Graduating music technology students will present their compositions at the Music Composition and Technology Senior Capstone Recital in the Fenway Center (77 St Stephen St) this Saturday, April 23. Among those students is Bryan Swords (BS, Computer Science/Music Composition and Technology ’16) who will be presenting a digital audio workstation he created as part of the requirement for his dual major, in addition to two compositions.

“The goal is to work with audio in a programmatic way,” he explains. “I decided a fun way to do this would be to build a digital audio workstation, which is just basically an application where you’re able to open up an audio file and then mess with it in various ways, whether it’s making it louder or softer or changing its pitch.”

Bryan worked with Mike Frengel, a professor in the music department, to understand how to digitally represent and interact with audio.

The project, tentatively titled G Audio, is something Bryan hopes to continue working on after Saturday. “I’ve kind of set it up in a way where I can move forward in various ways and make it more complex as I go,” he says. He’s also considering making it open source to encourage contributions from others in the music technology field.

One thing that he says differentiates G Audio from other workstations like Pro Tools and Logic Pro is that it’s geared toward musicians composing contemporary pieces, and who might not find all the tools they need in programs geared toward more traditional songs.

The pieces he will present on Saturday reflect that unconventional music style: one is built around a friend’s vocal performance that’s been processed and arranged into a composition, the other around various, disconnected sound sources that have also been heavily processed. Both were composed with the intention of being played back over eight speakers that surround the audience.

“It’s probably something that no one would really recognize, but will enjoy nonetheless,” Bryan says.

The concerts on Friday are free and open to the public. The first concert is from 3 – 4:30 pm, and will be followed by tech talks (including Bryan’s) that will end at 5:30 pm. The second concert is from 7:30 – 9 pm. Find more info here.

By Shandana Mufti