PORTFOLIO

I encourage headphones for optimal listening.

College of San Mateo, Spring 2023, Portfolio II project for our spring Electronic Music Concert: Big Bang. This is the second excerpt from my upcoming, multi-episode Asian Fail pod called, Japanese American Basketball: A League For Their Own. I interviewed Chris Komai, one of the founders of the Nikkei Heritage Basketball Association, about the history of the leagues in California. This excerpt focuses on Chris Komai’s family experience during World War II, how his community coped during incarceration in the internment camps, and how they integrated back into American society after being set free.

I recorded the interview remotely using Squadcast. I edited in Audition and Logic Pro X. I composed original music and mixed sound effects to support Mr. Komai’s narrative. I used archival BBC sounds from World War II for bomb blasts, plane flying, air raid, all clear, and a 1940’s car. I layered a Swirling Riser plugin and Timpani Drum Software Instrument to augment the bomb falling/blasting sounds. I also used BBC sounds for desert winds, cicadas, crowd at a cricket match, thunder clap, and door unlocking. I used the all clear and the door unlocking to signal the Japanese Americans release from the camps. I used free sound effects from YouTube for a women’s basketball practice, high school hall, and beach waves. I created a musical soundscape of different ethnic groups living together using software instruments based on their respective cultures: Linn Drums, Tough Kits, Indian Middle Eastern Kit, Funky Bass Blast, Latin Kit, Japanese Shakuhachi Flute (notes in a Japanese mode). I also composed original background and interstitial music with Logic Pro X software instruments: Electric Piano, Brooklyn Drum Kit, Shimmering Voice Texture synth, 808 Flex, and Prog Rock Bass. I used a BBC archival air raid sound and a free YouTube modern all clear sound as musical effects at the end. I used the following plugins: EQ, Space Designer Reverb, Echo, and Tape Delay.

College of San Mateo, Fall 2022, Portfolio I project for our winter Electronic Music Concert: Natalie, the First. This is an excerpt from my upcoming, multi-episode Asian Fail pod called, Japanese American Basketball: A League For Their Own. I recorded the interview with Mr. Chris Komai, a founding member of the Nikkei Heritage Basketball Association, using Squadcast remote recording service. I recorded outdoor basketball bounces with a TASCAM, and a classmate recorded game noises with a Zoom (not the virtual meeting company) mic on his phone. I used both in the concert piece. For the mix I wanted to give a feeling of Natalie Nakase’s interest in basketball being sparked, then growing, and rising to take her places in basketball she probably didn’t think was possible. She was the first female assistant coach in the NBA. I wanted to convey the feeling of getting an idea, setting a goal, and working toward your goal. I used Logic Pro X to edit. The plugins I used were EQ and reverb. I used software instruments: Pads and Soundscape synthesizer. I also used an Arpeggiator patch. I used Soundtrap to make a drum pattern.

Effects in timeline order: Synthesizer/ Soundscape/ Aurora Borealis – the sound of the beginning of something, and I panned left to right to left to center. I EQ’ed Mr. Komai cutting off the highest frequencies. Basketball bounces – I used a flanger, then an echo plugin. Toy Glockenspiel – the notion of playing basketball as a way of ditching Japanese language school. Game sounds – these sounds had some kids voices that I used for Natalie’s childhood, and I found free women’s basketball practice sounds on YouTube. Arpeggiator/ Synth Bells/ Glistening Bells – gives a feeling of working toward a goal with hope. Arpeggiator/ Synth Bells/ Light Breaks Through – gives a feeling of building on the past. Synthesizer/ Rhythmic/ Shimmering Harmonics  – gives a feeling of building on a dream/goal, and I panned left to right. Basketball Crowd Noise – builds gradually to cheers, I doubled a loud buzzer noise and synced it to a buzzer sound. Synthesizer/ Lead/ Analog Funk – had a nice vintage synth sound that wasn’t too buzzy for the melody in a Japanese mode. Drum Track – I made it in Soundtrap, added reverb in Logic Pro X. Hi Hat pattern – I made it in Soundtrap. For the basketball bounces I used a Logic Echo plugin. Synthesizer/ Pad/ Chrome Cascades – an endnote with some shimmer.

