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Hello everyone,

My name is Patrick Mosquera, I am a freshman in CALS and I am an Environmental Science Major. I took this class mainly because and I wanted to try something outside of my comfort zone and I have always been interested in the way music is recorded and created through a computer. As a kid I took some guitar lessons and I enjoy singing in the shower, but that is pretty much the extent of my musical background. I really want to take some more classes related to this topic in the future so hopefully this class points me in the right direction. Mostly I’m excited to learn how to create music using different programs.

Hey all,

My name is Caleb Zhu and I’m a senior Electrical and Computer Engineer. I played the piano for a few years as a child, but my main instrument of choice was the Trombone which I played through middle school and high school, participating in Jazz Bands, Brass Ensemble’s, Chamber Orchestra’s, and Symphonic Orchestra’s. I did not continue playing in College, but still am an avid music listener. At the moment my musical interests lie largely in house music.

I’m enrolled in this class because I want to learn the principles and theory behind producing music and musical sounds of all types. Been trying to get in this class since Sophomore year and finally managed it this semester. Super excited!

Looking forward to hearing all of your creations,

-Caleb

I am a senior in the Hotel School. I played the trumpet in Band from 2nd grade until 12th grade. I pursued musical theater when I was younger. I performed as the lead in an Off-Broadway straight play in New York City called Schooling Giacomo when I was 13 years old. I don’t perform at all now, but I enjoy listening to music at almost all times. One of my favorite things to do with friends and family is go to Music Festivals. I love live music, and I love these new and exciting electric dance music environments. I thought this class would give me good insight into how these artists really do what they do.

hello!
My name is Chris, and I’m a sophomore majoring in Computer Science in Engineering. I have minimal limited musical experience: I took almost a year of classical piano lessons when I was five, and I played trombone in middle school. However, since then, I have been experimenting with chords and improvising to become the self-taught pianist (with lots to learn) I am today. The bulk of my musical experience comes from serving in my church worship team as a keyboardist through middle school and high school. With this, I’ve had the honor of serving at various retreats and other events. On the engineering side of things, I worked as the sound guy for our praise teams as well as children’s ministry and the adults’ service in our main sanctuary. I also worked a lot with Arduinos and other microcontrollers to interface with different sensors and musical instruments and also to make speakers. I’ve produced some basic songs with my friends in the past, but more recently, I’ve been playing around with FL Studio and Audacity, and two midi controllers and a Blue Yeti mic with not much results but growing interest in producing computer music. I look forward to learning a lot from the course and collaborating with my peers this coming semester!

Hi all! My name is Joel Hoover, and I am a senior in Computer Science, with minors in Game Design and Linguistics. My musical background is rather shallow: I self-taught myself a little bit of piano, and composed several songs in both GarageBand and in tracker software (mainly MilkyTracker) over the past few years. I have taken a few music courses at Cornell, namely Elements of Musical Notation (MUSIC 1100) and Music and Digital Gameplay (MUSIC 2701), and I have also taken the intro and advanced game design courses (CS 3152 and CS 4152) where I acted as the Audio Lead, composing music and developing sound effects for my groups games.

I have a few reasons for taking this course. First, I want to better understand the technical aspects of the musical software, such as the theory behind the internal workings of synthesizers. Second, I want to better understand the creative, musical perspective of how such software is used, and more in general how the creative process works for musical compositions (as being self taught and a rather technical person, I have a pretty great gap in my knowledge concerning this). Finally, I want to create some music! I often do not have time anymore to just sit down and create music like I used to, so I will greatly enjoy having this opportunity to create musical compositions, especially after being taught some new techniques!

Hi, my name is David and I am a sophomore studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. I grew up taking piano and cello lessons and performing classical music, both solo and in chamber groups.  A little over year ago, I decided to stop performing and begin producing my own electronic music. So far, I have developed some basic mixing skills in Logic Pro, and I have some experience with sound design using synthesizers such as Sylenth1 and Massive. Additionally, I helped write and mix a song as part of the Cornell Audio Engineering Society last semester. In this course, I hope to continue to refine my skills and learn new techniques that I can apply to my productions.

Musically, I am interested in elements of both modern electronic dance music as well as 90s electronica, and my goal has been to integrate aspects from these areas into my music. Some music I made earlier this year can be found here, and I currently have more projects in the works. I am open to collaborating with others and am excited to hear the other musical styles that people bring to the class.

Hi, my name is Ezra Pak-Harvey and I am a senior chemistry major in the school of Arts and Sciences. I grew up playing mostly classical violin repertoire and have been performing with orchestras and as a soloist for 12 years. After coming to Cornell, I joined the Chamber Orchestra and also continued to take lessons with the violin professor, Ariana Kim. Although I grew up mostly playing classical music, I’ve always had an interest in music production and the techniques and programs used to create much of the “popular” music today. Throughout high school I did a little bit of work with Reason and Logic, but unfortunately I have largely forgotten how to produce music. I hope to incorporate things I have learned through my classical training into my works throughout the semester, as well as broaden my creative horizons when it comes to playing the violin. As for collaboration, I would be thrilled to work on a project with someone!

My name is Brady Kellum; I am a music major, and I am interested in composition. I have been singing for most of my life. In high school, I was part of a regional choir, and while in my high school select choir, we took second place in a radio contest which allowed us to perform at the Kimmel Center with the Philly Pops. I have played bass drum and conducted in my high school’s marching band. I have experimented and produced some things with the GarageBand software. I would like to be able to learn how to compose score for video games and/or other types of media. I am currently in the Cornell University Glee Club. I am very much interested in collaborating with others to assess different work styles and to learn about my own.

Hi all,

My name is Agnes, and I’m a senior majoring in Policy Analysis and Management and minoring in Business. I don’t have any experience creating digital sound, but I do have some background in playing instruments. I used to play the piano and violin when I was younger, and I also played the flute in my high school’s symphonic band. Since then, my musical interests have shifted – now I’m a huge fan of electronic music and want to learn about music production for digital sounds. I think this class is the perfect opportunity to do that, and I’m really excited to meet and collaborate with everyone else!