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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Preach!: An R&B and Hip Hop Collective
Vedant Jhaveri
2025Preach! Is a four track EP that explores the emotional and rhythmic potential of contemporary R&B and Hip Hop which are two genres that have deep historic roots which are continuously developing with modern innovations in sound and technology. Rather than dividing the project into two distinct discs or sides, the project aims at providing the listeners with a cohesive experience that draws equally and simultaneously from the melodic and intimate aspects of R&B and the energetic and rhythmic boldness of Hip Hop. Preach! focuses on emotional storytelling, vocal vulnerability and innovative production techniques where each track contributes to a narrative that centers around themes of love, introspection, identity and flagrant habits. Drawing influence from artists like 6LACK, 50 Cent and Kanye, this project is genre blending and is forward thinking.
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Redemption: A Performance Journey
Paul LiBassi
2025After an injury severely limited the author’s ability to play guitar, he searched for a way to continue performing. In Redemption, the author explores different iterations of the artist’s relationship to technology through live performance. This will include both live instruments and electronics as sound sources, as well as a visual component. The author uses different configurations of live electronics, prerecorded loops, live instruments, and live recorded loops throughout the performance. Using Ableton Live, the author has found a new path to performing original music, bringing all of his skills together into one live performance.
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Takes Time to Heal
David Lindsay
2025“Takes Time to Heal” is an electronic music project in which the artist explored thethemes and journey of healing and recovery. This experience was structured as an immersive EP of four extended tracks and their accompanying visualizers. The project addresses self-reflection and emptiness to healing and rehabilitation through music. The EP follows a journey by taking listeners through musical environments of which reflect the healing process of oneself through time. Whilst consisting of a variety of sub-genres within House music, such as Afro and Tech, the project also incorporates elements of Dance and Ambient music. Although all the tracks feature lead vocal elements, letting instrumental sections breathe and evolve was a priority in the creative direction of the collective songs. This project aimed to address the current movement of electronic music’s shorter songs (heavily influenced by social media) by letting ideas, rhythms and grooves unfold to their fullest potential.
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Chinese Uncanny (A Plunderphonics Album as Cultural Reflection)
Yilin Liu
2025Chinese Uncanny is a plunderphonics-based full-length LP project that explores memory, estrangement, and urban identity through a purely sample-driven compositional approach. Drawing from over 170 audio fragments sourced from vinyl, internet archives, cassette tapes, and CDs, the album constructs a sonic collage rooted in the cultural ambiguity of contemporary life in Shenzhen, China. Inspired by artists such as DJ Shadow, The Avalanches, and Cornelius, the project avoids conventional vocal or instrumental recordings, instead relying entirely on sample manipulation using tools like Ableton Live, MPC, and SP404. The concept of the uncanny—drawn from both Freudian theory and lived experience—serves as a thematic backbone for the album’s sonic choices. Beyond technical execution, the work also reflects on the scarcity of sampling culture in Chinese music ecosystems, offering both aesthetic innovation and cultural commentary. The CE paper documents the creative process, challenges, and philosophical motivations behind this experimental album, positioning it as a unique contribution to the plunderphonics genre and an attempt to establish a more localized voice within it.
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Vedic Chants for Mindfulness
Suma Manikyam
2025Despite the multitude of meditation and mindfulness techniques available, Vedic chants adhere to the original intonation and melody rules outlined in the Vedic Scriptures, preserving the healing properties of the mantras. This rendition is particularly unique in its aim to resonate with a global audience. Combining ancient mantra chants with western musical styles enhances the appeal and accessibility of the chants. This fusion also paves the way for further exploration within the Vedic musical genre. This outcome would stem from thorough investigation into the principles of mantra chanting and the Sanskrit Language, alongside the endeavor to harmoniously integrate Western music with the Vedic music genre. Additionally, the music video presentation will assist those who wish to follow the lyrics by providing a visual accompaniment. This presents an alternative resolution to one of humanity’s most enduring challenges: the pursuit of mindfulness, which contributes to making the world a better place to live.