Spring 2022, College of San Mateo, Audio for Visual Media Final Project. We had to strip all the sound off a video and add all the sound effects, prerecorded music, and/or create music for the video. I recorded sounds in the field using a Tascam and my iPhone, and used the BBC Sound Effects Library. I also was the foley artist for many of the sounds. I used Logic Pro X for editing, mixing and mastering. I based the leitmotif on the Outlander version of the Scottish folksong, “The Skye Boat Song.” I used Logic Pro X’s software instruments: piano, strings, guitar, piccolo, and drew notes using the Pencil tool and played them on a MIDI controller keyboard. I did the vocals for the humming and singing tracks. The girl has a cloud companion, almost like a pet. To create the cloud’s signature sound I used Logic Pro X’s Electric Piano instrument/Experimental/After Swirl setting for the shimmery sound. I added BBC Sound Library recordings of dog whines, whimpers and barks with a phaser plugin for the base layer. I used two Logic drum loops during the credits.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the creator of The Girl and the Cloud video.
It’s use is solely for educational purposes and I receive no monetary compensation.
Story By: Boys and Girls
Directed By: Philip Hunt
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mco9gGHgrps&t=2s
Spring 2022, College of San Mateo, Electronic Music 2. I had only written eight bars of music for Fall 2021, Music Theory previous to this class. I started taking Suzuki piano lessons online with my son during the pandemic. My only music training prior was between 3rd-5th grade, learning violin. Needless to say, writing five minutes of original music (no Logic loops!) was daunting. Part of the final also required a performance aspect since our class would be playing our pieces live for the spring concert. I chose to write a musical score since I come from a film background, and I felt the visuals would give me a structure to work with while I narrated the story for my live performance requirement. I chose this video because the book is one of my son’s favorites, and the underwater setting could let me experiment with sounds. I removed the original audio, wrote and recorded original music, edited, mixed, and mastered it in Logic Pro X. I experimented with chord progressions to express feelings. I used Logic Pro X’s software instruments for drum, bass, electric piano, synthesizer, and vibraphone. The pulsing background sound is a synthesizer/Underwater Temple/Alchemy plugin. The frog is characterized by the drum and bass instruments, and the fish by the electric piano. As they get older the octave lowers. When the frog crawls out of the pond, I picked a drier bass and drum patch. The melody starts simply then gets more advanced as they get older ending with a Doo Wop sound that’s cheerful and balanced (emblematic of their friendship) with drum, bass, vibraphone, and electric piano.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the creator of the Fish is Fish video.
It’s use is solely for educational purposes and I receive no monetary compensation.
Fish is Fish book: Illustrated and written by Leo Lionni
https://www.leolionni.com/
Fish is Fish video: directed by Guilio Gianini
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQRCoez6M8
NARRATED VERSION. I recorded myself narrating an edited version of the book. The narration is front and center with a bit of reverb and the music lowered.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the creator of the Fish is Fish video.
It’s use is solely for educational purposes and I receive no monetary compensation.
Fish is Fish book: Illustrated and written by Leo Lionni
https://www.leolionni.com/
Fish is Fish video: directed by Guilio Gianini
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQRCoez6M8
Fall 2021, College of San Mateo, Sound and Synthesis Final Project. I am a big fan of Stanley Kubrick, and loved the sound design in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The irony is that he doesn’t use a lot of sound since it takes place in space, and space is a vacuum. The fear of being totally isolated is heightened in the vastness and silence of space. 

Hal is scared that Dave is going to shut him down and will do anything to stop it. When the drums kick in, I want people to feel like it mirrors Dave’s panic to shut Hal down before Hal kills him. But when the drums start to slow, they realize it mirrors Hal panic, which turns to insanity and desperation.

I used a lot of my lab and midterm sounds made in Reaktor for MUS292, for the control panel sounds at the beginning. I used additive and subtractive synthesis. I recorded the IBM computer playing and singing Daisy Bell on my iPhone from YouTube. I also recorded the film scenes and dialogue from my iphone. 

I edited the video in Adobe Premiere and used Adobe Audition to denoise the audio, and eliminated as much original sound as I could. I cut parts of the dialogue and imported them into the Independence sampler, and played them through Abelton on my keyboard at different pitches and lengths. 

