“Muzyka Konkretna #1”* | 2019

“Muzyka Konkretna #1” is a musique concrete piece, and was created with three distinct recorded sounds.

Raven Audio Book

"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe Audio Book is a group project I worked on in the fall semester of 2015 at Columbia College Chicago. I worked on the final mix of the project with my classmate Brett Merritt. The rest of people who worked on this project are as follow: Max Sandler, Mike Castle, Tom Barrett, Daniel Thao, Robert Bales, Sara Toth, Efe Tufan, and Chloe Richardson.

“Homicidata”* | 2015

“Homicidata” is a sonification of the homicide data collected in the city of Chicago the last 15 years. The data is on a text file that is parsed inside of the Max/MSP patch. Once the data is converted into usable information it is sent into the composition side of the patch that is logic based to send information such as frequencies, filter size, etc. The only context that is given is that every note that is heard is one murder within those 15 years.

“alchemy”* | 2015

“Alchemy” is based off of the short story The Alchemist by H.P. Lovecraft which is about a noble man living with his family curse which kills the head of the family at the age of 32 by some mysterious way. This piece is a type of sound collage built with recorded sounds of others reading the story, but by not having sounds that juxtapose to each other it is not truly a collage. “Alchemy” was created as the final project in Howard Sandroff’s “Master Class in Sound Art” at Columbia College Chicago. By creating a state of incoherence of the words that are spoken it detracts from the original short story, but by keeping some of the words somewhat audible allows to link the 2 pieces of arts together to compare too. The beginning section of the story was not used as it is not as exciting as the rest of the story and it is just setting the stage for the rest of the story. When the story is read it will be understood what is happening in the sound collage, but it isn’t necessary to read the short story. Being a sound collage, this is primarily a standalone piece that takes its main concept from the derived short story.

Fm synthesizer with Processing 3.0

FM Synth in Processing 3.0 is a project I worked on in The Sonic Experience class using Processing 3.0 with the beads audio library to code the application. This small program was conceptualized and programmed within Processing 3.0 and is meant to be used as a performative tool.

“Words”* |2014

"Words" is a composition based on 10 words spoken by 10 different people. These recorded words are then edited in Ableton Live and Pro tools in order to create usable sound objects for the composition itself. The composition is comprised of 3 sections. The first section only has one delay effect added on to each word track. Each subsequent section is re-recorded with more delays effects and introduces reverb effect, until the final section where the sounds are almost indistinguishable .

“Chipmod” | 2014

"ChipMod" Composition is a non-linear modular composition that allows the structure of the piece to be changed in real time while it is being performed. This piece was one of the defining factors of my transition into game sound and can be transitioned into game sound design. By changing the input of the parameters from midi to video game outputs, this piece would be similar to what sound designers do in game sound.

I have written an analytical essay to accompany the composition that can be viewed here as a pdf file.

Midi Controller | 2013

During my freshman year at Columbia College Chicago (spring semester of 2013) I requested to work on an independent project in the Audio Arts and Acoustics department. This project was to research and produce a functional midi controller. The final product was to be able to work with Ableton Live and have functional use. 

Thanks too a professor I had in my Intro to Audio Theory, Ben Sutherland, this project was able to happen. Also because of this project and my friendship with professor Sutherland I found a passion in electro-acoustic music and the study in the field of "Music Technology". A definition of what "Music Technology" is in the context that I have put it in is "here".

The project started by choosing to use the Teensy++ 2.0 microprocessor for PJRC (link for product). This was a decision based on other projects I have reviewed, pricing, and size. 

I started working on the prototyping of the code for this project. The code is saved as a .txt file here. This code has not been worked on after the project and may not be as efficient as it could be but it works. Once the code was completed I started working on my design for the box. 

I decided to go with an ergonomic designed around the contour of the hand in a resting position. This was for easier and faster button pressing while performing with the device

Once the devices internals and design were finalized work on the housing started. I came into contact with another professor at Columbia College by the name of David Dolak who is a geologist and a luthier. He had materials to create a wooden box to house the internal electronics for the midi controller. This took the longest to complete because of time constraints and lack of experience with wood working. The shop where I worked on the housing had no power tools which also increased the difficulty and time to create the housing. 

In the end, project ended up being a success with minimal problems along the way. There was an error I came across. The computer sent me a message stating "Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled". This was fixed by moving the wiring sending the power to all the resistors before the resistors instead of after them on the circuit board.

The final product of this independent project was a great experience and a fantastic midi controller.