  This music production project aimed to explore, practice and solidify the Author’s ability to understand and support the creative vision of musical artists, culminating in the completion of five discographic productions that also form a curated portfolio aligned with the Author's professional aspirations. The project focused on three core areas of hands-on work: artist production, sound engineering, and musical exploration. Each of which was developed to varying degrees across the different tracks, depending on the artists’ individual abilities and experience. Through this process, the author gained deeper insight into the collaborative dynamics of music production, the flexibility required to adapt to each artist’s creative process, and the technical decision-making involved in shaping a cohesive final product. The resulting body of work not only reflects the diversity of the Latin music scene but also marks a foundational step in the author's path as a producer and engineer.

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  PORTEÑO: A Sonic Experience of Modern Buenos Aires

  Mateo Fuentes
  2025

  PORTEÑO is a multidisciplinary artistic project that explores the contemporary identity of Buenos Aires through an original musical and visual narrative. Conceived as a creative response to the city’s cultural energy, the project culminates in two main deliverables: a seven-track concept album and a live performance that integrates music, scenography, and visuals. Blending pop, funk, and R&B with tango, folk, and other Latin American genres, the album captures both the emotional tone and the sonic landscape of Buenos Aires in the late 2010s. Developed between a home studio and Berklee Valencia’s professional facilities, the production merges DIY authenticity with high-level technical execution. The live show further expands the project’s scope, translating its themes into a dynamic, collaborative stage experience featuring original video art and an international band. The Culminating Experience focuses on the project’s artistic direction, songwriting, production, and conceptual development.

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  Remnant Reflection

  Mingze Geng
  2025

  This project will explore the possibility of merging the electronic music genres of Dubstep and Future Bass by employing sound design techniques and genre integration. The main goal is to create an EP that innovates within the electronic music scene. Consisting of six original tracks that blend elements of Dubstep and Future Bass, and innovate within the electronic music scene. In the current electronic music market, works featuring a single genre are commonplace; however, the lack of innovative integration between genres can lead to listener fatigue. To address this issue, this project will thoroughly analyze the characteristics of these two genres and will attempt to innovate by blending elements such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and sound design. Through this project, the author will not only acquire valuable skills in music production, sound design, and genre integration but also evolve into a more eclectic electronic music producer, as well as establish new relationships in the industry by collaborating with producers, engineers, and artists.

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  The Gen-Synth: A generative granular synthesizer.

  Veronica Gesteira Souza
  2025

  In recent years, the development of generative AI models that are able to generate high quality audio has opened a new world of opportunities in the field of sound synthesis for musical applications. The possibilities inaugurated by this emerging technology, however, are only beginning to be investigated. In this work, Gen-Synth, a synthesizer combining generative timbre transfer and granular synthesis is proposed in order to further explore the artistic implications of AI in sound design. The work was developed by training a popular neural synthesis model - RAVE (Realtime Audio Variational autoEncoder) - with a library composed of Brazilian percussion recordings. Later, the trained model was used to develop a Max for Live device that combined a timber transfer module with a granular synthesis module. Finally, some user testing was performed, and feedback was gathered for future improvement.

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  That’s my first album

  Karan Jain
  2025

  “That’s My First Album” marks the debut musical project of the artist, showcasing a creative fusion of various electronic music genres across five original tracks. The album is a sonic exploration that blends elements of drum and bass, UK dubstep, and trap, resulting in a distinctive and immersive sound. Central to the project’s identity are the intricacies of sound design and mixing—sound design playing a vital role in shaping the unique textures and atmosphere, while precise mixing enhances the clarity and cohesiveness of each track. The technical depth of the album is elevated by key collaborations, most notably with Esteban and Anoh, who contributed as sound engineer and featured artist, respectively. Their involvement brought an additional layer of creativity and professionalism that enriched the overall production. The project not only reflects the artist’s evolving musical identity but also exemplifies the collaborative nature of modern electronic music production. Through detailed sound craftsmanship and genre-blending innovation, “That’s My First Album” stands as a compelling first entry into the electronic music scene. Many many thanks to Simone Tanda for his feedback on the authors songs that made the album much better and much easie r to produce