5115 research outputs found
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Who You Are
No full textWith his EP titled “Who You Are”, Peter Horton examines his relationships and travels abroad to look within and find who is at the core and how to live most authentically. He combines these themes with his love of 80’s music, setting these stories against a backdrop of New Wave inspired synthpop music. In using the title of “Who You Are”, Peter hopes to bring audiences into his world and express himself authentically, as well as encourage listeners to reflect and think about what it is that makes them unique, as well as what brings them passion and light. He would like them to reflect on the question, “How do you live in a way that best reflects who you are?”https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-cmat/1138/thumbnail.jp
Both Good and Bad
No full textBoth Good and Bad is a five-song EP that reflects my emotional journey through themes of love, time, and self-discovery. The first three tracks explore different stages of a romantic relationship—uncertainty, connection, and eventual separation—while the final two songs shift toward introspection. “Time River” captures the anxiety of growing older and losing direction, and “Water Salute” offers a symbolic blessing to the future, inspired by the aviation ritual of the same name. Throughout the process, I composed all the music and lyrics, arranged the instrumentations, and recorded the songs using a hybrid of home and studio setups. I also played guitar and programmed rhythm sections, blending elements of R&B, pop, jazz, and country. Collaborating with fellow musicians, I refined each track through iterative feedback and session work. This project allowed me to deepen my understanding of harmonic development, songwriting structure, and production techniques. It represents not just a creative output, but also a personal milestone in my artistic growth.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-cmat/1110/thumbnail.jp
Moments
No full textIt is impossible to remember the totality of time - instead, our memories fixate on specific moments, fragmented sections that hold special meaning. When listening to music, the same is true - rarely does one remember every nuanced detail of even the simplest of songs. Instead, we remember moments: interesting harmonic gestures, soaring melodies, powerful lyrics. This EP, aptly titled Moments, is the culmination of Peter’s own life experiences, distilled into five tracks that leave the listener with a new set of memorable sonic shards; moments that surprise, moments that excite, moments that move. The project is a showcase of what the scholar refers to as “emotional dance music,” a coin termed to describe the amalgamation of the storytelling of singer-songwriter genres with the rhythmic idiosyncrasies and textural palette of electronic dance music. Focusing on intimate vocal performance and dense, complex supporting background vocal harmonies, Moments takes the listener on a journey through the sounds of genres such as drum and bass, house, and UK garage while keeping lyricism front and center.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-cmat/1120/thumbnail.jp
Renegotiating Our Relationship With Technology
No full textBoth as an exploration of the symbiosis between jazz and electronic music, as well as a way to renegotiate our relationship with technology, I put together a group of six musicians that controls the effects on eachother’s instruments. Seeing how technology has a tight grasp on us and our lives, I decided to use it as a tool to promote connection and collective exploration. Therefore, the musical aspects of this project combine the limitless sounds, textures, and possibilities of electronic music with the freedom, improvisation, and deep-listening that are essential to jazz. This is accomplished through the use of MIDI controllers that turn on and off multiple effects within Ableton, which are tied to each musician’s instrument. This unique system forces each musician to listen and connect deeper with one another. On one hand, controlling someone else’s effects pushes that person to act based on what best-serves the musician and music in every moment. On the other hand, having their effects controlled by someone else requires them to either adapt to or ignore whatever effects are triggered. Regardless of the choices made, each musician has to be in the moment and connecting with one another on a deeper level. Instead of technology using us while causing separation and isolation, this project utilizes technology as a tool that fosters creativity and human connection.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-jazz/1191/thumbnail.jp
Business Plan for MILA: A Record Label and Consultancy for Latin American Artists in Spain
No full textWith this project, I want to develop a business plan for MILA, a hybrid music company that functions both as an independent record label and a consultancy, created to support Latin American artists expanding into the Spanish music market. MILA is designed to act as a cultural bridge, helping artists overcome the challenges of entering new territories where fan expectations, promotional strategies, and industry structures vary significantly. While Latin American artists may benefit from a shared language with Spain, cultural differences still shape how music is received. Fan behaviors, consumption habits, and industry practices differ, so a strategy that might work in one Latin American country might not succeed in Spain. MILA’s label arm will sign and develop a select roster of talented Latin artists with the goal of reaching the global stage. In parallel, MILA’s consultancy arm will work with independent Latin artists or indie labels aiming to expand into the Spanish market. Together, both sides of MILA aim to empower Latin artists to grow internationally in a way that’s strategic, localized, and rooted in cultural authenticity. We believe in helping talent cross borders without losing their essence, and in showing the world the full beauty of Latin creativity.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-entertainment-business/1395/thumbnail.jp
