▸ Each fall semester, MPTI students at Berklee Valencia team up with a student from the contemporary performance concentration in order to compose, produce, and record a finished product for said performance student. This project is dubbed PEGASUS. In my year of attendance, I was chosen to be the lead recording engineer for A.B., with O.B. acting as lead producer. This was my take on the project's final mix.

▸ A.B. was a guitarist with an interest in rock/punk/metal, and these interests aligned with those of producer O.B., who would end up songwriting and performing vocals for the project, in addition to having the final say with the project's mix and master. M.W., a drummer from the performance concentration, was brought in as the percussionist, MPTI peer A.R. recruited for rhythm guitar, and another MPTI peer, T.M., performed parts for bass guitar. I filled in all synth parts afterwards, recording them with software plugins from within the box.

▸ All components were recorded over a series of multiple sessions, in different studios provided by the School, spanning multiple weeks. I was present for each of these sessions-- in addition to practice rehearsals-- and personally responsible for engineering all captured material.

▸ A series of SM57s and two Royer 121 overheads captured all percussive material. A '57 and '121 captured each respective guitar cabinet-- an Orange and Fender-- with the addition of DI into Pro Tools. A series of Coles 4038 microphones captured room information from the isolated drum and guitar amp rooms. The guitarist A.B. and rhythm guitarist A.R. provided their own personal pedal boards, the signals from which were split between DI and amp routing. In later Overdubbing sessions for both Rhythm and Bass guitar parts, all material was captured via similar DI and dual '57/'121 amp cabinet setup, from smaller rented studios this time. In each case, signals had similarly been routed into on-site hardware plugins available in each studio, typically only through a compressor or amplifier.

▸ My philsophy regarding the selected recording equipment had intentionally been kept simple; all of the mics used were mass-produced and easily acquired, reflecting the sensibilities of the selected genre. They'd been selections one might find at any public venue, and the parts I was recording for necessitated little nuance nor sensitivity. The dual '57/'121 setup was chosen to afford our producer some flexibility in sound preference when comping.

▸ This was my final assignment for the course I took as a comprehensive introduction to Ableton Live in my fall semester. The submitted video roughly reflects the in-class performance myself and my peers were expected to give in attendance later that week.

▸ Creatively, we were given near-total freedom in our submissions, so long as we included certain elements of the material we'd covered over the course of that semester, the comprehensive list to which I've long-since lost. Nevertheless, this project demanded the real-time probing of Ableton's live performance capabilities.

▸ Conceptually, I had the early material and live recordings of synth artist Tommy '86 in the back of my mind, building on a simple sequenced bassline with a comparatively-complex rhythm section, most of which I sequenced by hand (as I enjoy doing!). Atop this strong rhythmic foundation, I would then improvise higher-instrument parts and operate macro functions.

▸ Esta fue mi tarea final para la clase que tomé como una introducción completa a Ableton Live en mi semestre de otoño. El vídeo presentado refleja a grandes rasgos la actuación que yo y mis compañeros debíamos hacer en clase esa misma semana.

▸ Desde el punto de vista creativo, se nos dio una libertad casi total en nuestras presentaciones, siempre y cuando incluyéramos ciertos elementos del material que habíamos cubierto a lo largo de ese semestre, cuya lista exhaustiva perdí hace tiempo. Sin embargo, este proyecto exigía la manipulación en tiempo real de las capacidades de interpretación en directo de Ableton.

▸ Conceptualmente, tenía en mente el material y las primeras grabaciones en directo del artista de synthwave Tommy '86, partiendo de una sencilla línea de bajo secuenciada con una sección rítmica comparativamente compleja, la mayor parte de la cual secuencié a mano (¡como me gusta hacer!). Sobre esta sólida base rítmica, improvisaba partes instrumentales más altas y manejaba funciones macro.

▸ A curated selection of some of my best work from the different production and mixing courses I'd taken during my time with Berklee.

▸ For some, the assignment involved splicing together elements of provided material to create something new or complete. For others, the objective entailed diagnosing and addressing different problems in an existing mix, or completing a mix under the direction of a fictional patron's instruction and sensibilities.

▸ At some point, each MPTI student must take a course in video editing. Course material includes handling of professional recording equipment, creative framing, and training in Adobe Creative Suite software. I attended mine in the spring semester, and this video reflects what I submitted for that class's final assignment.

▸ All footage is royalty free, selected from a series of stock websites. Each clip was then imported into a piece of software titled Cathodemer, at which point I made creative adjustments, before rendering and importing those rendered clips into Adobe Premiere Pro for further editing.

▸ A simply-edited music video set to Blue Sick by Ruin of Romantics. The song itself conveys a heartsickness so potent it becomes detrimental. Conceptually, I drew upon winter's death in a violent arrival of spring, including imagery of the Canadian wilderness, thawing of the still world, and bloom.

▸ En algún momento del curso escolar, todos los alumnos del MPTI deben asistir a una clase de edición de vídeo. El material del curso incluye el manejo de equipos de grabación profesionales, encuadres creativos y formación en el software Adobe Creative Suite. Asistí a esta clase en el semestre de primavera, y este vídeo refleja lo que presenté como evaluación final.

▸ Todas las secuencias de vídeo son libres de derechos de autor, seleccionadas de una serie de sitios web de stock. Cada clip se importó a un programa llamado Cathodemer, en el que realicé ajustes creativos, antes de renderizarlos e importarlos a Adobe Premiere Pro para su posterior edición.

▸ Un vídeo musical sencillo con la canción Blue Sick de Ruin of Romantics. La canción en sí transmite una angustia tan intensa que llega a ser perjudicial. Conceptualmente, me basé en la muerte del invierno en una violenta llegada de la primavera, incluyendo imágenes de la naturaleza canadiense, el deshielo del mundo inmóvil y la floración.