UNews - Joyce Sakamoto

Digital Audio Arts student receives boost in funding for two research projects

trevor.kenney — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 19:32:22 +0000

Thanks to a boost in research funding, Digital Audio Arts (DAA) student Leonard Menon will combine his personal and scholarly passions, taking on two major research projects that will enhance his academic credentials and support the community through the development of an educational program for young music producers and artists.

The future is bright for Digital Audio Arts student Leonard Menon. PHOTO by Madison Johnson

This spring, Menon was selected for two academic awards, the 2020 Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Prize for Research and Development in DAA and the 2020 Chinook Summer Research Award, funding two separate, yet related, research initiatives.

“The goal of the (Sakamoto Prize) project is to spread the knowledge that I have obtained through conventions, research partnerships, the community and my personal life, and to amalgamate it into one cohesive program that is geared towards artist-producers,” explains Menon. The project is inspired by the research assistantship Menon is involved in, now funded by the Chinook Summer Research Award.

Menon will participate in a four month intensive research experience under the supervision of DAA faculty member Dr. Amandine Pras, supporting her SSHRC Insight Development Grant funded project, Practices and social aspects of the 21st recording studio. Throughout the summer, Menon will take part in hands-on research and receive one-on-one mentorship in writing academic papers to submit for presentation at the annual Audio Engineering Society (AES) conference in October. He will be participating in the online AES Europe convention in June and will have the opportunity to co-author an article to submit to Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology by the end of the summer.

“I’ve been assisting Dr. Pras on her ongoing research that explores the varying mixing techniques among successful West African producers,” says Menon. “My tasks include continuing the extensive video indexing that is needed to draw stable conclusions, as well as to complete a literature review that will enhance my digital audio understanding.”

Menon has been assisting Pras since last fall, hired to index and edit video data collected in Bamako recording studios, then taking on more demanding tasks, including conducting multidisciplinary collective analyses, designing a comparative approach, and reading and writing for a peer-reviewed journal paper submission. He presented his initial findings during the Social Distinction in the 21^st Recording Studio Symposium hosted at uLethbridge this spring, participating in the roundtable titled, Digital Ethnography of Recording Studios in Bamako (Mali).

“The research program requires strong inter-personal and communication skills to interact with other researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, the Banff Centre and the School for Advanced Research in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, as well as rigor and persistence to complete intellectually challenging tasks,” says Pras. “I have consistently observed all these qualities in Leonard’s personality and work ethic.”

Pras’ research examines how upcoming generations use the recording studio from anthropological, music education and audio engineering perspectives. Studying how artists and producers with little to no formal training were developing new and exciting techniques has inspired Menon to take on a second research project, funded by his second award, the Sakamoto Prize for Research and Development in DAA.

“It has been fascinating to learn how these producers work with little to no formal training in the harsh political conditions of their country,” continues Menon. “I realized that they have used a variety of informal learning methods to learn how to arrange and mix in a digital audio workstation at a professional standard that is recognized by the rest of the world, a true milestone considering the scarce educational resources available to them.”

Menon's research is shedding light on how some individuals manage to produce and create with little or no professional training, using intuition and logic to manipulate the programs. He’s hoping to take what he learns and develop a curriculum to be taught to youth at Drop’n Beats, a local youth music program designed to build community through music creation and education.

Thanks to the support of Joyce and Ron Sakamoto, Menon has the next year to research and develop the program. The data gathered will be disseminated to the AES student chapter in a workshop in early 2021, and the results and footage of working with community members will be presented at the DAA Student Symposium in 2021.

The Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Prize for Research and Development in DAA is an annual research award presented to a student, or team of students, to acknowledge and foster research excellence in Digital Audio Arts at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Recipients of the prize receive $5,000 for research-related expenses.

MusiCounts Scholarship provides music student with week-long mentorship program

trevor.kenney — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 19:49:02 +0000

Digital Audio Arts (DAA) student Kierian Turner will kick-start his career in the music industry this fall when he joins five other senior post-secondary music students for a week-long mentorship program in Toronto, ON, after being named a recipient of the 2019 MusiCounts Scholarship.

Presented by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artists Project, Turner was nominated for the scholarship by Drs. Arlan Schultz, Amandine Pras and D. Andrew Stewart, all DAA faculty members.

Digital Audio Arts (DAA) student Kierian Turner will kick-start his career in the music industry after being named a recipient of the 2019 MusiCounts Scholarship.

“Kierian’s very high GPA, multidisciplinary achievements and leadership experience make him the ideal candidate for this significant scholarship program,” says Pras. “I have had the pleasure of observing Kierian in many different roles – a student, a researcher, a collaborator, and a leader. I appreciate his dedication, communication and interpersonal skills, and his efficiency in organizing and promoting events. The MusiCounts Scholarship will offer a highly valuable opportunity as he continues his education and pursues a career in the music industry.”

The MusiCounts Scholarship was launched in 2018 and is awarded annually to up to six senior post-secondary “high-potential” music students to help launch their careers through a $4,000 financial contribution and a week-long intensive mentorship program. From September 30 through October 4, Turner will have the opportunity to network with students and industry professionals including Marianas Trench guitarist, Matt Webb; Nathan Wiszniak, Head of Canada Artist and Label Marketing for Spotify; Anne Strik, Artist and Label Manager for Spotify; Margaret McGuffin, Executive Director of the Canadian Music Publishers Association; and more.

“I’m hoping I can make some lifelong connections who I can collaborate with in the future, both through the cohort of students and industry professionals,” says Turner. “Since I am graduating next spring, I would like to start exploring opportunities available to me after graduation. I hope this program will give me confidence in my ability to get out there and pursue a full-time career in music.”

