Below are projects I’ve worked on recently!

An Experiment in Virtual Reality in a Studio Setting:

During the fall semester of 2019, I took the opportunity to work on a project exploring sound in virtual reality within a studio setting, advised by Dr. Simon Hutchinson. Working alongside Cory Levy, we utilized Studio B at the University of New Haven along with a Samsung Gear 360 camera offered by the communications department, a Zoom H3-VR audio recorder, and a Sennheiser Ambeo ambisonic microphone to establish the three-dimensional space. However, in the end, we chose the clarity of the Ambeo microphone over the Zoom H3-VR.

Ultimately, this project was a sort of exploration around best practices to combine the 3D recording from the ambisonic microphone (Sennheiser Ambeo; not unlike a spatialized ‘area loop’ in game design) and source micing (not unlike ‘source loops’).  To continue to elaborate in the terms of game development within Unity, to capture the entire sonic frequency of each instrument (beyond vocals) I decided to utilize two microphones on each despite needing to condense them to mono signals to spatialize them properly within the 3D environment using the Facebook 360 plugin. If we had not needed to troubleshoot the difference between the ProTools version that was in the studio versus the version of Facebook 360 available at the time I might have been able to place the sound objects more specifically within the video, replicating the ‘listener’ points of the microphones. These signals would still need to be mono, however, there may have been a subtle difference in where the separate frequency spectrums were sourced from making it more as it would be in the real world.

Experiential Learning:

I had the privilege to shadow Sean Loughry and Grayson Rech of Patriot Sound over the course of a few days at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts for the Festival Shell Stage with a few of my colleagues from the University of New Haven. There I was able to learn, hands-on, about how to run Front of House as well as monitors on separate boards. I was immediately offered the opportunity to control the aspects myself!   During this time, I was able to familiarize myself with the Digidesign Venue SC48 (FoH) and Midas M32 (monitors). I felt this was an inspiring and enlightening experience, as it offered a way to expand my skill set while allowing me to explore this aspect of engineering. Back in high school, my initial interest in audio technology was based on live sound operation and so I was particularly excited about this opportunity. We also had Sean use one of my current favorite bands, Miki Fiki, for soundcheck!

I have to say, besides (maybe) the opportunity to involve myself in the theater work available at the University of New Haven, this was the best way for me to have been introduced to live sound. You never learn without taking a risk but both Sean and Grayson refused to push you further than you were willing to go — which, arguably, pushed my colleagues and I to do more because we realized we were capable of doing it despite having been just introduced to the soundboards and concepts. It forced us to believe in ourselves of our own volition. Not only was I introduced to live sound in an environment that allowed me to separate monitors from Front of House, but I chose when and how involved I wanted to be, allowing me to take more responsibility when I felt I fully understood. Once I realized I was capable of controlling the boards myself, I felt confident in myself.

Post-Production for Game Audio & Interactive Media:

This is the fourth project for Special Topics: Game Audio & Interactive Sound. We took a trailer for a game and were told to replace all of the sound effects in the game aside from voices, stingers, and music. We were free to use any sounds, recorded ourselves or otherwise as long as the sound design, later on, was of our own decision making and not ready-made.

Studio Recording II:

This was recorded on a TASCAM ATR-80 multitrack tape machine, synced to ProTools using SMPTE, live mixed, recorded back to ProTools, and bounced out. The project was for my group to record the song and live-mix it in front of the class using outboard gear without cut-editing the tape.

Audio Post-Production for Media:

This was the first project for Special Topics: Audio for Post-Production Media class. We were given the workprint and told to replace everything including ADR, music, ambiances, and all sound effects. All sounds and music were provided, ADR was recorded in class as well as some foley.

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