Hi everyone! My name is Aarohee Fulay and I am a senior majoring in biology and psychology.  I played the piano for six years, violin for ten, and have had vocal training as well.  I am minoring in music and have recently gotten interested in music production. Since I am just getting started, I’m taking this class to learn more about different production and mixing techniques. If anyone else produces, I would love to hear their tracks as well as receive any tips they may have! I’m attaching one of my first compositions if anyone would like to listen.

Hi guys! My name is Skyler Gray, and I am a junior studying Engineering Physics. I have been an avid musician all of my life as a percussionist and pianist, writing and performing in all types of groups, from jazz to indie rock. As an engineering major, I am highly interested in learning more about electronically produced and synthesized music, something I love listening to but am not very well versed in at all. I certainly am in this class hungering for a new source of creativity, as both an engineer and musician.

P.s. If anyone is looking to make some music outside of class, especially if you are seeking a drummer, I’m your guy.

Can’t wait to read everyone else’s posts!

Hi All! My name is Joseph Schertzer, I am a senior Human Development with a premed focus. I was classically trained on the Piano, and then moved on to rock, jazz, and middle-eastern/Israeli music. In addition to Piano, I dabble on the guitar and bass. In high school, I participated in several Musicals and performed extensively with my school band. At Cornell, I perform music with a band at a local synagogue for many celebrations throughout the year, and am very open to new projects and bands.

Generally, I rely much more on my ear and experimentation to produce and perform music, so I believe this course is right up my alley!
From a young age, I was always fascinated by different types of sounds, rhythms, and music I could make using natural sounds.  I am very excited to take this course I will be able to approach music from a very different angle.

Hi all, my name is Jamie Winebrake and I’m a senior in CALS studying Biology with a minor in Business and medical-related aspirations. I grew up playing the piano and dabbling in guitar and various percussion instruments, but during the past few years I’ve shifted my focus to music production on my laptop using FL Studio: first “mashups,” then mostly hip-hop instrumentals as that’s where most of musical interest lies these days. I lack any real training in music production and have learned what I presently know only through experimenting with the software; that being said I’m excited to familiarize myself with the underlying lessons that Professor Ernste mentioned in class because I think they will really help me improve my skills in what has become one of my favorite hobbies.

If you have some time to kill and are interested in hearing any of my past projects, feel free to check out my soundcloud page and leave some feedback (https://soundcloud.com/doctorjaymo).

Looking forward to getting to know you all in the coming semester!

Hi, my name is Michelle and am a senior in Environmental Engineering.  My grandma was a music teacher and gave me piano lessons when I was younger for 5 or 6 years.  I also played the trumpet in high school, so I have musical experience, but absolutely nothing in terms of electronic music. I am super pumped to learn about it though, and hope to be able to create a project half as good as the ones we were shown on the first day!  😀

Hi everyone, my name is Rosemary Li, and I am a biology major and music minor. I’m a classically trained pianist and violinist, and have no experience in electronic music, so this is going to be fun! I enjoy reading, winter sports, tennis, horse-back riding, and drawing. I’m looking forward to meeting you all!

My name is Jasmine Edison, and I am a Music major in Arts and Sciences. My favorite things include chocolate, hiking trips, horseback riding, really thick fantasy novels, the films that are adapted from them, and the soundtracks from those films–especially the soundtracks. In fact, my main motivation for taking this course is to learn how those soundtracks are made. I am a classically trained violinist, so the technical side of things will be an eye-opening experience for me. I can’t wait to get started!

Concert order for tomorrow is as follows. The letters indicate the computer assignment, machines from Studios C and D, respectively. The D machine will host the 88-key keyboard. OL = own laptop (running at a third station). Larger setups and those with multiple computers usually appear first after intermission.

I look forward to to tomorrow and to a smooth concert. If you have any remaining concerns, please let us know.