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The Music Vault
Joshua Mathews
2025This project, titled The Music Vault, explores the intersection of vocal production, cultural diversity, and collaborative creativity. Its core aim was to develop a professional-grade vocal production process that adapts to artists across linguistic and stylistic barriers. By working with artists who speak different languages and produce varied musical genres, the project tackled real-world challenges in communication, artistic direction, and technical delivery. Along the way, the project led to website creation, portfolio development, and new methods of translating creative ideas into concrete vocal work. The project contributes a fresh perspective to the field, emphasizing emotional intelligence and adaptability in vocal production. Future plans include refining the production workflow and building out The Music Vault into a full-fledged creative platform.
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SOUNDS OF THE KINGDOM EP
Terrence Moore
2025This Culminating Experience project is an EP titled, SOUNDS OF THE KINGDOM, which is produced and written by Terrence Moore Jr., who also goes by his stage name, PropheT. This EP is heavily influenced by cinematic orchestral music, Gospel music, Hip Hop music, Biblical references, and other genres and source material that help sonically create a triumphant, symphonic, and intensive sound. The importance of this music is to give the listeners the feeling of hearing what a “Kingdom Sound" based on the Bible would sound like. The way that this was accomplished was by utilizing string, choral and brass instruments that were layered multiple times to create different textures within the music. The use of sampling hip hop drums, vocal loops, and gospel inspired music was key to the creation of this EP. Terrence Moore’s goal with this project was to achieve a sound with the idea in mind of making “Freedom Music”, which is described as music that feels heavy and intense but allows the listener to have a positive listening experience.
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When I Can’t Sleep: A (Granular Infused) Singer-Songwriter EP
Sanford Max Nunes
2025The When I Can’t Sleep EP sought to bridge the gap between the traditional aspects of singer-songwriter genre style and the production techniques of the present. Through a collection of five songs – four originals and one cover – it was the authors intent to transmit the emotions of a personal journey honestly, transparently, and without ego. Several of the chosen pieces were a decade old and haled from the beginning of the author’s journey as a singer and songwriter. At the time they were written, he found it impossible to record them without giving in to a desire to drown out their vulnerability in loud drums and distortion. One main goal of the project was to revisit these tracks and produce them as they were always meant to be recorded. The challenge would be to balance their compositional traditionalism with just the right subtle touches of modern production, helping to give them context in the current musical moment. The strategy was to combine totally acoustic recordings with just the right infusion of granular scrapes and effects. The goal was an EP that sounded like the past and the future all at once.
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VISION: Songs for a Eurovision dream
Nathanaël Paulis
2025« Vision » is a multi-artistic project encompassing the production, studio recording, filming, and branding of a 5-song EP for the Belgian indie pop-rock band ShiroKuro. Born from the author's dream to represent Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent artist, the EP is made to be sent to the Eurovision delegation in Belgium, under the management of the Belgian TV channel RTBF, for the band to apply to the 2026 edition of the contest.Throughout this paper, the author shows how to use diverse artistic content, such as professionally recorded songs and excerpts from TV shows, as well as innovative musical ideas and influences from all over Europe and beyond, to create the most Eurovision-friendly EP possible, while keeping the band’s main aesthetic. This paper also demonstrates the author’s ability to overcome the borders between multiple forms of art and culture, thanks notably to their propensity to highlight the common elements between artistic domains.
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Music Album Production Fusing Traditional Colombian Rhythms with Latin American Urban Genres
Juan Guillermo Ramirez Alvarez
2025In the last 30 years, the Reggaeton genre not only transformed the Latin popular music industry, but also established itself as a global genre, consistently occupying top positions on international charts and redefining mainstream sonic landscapes. Strangely, its sound, themes, and rhythmic structure remained quite static, evolving very little over time. It wasn't until shortly before 2020 that some artists within the genre, alongside others coming from genres such as pop, salsa, hip-hop and folk music from different countries began experimenting by fusing their own musical languages with the so-called dembow, reggaetón's characteristic rhythm, thereby initiating significant transformations of the original genre. The present culminating experience project propose to write, record, mix and finish a 6 songs album using the dembow rhythm as one of the main parameters, but exploring different Colombian sonorities and instrumentation from genres like cumbia, vallenato, rasqa, joropo and other popular folkloric genres looking forward for an original sound. Some of the influences include but not limited to artists like Bomba Estereo, Edson Velandia, Calle 13, Lizandro Meza, La Muchacha, Pernet, Frente Cumbiero and others. The production techniques involve real instruments recording, sampling and the use of some elements of electronic music arrangement with audio and MIDI processing in Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Logic Pro.
