1) Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
My name is Kseniya Degtyareva and I am a completing my masters degree in Sound Recording at McGill university. Previously, I did my bachelors in Belarus.
2) What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?
From my childhood, I was surrounded by music. I started to play the piano when I was 5 years old. When I was 18, I was composing some music for indie computer games. So I started to mix my own music in DAWs. Then I decided that I would like to learn more about sound, so I entered the university program in sound engineering. It did not take long for music recording to become my passion.
3) 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?
This submission wasn’t my first one. I have already been a finalist at the 2016 AES student recording competition in Paris. Also, I submitted a couple of works in between this time. I find this competition an incredible opportunity to receive some feedback for productions I am working on. Sometimes the comments are controversial but every time they give you a lot of useful information about technical qualities of a mix and new creative ideas for future recordings.
This year my submission is an original composition of the talented Montreal musician “Krystale“. I found this recording experience to be very valuable. The band was made up of professional musicians and I was fortunate enough to have plenty of time to realize a general recording approach I always wanted to try. For example, demo recordings Krystale sent me in advance helped me to make decisions about an ideal input list and placement of musicians in the room.
At the session, the right amount of time was spent with the drummer to carefully tune his snare and toms. Also, I enjoyed the creative connection we had with the musicians during the whole session. I didn’t have a lot of chances to produce this kind of music in such an ideal and controlled context but I definitely enjoyed being responsible not only for the best sound but for the best performance representation of the musical material.
I want to thank my colleagues from McGill, who were involved in this recording session: Mathieu Bourassa and Ephraim Hahn. This submission is my first experience mixing pop music in surround. I find it very interesting how a new format opened a whole world to me for new mixing ideas in this genre of music.
4) What/who made you join AES?
I found out information on the internet about the Student Summit in Berklee Valencia in 2015. I am happy that after that experience some students from my former university in Minsk started visiting European Conventions.
5) Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 144th AES convention in Milan!
My best experience was meeting my friends from Europe and learning about the oldest organ in Milan in the church of San Maurizio during a convention technical tour.