Business Plan and Customer Insight Report Sound Bridge Productions: Bridging Orchestras and Communities Through Sound
No full textSound Bridge Productions is a company designed to help orchestras expand into non-classical programming in a way that is cost friendly through scalable price packages. The business was created after observing the difficulties that orchestras have in retaining audiences as well as the barriers to entry that orchestras have in programming and producing non-classical shows. The customer insight report is based on interviews with music industry professionals such as orchestra programmers and producers, artistic directors, and musicians. Insights were gathered through two different prototype methods, namely a video prototype and a one-page executive summary. The feedback gained from these interviews validated the need for non-classical programming in orchestras, but brought up some concerns with the business and financial models of Sound Bridge, such as the high cost of arrangements, standing out as a small company, and creating a sustainable network of artists, arrangers, and orchestras. To address these challenges, Sound Bridge will implement pivots, such as adopting a “booking agent” model, creating different leasing structures for orchestras and artists, and further defining the package system. The next three phases of Sound Bridge are planned out based on the feedback from the interviews, and new potential testing in the market.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-entertainment-business/1397/thumbnail.jp
Business Plan on Boundless Studios
No full textThis project presents a comprehensive business plan to launch Boundless Studios, a state of the arts creative hub aimed at reshaping the creative industries in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. With a strong artist-first philosophy and an integrated model encompassing music production, visual content creation, podcasting, and education; the goal is to address key challenges such as limited infrastructure, financial barriers, and lack of training in East Africa’s creative sector. With a clear focus on ownership, cultural authenticity, and export-readiness, this paper explores the economic potential of the region’s creative economy, outlines a phased development plan, presents detailed financial projections, risk mitigation strategies, and marketing approaches. The project seeks to elevate East African creatives to international prominence resulting in a blueprint for an innovative, scalable model that fosters employment, nurtures talent, and amplifies African voices on the global stage.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-entertainment-business/1413/thumbnail.jp
Music Album Production Fusing Traditional Colombian Rhythms with Latin American Urban Genres
No full textIn the last 30 years, the Reggaeton genre not only transformed the Latin popular music industry, but also established itself as a global genre, consistently occupying top positions on international charts and redefining mainstream sonic landscapes. Strangely, its sound, themes, and rhythmic structure remained quite static, evolving very little over time. It wasn\u27t until shortly before 2020 that some artists within the genre, alongside others coming from genres such as pop, salsa, hip-hop and folk music from different countries began experimenting by fusing their own musical languages with the so-called dembow, reggaetón\u27s characteristic rhythm, thereby initiating significant transformations of the original genre. The present culminating experience project propose to write, record, mix and finish a 6 songs album using the dembow rhythm as one of the main parameters, but exploring different Colombian sonorities and instrumentation from genres like cumbia, vallenato, rasqa, joropo and other popular folkloric genres looking forward for an original sound. Some of the influences include but not limited to artists like Bomba Estereo, Edson Velandia, Calle 13, Lizandro Meza, La Muchacha, Pernet, Frente Cumbiero and others. The production techniques involve real instruments recording, sampling and the use of some elements of electronic music arrangement with audio and MIDI processing in Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Logic Pro.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1412/thumbnail.jp
Redemption: A Performance Journey
No full textAfter an injury severely limited the author’s ability to play guitar, he searched for a way to continue performing. In Redemption, the author explores different iterations of the artist’s relationship to technology through live performance. This will include both live instruments and electronics as sound sources, as well as a visual component. The author uses different configurations of live electronics, prerecorded loops, live instruments, and live recorded loops throughout the performance. Using Ableton Live, the author has found a new path to performing original music, bringing all of his skills together into one live performance.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1422/thumbnail.jp
The Gen-Synth: A generative granular synthesizer.
No full textIn recent years, the development of generative AI models that are able to generate high quality audio has opened a new world of opportunities in the field of sound synthesis for musical applications. The possibilities inaugurated by this emerging technology, however, are only beginning to be investigated. In this work, Gen-Synth, a synthesizer combining generative timbre transfer and granular synthesis is proposed in order to further explore the artistic implications of AI in sound design. The work was developed by training a popular neural synthesis model - RAVE (Realtime Audio Variational autoEncoder) - with a library composed of Brazilian percussion recordings. Later, the trained model was used to develop a Max for Live device that combined a timber transfer module with a granular synthesis module. Finally, some user testing was performed, and feedback was gathered for future improvement.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1427/thumbnail.jp