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CUANDO LAS SOMBRAS SE ALARGAN: a live performance of an LP
Xenia Rubio Jiménez
2025This work will feature songs from the album, as well as other previous ones that will have to be remade to fit the artist's new sound. The show is entirely in a digital format, since the artist has always worked in the analog domain in her shows. This show will last approximately 50 minutes and will be presented with introductions, interludes and outros that will take us through each mood of the album. Influenced by the work of Frank Ocean, Rosalia or FKA Twigs, this live performance aims to be an experimental and innovative approach to pop electronic live performances. In addition, it will be presented accompanied by visuals, lights and dance that will be synchronized with the musical session in order to provide the spectator an experience more of a show than a concert. It is predominantly a work of musical production, but other important aspects to take into account will be the staging and the overall aesthetics of the project.
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Global Pulse
Zachary Scheffler
2025Global Pulse is a five-track debut EP by Zach Scheffler that weaves Neo Soul/R&B, experimental electronic, rock, and 1970s influences into a unified musical statement. Scheffler integrates field recordings and modular synthesis with creative vocal processing, evolving wavetable textures, and modern amp emulations to forge distinctive sonic landscapes. Through structured collaboration, iterative revision, and disciplined project management, he maintains stylistic cohesion across a concise runtime. Global Pulse not only highlights Scheffler’s multi-genre vision and innovative production approach but also provides a clear, adaptable framework for artists aiming to blend experimental sound design with contemporary songwriting.
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Tell the Tale Songwriters Retreat
Anne Noor Schepers
2025This culminating experience consisted of planning, organizing and executing a songwriters retreat that aimed to bring songwriters, producers and artists into a creative setting. Not only in a collaborative space, but this retreat also aimed to reconnect the participants with nature, a healthy lifestyle and community. Participants had the opportunity to write songs for pitch, meaning for other artists from labels that are looking for new music and sync (music for TV and advertisements). During the camp there were mentors advising the participants on production, arrangement or lyrics. This way the participants were guided towards a product that they can be proud of. In addition to the creative process, the camp was fully documented, capturing the essence of the three-day event. This led to valuable materials that can be used for promotion of future editions of Tell The Tale Songwriters Retreat.
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Energy Of Its Own: An EP Exploring Hip-Hop Vocals Within Contemporary EDM Production
Dylan Sweidan
2025Energy Of Its Own is an electronic EP that explored the fusion of hip-hop vocals with club music subgenres such as techno, house, and UK garage. The purpose of this project was to develop a signature production style rooted in skills such as drum machine programming, sampling, synthesizer patching, and sound design, as well as develop vocal production techniques such as recording, comping, and mixing. In addition to in-the-box production, the project incorporated studio recording and real-time audience feedback through DJ club performances. A key element of the EP was the collaboration with South Indian rapper Anohnymouss, alongside the development of the author’s role as his producer; re-imagining his vocals within the context of club music. The resulting EP presented a signature production style that contributed to the growing fusion of hip-hop vocal performance within EDM club spaces, and demonstrated the author’s career pivot from a performance background into an electronic producer.
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Adversitown
Xue Qing Tang
2025In the current music landscape, the vast array of music readily available on digital platforms often results in passive consumption, making it difficult for artists to engage with their audiences online. The author addressed this challenge by developing a 3D immersive website to accompany a five-track R&B EP, both centered around the theme of adversity. The EP presented adversity from a personal perspective, offering unique insights drawn from the author’s own experiences as well as broader societal issues. The 3D website served as an interactive platform that allowed the audience to engage with the EP’s tracks through dynamic visual elements in a virtual environment, thereby enhancing the emotional connection to the music. Additionally, the incorporation of Spatial Audio made the experience more immersive and further strengthened the audience’s engagement. This innovative approach not only helped the author build meaningful connections with the audience but also contributed to establishing a distinctive artistic identity.
