Hi! I’m Stephanie, a current Junior studying computer science. I played the flute and piano throughout middle school and high school and used Garageband a bit previously. I don’t have as much experience in music production, but I was excited to combine my technology interests with music in this class. In my projects, I love being able to combine music and computer technology (which was one of my projects for my AI class) and am excited to get to focus more on learning more about the composition aspects of this class. I don’t have a specific agenda, besides learning as much as possible and having fun! I would love to collaborate with others on projects and share ideas for cool compositions.
Charles Davis – Assignment 0
Hello, my name is Charles Davis and I am a senior Information Science student. I took guitar lessons for 5 years growing up and I am a novice banjo player. This past summer, I worked as a software developer for Spotify. At Spotify, I helped build tools and features to help artists grow their career. I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the creative and technical processes that artists undergo in order to create music. I would be interested in combining my experience in software development with my passion for music. I would love to collaborate with others on upcoming projects.
Looking forward to a great semester.
DJ Singleton – Assignment 0
I do not have a strong musical background. I played the piano when I was very young and trombone in the 4th grade. I remember some terminology when it comes to reading sheet music, but not much. However, I have played around with a few different music software interfaces including, Audacity, Ableton, Fruity Loops, and Djay. I was interested in this class because I listen to a lot of hip-hop music that is pretty much entirely digital production at this point, many famous hip-hop producers rarely incorporate live instrument sounds. I think it would be fun to learn more about composition and how to use these tools. Creatively I am looking to be able to create hip-hop music that has intricate drums patterns. I would be interested in collaborating with others.
Assignment 0
Hi! My name is Caroline and I’m a sophomore in CAS. I’ve always really liked the production side of music and I am looking forward to gaining some experience with recording equipment, different programs, etc. I play the piano primarily, am learning the cello, play the guitar and like to sing. About the music I like, I really love film music, lots of different EDM and subgenres like lofi and the blend of genres that is the singer grandson, the varieties of rock music, and am open to many genres. I like the way music makes us feel and how it does it. I also like being able to experiment and I think computer music is a great way to do just that. I’m open to any collaboration venture!
Ben Stewart — Assignment 0
Hey guys, my name is Ben and I’m a freshman in CAS. I played drums for about 5 years but stopped a few years ago, as I couldn’t find the time or space to practice anymore. Being a drummer, I never really learned much about music theory, but I’ve been messing around in Logic Pro X recently and wanted to develop my skills through this course. I would say that I’m a very rhythmically-driven guy — I love solid beats and grooves that make you bob your head. My musical interests and influences are really all over the place. I’ve been invested in jambands for a while now, mostly Phish and Grateful Dead, but some of my other favorite artists are Tame Impala, Daft Punk, Nujabes, Victor Wooten, and a lot of old-school hiphop (and some newer rap, too). I don’t really have any specific styles or types of music that I’m looking to make this semester, but rather just experiment like a lot of my influences. I’d be happy to collaborate with anyone on anything.
Cathy Hui – Assignment 0
Hello! I am Cathy, a senior from the hotel school. I grew up in Hong Kong, and came to the USA for college.
For my musical background, I started playing classical piano and involving in choirs from a young age. I was also in Cornell Chorale for two semesters. Although I do not major in music, I am really interested in music and I enjoy singing and playing music in my free time. With no prior experience in music engineering, I think it would be interesting to learn how to produce music through different softwares and be able to produce my own work by the end of the semester. I am also learning to play the guitar.
I hope to get to know you better and I am excited about having the opportunity to collaborate in this class!
Cathy
This is Kaav
Hi guys!
My name is Kaavian, but you can call me Kaav! I’m a senior in Biological Engineering and have been looking for a different way to connect with music again. I’ve played the piano for around ten years, and hope to apply to skills to this course. I’ve wanted to learn more about the technical and engineering aspects of developing music with the hopes of being able to develop my own music. I’m a huge fan of experimental and electronic music, and I’m super motivated to dabble in those areas. I’m a tremendous fan of the outdoors and nature, and I’m hoping to experiment with noises and sounds from nature to produce music. I am tremendously interested in collaborating with others and look forward to meeting everyone else. In recent years, I’ve found finding the time to play the piano to be quite difficult. I’m eager, however, to make room for music in my life again.
Aside from all of that, I’m originally from the bay area in California and hope to bring some gnarly California vibes to the group!
-Kaavian
An Unconventional Vistor
I am Walker White, a faculty member in the department of Computer Science. I am also the person in charge of the game design minor at Cornell. I am going to join you all in the course for the semester. I have almost 1000 students in my CS course this semester, so we will see how long that lasts. But my goal is to remain with you until the end (and I have 80 TAs holding down the ship).
My interest in this course is to get a better idea of how musicians and audio engineers work. I write a lot of software. I have written a custom game engine for the courses that I teach at Cornell, and that includes a custom sound engine. But software is only good if people use it, and so I need to understand more about the users of the software (both the creators and the programmers) to improve it.
The sound engine I am working on is a particularly interesting project. All of the open source sound engines for games are 20-year old technology. They can mix pre-recorded samples and that is about it. If you want to do something more interesting and give more control to the audio designer, then you have to use one the commercial tools like Wwise or FMOD. They will charge you for the number of copies you sell. Last year CS 4152 had a student game go viral and get 700,000 downloads on Android, so that would have been very bad (they did not charge enough to cover a license if they needed one).
There is clearly a market for an open source solution between these two options and that is what I am working on. The CS side is pretty intense — I have Masters students working with me. But there may be some opportunities for collaboration here.
MUSIC 1421 (Assignment 0)
Hi guys, I’m Anshu. I’m a master’s student in aerospace engineering and robotics, interested in going into acoustics, sound design, as well as just composition in general.
In terms of musical background, I’ve played classical piano for almost my whole life, and I’m trying to branch out to jazz and hip hop after taking MUSIC 2421 last semester. I’ve recently been working on personal projects with Logic Pro X and Ableton Live, and I’m hoping to get a lot more out of the class this semester with more advanced techniques.
One of the things I hope to achieve this semester is to get more acquainted with the available tools at the UI level. There’s definitely a lot thrown at you when using the software, and knowing how to properly use them can come in handy when you’re trying to get that perfect sound. I would like to get better at that by the end of this class.
I’m for sure interested in collaborating with others, so if you play drums, saxophone, or guitar, let me know, because I could use a lot of help in my songs too. Starting off in 2421 was pretty difficult composition-wise; it’s a new challenge to get settled with the tools at the same time as understanding musical form (which I still haven’t gotten down). Being able to collaborate with others allows for so much more creativity, and I’d like to have more of a natural feel to the music I write, rather than relying on electronic instruments.
That being said, feel free to check out any of my music on SoundCloud:
I hope to get to know you all better, and let me know if you’re interested in collabing!
Dae Gun_Chung Kim_Assignment 0_Fall 2018
Hi, Im Dae Gun,
I love songwriting! I play the guitar, hum a melody, add some poetic words, and voila, a new song!
My dream is to continue doing this at a larger scale through software and digital media. I wish to record my songs and share my thoughts and heart with the world, and hopefully, it can help others realize that they are not alone.
I have grown up in a Korean missionary family in Bolivia, so I grew up singing Spanish songs in my church every week. Today, my brain works as a unique blend of Cumbia, Merengue, Mariachi, Ballads, Traditional Korean Music, Kpop, American Pop, and R&B. And I hope to use this diversity to come up with something creative and genuine.
I also play the piano, violin, and love singing.
I hope to continue expanding my knowledge of music, be able to pour out my soul into a new composition, and share it with the world!