1. Wei Ning Nicole Liang – C
2. Claire Straus  – D
3. Andrew Huang  – C
4. Eileen Ceconi – D
5. Stephanie Grant  – C
6. Matt Miller – D
7. Valeryan Besselyanov  – C
8. Jil Sanchez – D
9. Sylvia Zhao  – C
10. Jonathan Wu – D
11. Michael Ndubuisi – OL

INTERMISSION

12. Julia Klein, Nate Goldman, and James Rainis – OL (+)
13. Adam David & Shah Ahmed  – C
14. Justin Wang – D
15. Andre Anderson video piece (postponed)
16. Ray Kim – OL
17. Zach Anderson – D
18. Kelvin Jin – OL
19. Jeff Setter – – C 
20.Jacob Lifton – D 
22. Austin Taylor – OL
22. Jevon Yu – D

INTERMISSION

23. Matthew Joe – OL
24. Theresa Anoje  – C
25. Keima Udoka & Michelle Chang – OL
26. Jun-Kyo Seo – D
27. Daniel Carpenter – C
28. Kai Keane – OL
29. Thomas Owens – D & OL

Below are the sound check times for tomorrow. If you do not need this time or can’t make your time slot, please let me know as soon as possible. And if a time is not listed for you and you’d like to check in, please stop by from 9:30 to 2 and we will try to fit you in. Or feel free to email me still this evening.

Andrew Huang — 9:30
Eileen Ceconi — 9:40
Stephanie Grant — 9:50
Valeryan Besselyanov — 10am
Jil Sanchez — 10:10
Sylvia Zhao — 10:20
Jonathan Wu — 10:30
Julia Klein, Nate Goldman, and James Rainis — 10:40
Steven Bell — 11am
Jacob Lifton — 11:20
Ray Kim — 11:30
Kevin Nielsen Garcia — 11:40
Kelvin Jin — 11:50
Adam David & Shah Ahmed — 12 noon
Zach Anderson — 12:10
Michael Ndubuisi 12:30
Jevon Yu — 12:40
Matthew Joe & Austin Opatrny 12:50
Theresa Anoje 1:10
Keima Udoka & Michelle Chang 1:20
Thomas Owens 1:40

I like not only the music from Mass Effect 2 but also the way in which it is played.  There’s a really good video from the composers showcasing this but I can’t find it, so here’s this instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HimJxMXnIsI (don’t watch all of it though).

Basically, the instrumentation changes and more parts are add/removed as the action changes.  I wanted to do something like this for my final project, but I made the mistake of listening to this to get an idea of the style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiL3YSlX4zs .

See what I did wrong?  The second video doesn’t really show off the transitions.  I basically said, “I like how this sounds, I’ll make 2 tracks kind of like these and then I’ll figure out some transitiony / performancy things to do with them later.”  That’s no good, you don’t transition between two totally different tracks.  You can’t fade between the first two tracks from the second link and have it sound like the transitions from the first link, which I found out the hard way when I started writing my second piece for the performance.  Ultimately, this was an instance of me not planning ahead.

So what do I do from here?  As I said, transitions generally involve changing instrumentation and adding / removing parts.  But my first piece, in my opinion, depends on its specific MIDI instruments, and I don’t think it would sound full enough with some of its parts removed.  The only remaining option, then, is to add some new parts.  But I already sort of did that halfway through the piece, and for a performance thing I want more variety between the two songs I play to keep it interesting.

But writing song #2 as “new parts to add to #1” did help me get started, even if I didn’t stick to that mentality for long.  I had to write a new standalone piece that sounded sort of like the first in terms of notes and song structure (so that they would sound at least reasonable if played together at any given point in time), but it also had to be different and interesting.  And I still wanted the second piece to be similar in tone to the first but more actiony.

These are more constraints than I had originally anticipated.  Still, I think I did a good job of fixing my incorrect initial approach, and I like how things turned out.  I think the B track is a little less good than the A track (partially due to these constraints but mostly due to me running out of time to compose things) but I like how both came out, and I feel comfortable transitioning between them at any point in the song.  I considered the idea of leaving the transitioning up to the audience / a volunteer, but in the end I decided to do it myself because I want to make sure everyone gets to hear the full 2 tracks and in a way that showcases them well.  I’ll post the 2 tracks separately after the performance.