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Techno Balkanico
Aleksandra Tasic
2025This Culminating Experience explores the fusion of techno with traditional Spanish and Serbian music, aiming to create a unique EP that bridges electronic and folk genres. The project addresses the problem of underrepresentation of Balkan and Spanish folk music in the global techno scene. The most important aspect of this project is the innovative fusion of these distinct cultural elements with modern techno production. By incorporating rhythms, melodies, and instrumentation from Spanish flamenco and Serbian folk music, the EP introduces a fresh perspective on how traditional music can be preserved and transformed within contemporary electronic frameworks. This cross-cultural approach enhances the diversity of techno while offering a new listening experience that appeals to a broader audience. The EP seeks to enrich techno with new cultural influences, giving underrepresented music traditions a platform in the global electronic music landscape.
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CRISTAL, the production of an EP
Sofía Villanueva Cataldi
2025This project focuses on the production and release of an experimental hyperpop EP titled CRISTAL.The EP features original music composed and produced solely by the author, where the aim was to develop a sound that feels smooth, balanced, and consistent from beginning to end, so that all the songs fit together naturally and form a unified whole, while also bringing in inspiration from Argentinean culture through the use of specific sounds and instruments. Key challenges included achieving a balanced vocal mix that holds space within dense, textured arrangements, and crafting a compelling narrative through minimal yet evocative lyrics. To address these challenges, it was very helpful for the author to create demo versions of each track early in the process. This allowed her to explore the structure and overall sound before recording vocals, enabling more informed decisions about how the vocal elements would fit within the production. This paper was written with the assistance from generative artificial intelligence. Additional information in Appendix II.
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Emo-DS: A Max/MSP based synthesizer with an emotion approach to sound design
Alonso Arancibia Herrera
2024The Emotion Driven Synthesizer, or Emo-DS for short, is a Max/MSP based audiovisual synthesizer that creates sounds and visuals based on emotional parameters. Based on both the Punset universe of emotions as well as the valence-arousal graph, the synthesizer uses emotion-label knobs to modify various timbre-related parameters at once. The relationship between timbre parameters and different emotions are based on studies made on classical instruments and their timbrical-emotional (TE) response, translating these studies to the world of synthesis. To make the emotion more clear to the user and the audience, the synthesizer creates a visual representation of the sound it is generating, based on the relationships between emotions and colors. The goal of the project is to create an instrument with a purpose, an intuitive interface, and add creative value for both music creators, sound designers and live performers alike.
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Music for Meditation: How Art Integrates With Mindfulness
Mehmet Burhan Aydin
2024According to numerous studies as well as the practices which were done, music has an impact on the average consumer of any kind. However, the content and the quality of the music determines what kind of effects cause on the individuals. As argued in this thesis, the author talks about the way which music can be consciously produced for the wellbeing, predominantly mental health in this case, of the general public. For instance, music used as a supporting tool for meditations while being played in the background. And as there is a surge in mental health crisis due to phone addiction of the wider populace, there are industries to tackle this issue by producing meditation products, which include music to contribute to the calm nature of meditating. In this reflection paper, the author presents his ideas regarding this subject with the help of his research.
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What We All Feel
Oscar Barbaza
2024There is a feedback loop that has existed for thousands of years between the development of our hearing, our emotional indexes of responses to stimuli in our environment, our growing ability to craft our own worlds through this medium via music, and the technology we use to do so. This album is an homage to that process as a response to the current limitations of popular music, the boundaries of genre and the growing polarizations of the cultural contributors to each genre, and the Author’s own experience of being stuck in between many of those polarizations. In order to achieve an authentic result, the Author has re-structured their traditional process of making music, allowing the songs to grow organically.
Each song of this 6-track EP is inspired by a conversation between two or more students from different countries of origin. After this conversation, the Author organized and recorded jam sessions, then took the recordings and arranged them into a song based on the structure of both the song’s concept and the surrounding discussion. Lyrics were added that connected these overarching themes to the Author’s personal journey. The songs were then mixed, divided by interludes of snippets from those original conversations. In this way, authenticity to the concept was ensured throughout each step of the music-making process.
