AES Student Blog

Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?

I live in Provo Utah with my wife Alaura and new born son Lando. I am also a Senior in the Commercial Music Program at Brigham Young University. I auditioned and was accepted into the Jazz Studies Program on Baritone Saxophone, but on my first day of school realized that the Jazz Studies Major was being absorbed into Commercial Music and being offered as a specialized track. Being a new Commercial Music major I was required to take a Music Technology class that immediately peaked my interest. It was a beginner's introductory course to Pro Tools and recording technology and I immediately became obsessed. I started taking less and less performance based courses and focusing on recording and engineering. I grew up in a home of musicians and remember listening to bands like Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, Sly and the Family Stone, and my all time favorite James Brown. This era of music always appealed to me but it wasn't until I started getting deeper into recording and engineering that I understood exactly why. I felt immediately drawn to learn how to produce, record, and mix music that is high caliber like my musical idols.  

Tell us about production of your submission? What is the story behind it? What inspired it? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?

I am Head Engineer for BYU's Studio Y. This gives me the opportunity to work on projects of every imaginable style and genre. BYU Animation is a program that is well known for submitting and winning Student Emmy's, and it came time to record the music for that year's short film entitled Papa'. Instead of a traditional smaller studio orchestra, the Director of Commercial Music wanted to involve one of the School of Music's biggest premier orchestras, the Philharmonic. I was ecstatic to be recording a 90 piece orchestra. The session overall was difficult to pull off. We could only record during their normal rehearsal time, which was 1-3 pm which included the orchestra setting up and taking down. There are classes taught in the same room before and after so the session prep was done at 4 am that morning. All the mics and stands were then moved to line the walls while classes were taking place and then at 1 o clock it was a mad dash to reset the room. We recorded in mid December with a Student Emmy submission deadline of January 15th. My goals for the project were to, at all costs, preserve the sound of the full orchestra. So I focused and taking full takes of cues. After recording the orchestra we brought in other instruments for an overdubbing session like the accordion, acoustic guitar, acoustic piano. We didn't have final, locked picture when recording the orchestra and edits were made by the directors in the ending of the film, so we used supplementary virtual instruments in the last 15 seconds. Other than the edit in the final scene I was able to use all live instruments, which I'm very pleased about. The music was the hallmark of the film and represents the vast majority of my work. The sound design elements were reduced due to time restraints but given proper time I'm sure would have enhanced the film more.

What/who made you join AES?

I have great mentors at BYU in Jeff Carter, Ron Saltmarsh, and Aaron Merrill. Jeff mentioned one day that I should submit one of my projects to the AES student competition. I had always wanted to attend AES and until Jeff mentioned it I had no idea there was a student competition. By the time I became a registered member I only had a week to submit my project. I felt going in that because Papa was lacking in Sound Design and Foley I didn't stand a chance of being competitive in the Student Competition. I was blown away I was a finalist and awarded a Silver award. I am so grateful for the opportunity to submit my work and have it evaluated and critiqued by working professionals. The judges were extremely complimentary of the music and gave valuable feedback regarding the Sound Design that I'm already employing in my current projects.

Tell us about your favourite experiences at the 141st AES convention in LA!

The whole Student Competition and critique sessions are definitely a stand out experience for me at AES. But the single thing that blew everything else out of the water was the clinic George Massenburg gave showing off his raw stems from Earth Wind and Fire sessions. My mentor Jeff Carter did workshops with George and has taught me techniques he learned from George in those workshops. I could watch the Producer and Engineer I respect the most show off stems from one of my favorite bands, from one of my favorite albums. It was incredible.  

To hear and see Parker's project, click here