AES Student Blog

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

I'm originally from Atlanta, Georgia and now i am studying Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

2) What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?

I feel like it started for me like it started with most people. I started listening to good music. Originally I was actually a video guy until I started listening to some old classic rock records. After that I convinced my school's video teacher to buy some sound equipment and I started recording people at my high school. I've been working with audio ever since.

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 was actually a project for one of the upper level audio classes at Belmont. Myself and my friend/co-engineer, Cameron Row, wanted to do a laid back song, so we both got to researching through spotify playlists. I eventually found "Bad Bad News" by Leon Bridges and knew that had to be the track. I started calling up musicians in the Belmont music program and got a really solid set of players. We were fortunate enough to track in Oceanway Nashville which has one of the nicest rooms imaginable. (That's why you'll find most of the drum mix is the room mics). Everyone that played had a really upbeat and fun vibe so we played the song a half step up and added some pretty interesting parts. We played a Fender Rhodes through a Leslie cabinet to close out the song and added little Moog synthesizer riffs throughout it. The results ended out being a really nice and vibey yet still energetic song. Once it was all tracked I handed the stems to Cameron Row to mix it. I gave him some minor production notes, and he finished it up nicely.

4) What/who made you join AES?

All of Belmont's professors highly encourage you to join AES. What finally pushed me to join was the student recording competition! Cameron Row mentioned it to me and suggested we submit "Bad Bad News". Once Belmont approved the song to go to New York, we both joined right up. One of the best choices I've made as an engineer so far. I cant wait to attend more conventions in the oncoming years!

5) Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 145th AES convention in New York!

I found all the panels incredibly interesting. I was worried it would be a whole bunch of old guys debating what your LUFS meter should read before you send your mix off to mastering, but it was all very entertaining and very educational stuff. Anything I felt I was missing from Belmont, I could learn about it at AES.