I used Dave’s breathing to make a granular synthesis sound. I used it as the noise floor/background noise in the second half of the film when he’s in the emergency airlock shutting down Hal.

I made the drum pattern in Soundtrap. I used two bass loops in Soundtrap, and made the third slow bass loop in Soundtrap as a MIDI track. 

I used the IBM Daisy Bell recording in the beginning, almost like Hal is relaxing and listening to music. I found out that this is the first recording of a computer singing and Kubrick used it in 2001 for that same reason. At the end, I reversed it, lowered the volume to put it in the background while Hal tried to sing the song for Dave. I wanted it to add to the feeling of something being off. 

I imported everything into Pro Tools for the final mix. I chopped up and placed the dialogue samples, the sound effects, and used time stretch and pitch shift towards the end when Hal is begging Dave to stop on the dialogue samples. I had all the dialogue, and sounds in the second part go through D-verb to give a sense of a bigger room.

This took me a long time but I had a lot of fun making it. It used all my skills in audio production and my very beginner skills in music making.

SPRING 2021 CCSF Digital Portfolio. Here’s one of my podcast episodes I posted on my YouTube channel. I chat with Masashi Niwano, Festival Exhibition Director, about Center for Asian American Media’s annual film festival CAAMFest. I book guests, write, record, edit with Adobe Audition, mix, upload to the host site, and manage the social media (website, Twitter, YT channel) for my podcast.
Music by https://www.purple-planet.com/
FALL 2020 CCSF Intermediate Adobe Premiere Editing Cutting to a Beat. I shot all the footage in 4K on my iPhone, transcoded, and edited it. We had to add bars and tone, a countdown leader, 10 seconds of black, and a title card at the beginning. After the critiques, I added a spinning effect between the the upside down shot and the parking lot shot, used a motion graphics title card instead of plain text, broke up longer shots with additional shots of birds, wetlands and flowers, increased the vibrance and saturation in each shot to make the colors pop.
Most Happy Background Music for Videos, YouTube
Fall 2020 Intermediate Adobe Premiere Cutting to a Beat assignment. I edited this before my instructor changed the parameters of the assignment. We now had to use 4K footage and transcode before we edited. Since this was already done I posted it because it was so fun to do, and cutting to a beat was trickier with this one.
SEASON 1 SPOILER ALERT! If you love Cobra Kai and The Karate Kid, you’ll get a kick (haha!) from this video mashup. This TS banger is like Johnny and Daniel’s anthem.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the creator of the Cobra Kai, Karate Kid videos or the Taylor Swift music, it’s use is solely for educational purposes and I receive no monetary compensation.
Cobra Kai on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9D…
Karate Kid on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq9k6…
Cobra Kai on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81002370
https://www.youtube.com/user/taylorswift This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=6Z3QJ4…
Fall 2020 CCSF ProTools ADR/Foley project. I mixed all the sound and fx, recorded my voice for the ADR. DISCLAIMER: I did not create the music. This is solely for educational purposes. I receive no monetary compensation. Luchiano Michelini, Frolic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-fUGBfJHCY
FALL 2020 Pro Tools Soundscape Assignment. I wrote, did the voices, gathered all the sound for, and mixed this soundscape of Hell’s waiting room. To upload it to YT I had to add video to it. Video by Motion Places – Free Stock Video from Pexels. Sound efx from Storyblocks.
Spring 2020 College of San Mateo Video Production Final Project. I wrote, directed, acted in, and edited this commercial spoof. This was during the first months of lockdown in California. I had to write something that I could shoot with just one classmate.
DISCLAIMER: I did not create the music. This is solely for educational purposes. I receive no monetary compensation. Daniel Lopatin: https://www.pointnever.com/
Uncut Gems soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-UKfMe7ESDlBfvL4IrFEUWmSwcutCQ00 From the movie Uncut Gems: https://a24films.com/films/uncut-gems
Luchiano Michelini, Frolic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-fUGBfJHCY
SPRING 2020 COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO Digital Video Production Project #4 SHOOT AND EDIT A SEQUENCE. The assignment was to shoot a short sequence, like opening a can of beans. I came up with a short story called, “Dude, where’s my phone?” I did the storyboards, shot on a SONY AX2000, directed the actors, edited in Adobe Premiere Pro. Music by Henry Mancini and Django Reinhardt.