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Here, Underwater
Tijana Bekcic
2024This project is intended to explore the origins and roots, as well as the depths and limitations of the author’s creativity. The process of making it (which included gathering inspiration and developing the idea, composing, arranging, gathering and recording the material, then producing the EP and doing the post-production) was aimed to help the author find out more about themselves, while the end goal of creating it was an EP consisting of 5 songs whose intertwined narrative makes them inseparable. The idea behind the EP Here, Underwater came from the need to tell a story from the inside perspective, using harmony, sound design and experimentation as the main techniques for achieving that. Its importance is reflected in the catharsis that an artist can achieve after finishing such a deeply personal journey of exploration and translation of experiences and emotions into music. It uses the element of water as the main source of inspiration because of its importance throughout the author’s life. It is intended that this EP could inspire the audience and fellow artists to go on a journey of trying to figure out how their creativity is built and limited.
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Ikigai: A Recording and Mixing Portfolio
John Chesebrough
2024The portfolio, titled "Ikigai," showcases 55 songs recorded, mixed, or both, by the author. The project's objective was to learn the art of recording and mixing while leveraging Berklee's exceptional facilities and community of talented artists, producers, and engineers. This endeavor resulted in a diverse body of work spanning multiple genres and languages, reflecting deep collaboration and trust between the author and his collaborators. The projects varied in complexity, from simple duos to full albums featuring multiple vocalists, string ensembles, and rhythm sections. Achieving success in this project required meticulous planning, frequent studio sessions, and an adaptive mindset. Prior to attending Berklee, the author had no formal studio experience. Consequently, the author developed essential skills on the job, including recording techniques, mixing techniques, Pro Tools operation, and session management. Each session was an opportunity to learn and apply new lessons, fostering continuous growth. This project is part of seven other culminating experiences, highlighting its significance. Its impact lies in the author's contribution to helping other artists realize their visions and in establishing a foundation for a career in audio engineering. In completing this work, the author found an instance of "Ikigai"—the convergence of passion, mission, vocation, and profession. The work embodied what the author wanted to do, what needed to be done, and the essential lessons to be learned, all in one place.
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Electronic Music Performance of an Ep
Luis Esteban Delgado Vasquez
2024This project consisted of three live video performances of the author's original Neo-soul and hip-hop EP. Utilizing Ableton Live, external controllers, real instruments, and vocals, the goal was to produce a commercially viable project for touring and promotion. The performances, recorded for the project's final presentation, showcased the methodologies and techniques of electronic live performance. The main challenge was effectively using Ableton Live to manage tasks such as controllerism, live playing, singing, and audience interaction. The author addressed this innovatively by leveraging current technologies and developing new performance methodologies throughout the project.
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Rama_An exploration through Ecuadorian Soundscapes, Contemporary Music and Literature
Jose Duran
2024This project presents a conceptual album featuring original compositions by the author, including six instrumental pieces and four experimental narrated tracks. The album explores Ecuadorian cultural identity, blending traditional musical elements with experimental sounds to reflect the author's heritage. It incorporates harmonic progressions, melodic structures, time signatures, textures, and instrumentation from Ecuadorian folk genres such as Albazo, Yaraví, Pasillo, Bomba, and San Juanito. These are fused with contemporary music and spoken word sections to enhance the artistic concept. Collaborating with Ecuadorian writer David Padrón, the author aims to examine Ecuadorian society through a literary and musical lens, merging cultural sounds with diverse influences. The goal is to bridge past and future, creating a thoughtful artistic and personal experience for both the audience and the artists. “This paper was written with the assistance from generative artificial intelligence. Additional information in Appendix II.”
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A Humanistic Approach to Music: Composing, Recording, and Mixing an EP
Jose Esteban Esquivel
2024This project aims to compose, perform and record a six-song Extended Play (EP) that explores themes of sustainability, climate change, affection, attachment, sexuality, and peace over violence. Drawing inspiration from genres such as Nueva Canción, Rock, Folk, Latin American music, Andino-Latin rhythms, Blues, Funk, and Nu Jazz. The project seeks to create music that not only entertains but also carries a conscious message and the intention to provoke reflection on critical issues. At the same time an experimental process regarding recording engineering is conducted through the use of the studios (AKSS and STAD) and gear available at Berklee Valencia to achieve a desired sound for the EP.