Seniors Walt Klaus, Justin Brown Connor McHugh, as well as Freshman Joella Espinal all won awards at this year’s Music Tech Expo at Rowan University.
At Rowan University’s Music Tech Expo, held at Rowan University on Friday, May 12, Seneca seniors Walt Klaus and Justin Brown won the Gold Award for “Best Production” for the second time in three years. In addition, senior Connor McHugh won the Gold Award for “Best Original Composition” and Joella Espinal, a Seneca freshman, won the Gold Award for “Best Remix/Loop Based Project.”
For Klaus and Brown’s project, the students were given “stems,” which are basically just various instrument trackings to a song — one for the drums, one for the guitar and so on — which had to be put together, mixed and produced to create a single audio track. In other words, they were given all the recorded parts to a song a band would have recorded, and Klaus and Brown had to put them together. But that’s more difficult than it sounds.
Klaus explained he had to “mix them and master them, put effects on, [and] adjust the levels to basically make the finished project that is the song.”
McHugh, who was absent at school and couldn’t be reached for comment, had to write and create his own music, which he recorded with software. However, he didn’t use actual musical instruments; instead, he used computer-generated ones within the recording and mixing software.
Espinal’s project was a bit more self-explanatory. She recorded a project that consisted of looping audio tracks together, just like some of her favorite artists such as Marshmello and San Holo. She was allowed to use any audio sounds or tracks she could find in her project.
“I didn’t think I was going to win at all,” said Espinal of her award. “I wasn’t expecting to be called. It was surprising.”
“We had been successful in the past, [and] there was a year gap where our school didn’t go, so we didn’t participate,” Klaus said. “I really didn’t know if there was going to be another school that came in and kind of swept up the prize or if we were going to have a good shot at it again, but it did end up working in our favor. “
The awards are thanks in large part from Seneca’s music technology program. In addition to three levels of choir, two levels of band, two classes of jazz improvisation, music theory, AP music theory and piano lab, students have the option of taking Music Tech I and Music Tech II classes.
“You think of a music program 20 or 30 years ago and you think of a band or a choir,” said Doug Barber, one of the school’s music teachers who teaches wind ensemble and jazz and is the orchestra director. “It’s not that way anymore at all. We’ve got so many other classes. You think about the music of today and it makes sense that kids would be making music with computers.“
In Music Tech I and II, students learn all about the technology of music. They’re also taught some basic music theory, which is important because many of the students in these classes, such as Klaus, Brown and Espinal, aren’t musicians.
The students use programs such as Logic, Reason and GarageBand to record, mix and produce music.
“They’re far beyond what I can do,” Barber said. “At this point, I can’t teach those guys anything. They’ll be teaching me.”
Barber especially likes the class because it teaches kids about more than just music.
“Anytime you’re trying to problem solve using a computer, it’s going to help you if you’re going to go into those types of fields,” he explained. “If you’re going to be a musician, I could expound all day on music education is important, but for people who aren’t entering music, a class like music tech is just another class in problem solving.”
Many of the students simply see music technology as a hobby, but Klaus in particular sees it as a future career.
“I’d like to run front of house,” he said during the interview. “Front of house” is the person at concerts who is responsible for mixing an artist’s live sound. “I’ve been DJing for the last couple years and I really have a passion for music and a passion for technology, but I can’t play an instrument or sing to save my life. So this is kind of a happy medium, where I can work with musicians to help them see their vision.”