From the beginning of Turner’s student experience, he has excelled at every project he’s tackled, inside the classroom and out. From planning small concerts, to taking on the Jamboree and Events Coordinator position for Fresh Fest, a two-day music festival, managing a student-run record label and taking on the role of student representative for the Students’ Union and the Department of Music, Turner has embraced each opportunity to get involved and build his resume.

Inside the classroom, Turner has taken on substantial research projects including the Joyce & Ron Sakamoto Prize for Research and Development in DAA funded research, and the creation of an augmented drum kit along with classmate Carter Potts (supervised by Stewart). He also presented a paper on binaural spatialization in relation to hip-hop music at the Exploring Sound DAA Student Symposium in March 2019. The paper, Is Binaural Spatialization the Future of Hip-Hop, was co-authored by Pras and has been accepted for presentation at the 2019 Audio Engineering Society (AES) Conference in New York in October.

With a jam-packed CV and one year of study to go, Turner is looking forward to narrowing his career aspirations and finding his fit in the industry. His current goal is to work as an artist manager or agent, getting involved in the business side of the music industry. His varied skill set will enable Turner to offer clients a complete package by assisting in the creative, recording and production processes while also understanding the legal side of contracts, financial management and business law.

“I know that I have a lot to learn about the industry and this mentorship week will serve as a major step in the learning process,” continues Turner. “I believe it is important to collaborate with, get feedback from, and learn from industry professionals, and also from peers. The financial award will allow me to pursue professional development opportunities in the music industry and contribute to my further education such as a second bachelor's degree in management, or an M.B.A.”

Award winners turning noise into music

trevor.kenney — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 16:57:44 +0000

Our sonic environment is composed of hundreds of different sounds that range from breathing, to traffic, to children’s voices at the playground down the street. For the average listener, these sounds blend together to create static background noise, which is easy to ignore.

Max Hopkins (l) and Alex Bohn (r) experiment with sound equipment in preparation for their IntraEnvironmental Sound Project, which won the pair the 2015 Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Award.

Alex Bohn and Max Hopkins have learned to hear things differently and encourage others to do so as well.

“We want to show people that active listening is cool,” says Bohn.

These two Digital Digital Audio Arts (DAA) majors find themselves one step closer to achieving their goal since they won the 2015 Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Prize for Research in the Digital Audio Arts. Recipients are awarded a prize of $5,000 to fund their research over a period of eight months and must present their findings in the form of a presentation or composition.

Designed to strengthen research excellence within the DAA program at the U of L, this award offers a unique opportunity for DAA majors to expand their research experiences as undergraduate students.

“This opportunity adds another element to our degree,” say Bohn, who with Hopkins was attracted to the Bachelor of Music Degree with a major in Digital Audio Arts because of its hands-on experience and the unique educational opportunities it provides.

Focusing on three key areas in southern Alberta, the pair are recording and isolating various sounds from those acoustic environments. They call their research endeavour the IntraEnvironmental Sound Project (IESP).

The project starts in Banff, moves to downtown Calgary and concludes on the U of L campus. The pair is using active listening to find the sounds they want to capture, developing a technique for capture, then taking these recordings and mapping them to their respective geographic regions. The recordings will then be made available to the public for free use.

Hopkins and Bohn found the inspiration for their project through NASA Sounds and the Montreal Sound Map, which also focus on capturing individual sounds within an environment.

“We were just spitballing ideas right around the time that NASA Sounds came about. We felt a draw to natural sound – getting a feel for where everything comes from. A lot of people don’t pay attention to what they hear and we can increase awareness by capturing a slice of that for them,” says Bohn.

The extent of some similar projects is to simply record the found sounds, but the goal for this duo is to take their research a step further by creating an interactive experience for others through public databases and original compositions containing only the sounds they have isolated and recorded.

“For example, maybe someone hammers on a pipe in downtown Calgary – you could use that sound as a drum beat,” says Bohn.

The scope of their project goes deeper as Bohn and Hopkins explore not only isolated sounds, but whether those sounds seem natural to the environment.

“It’s also about looking at what does not fit. We are aiming to create context,” says Hopkins.

Ultimately, users of their sound map will be able to download recordings and use them for their own projects through icons matched to their respective region.

Bohn and Hopkins plan to get underway by the end of October 2015, after some trial runs in downtown Lethbridge. You might also spot them walking the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ corridors recording and listening for just the right sound.

Follow this creative duo on their journey through Instagram (instagram.com/the_i.e.s.p), or on Facebook (The IntraEnvironmental Sound Project).

Sakamoto Award winners researching the 9.1 surround sound environment

trevor.kenney — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:11:41 +0000

Shae Brossard and Andrew Spencer, fourth-year bachelor of music students with majors in digital audio arts, have been awarded the 2014 Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Prize.

Andrew Spencer and Shae Brossard are exploring the potential of three-dimensional sound reproduction with respect to perception of sound.

“The Sakamotos generously created this prize to acknowledge and foster research excellence in digital audio arts here at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” says Dr. Deanna Oye, music department chairperson. “This is the largest music award in fine arts, with the recipients receiving $5,000 for research-related expenses.”

The students intend to explore the possibilities of the 9.1 surround sound environment. They credit their mentor and digital audio arts professor, Thilo Schaller, with helping them get organized.

“He's helped us narrow our focus, refine our ideas and develop a doable project,” says Spencer. “We are very pleased to have our project selected for this honour.”

With almost four months of research under their belt, Brossard and Spencer are about halfway through their ambitious undertaking.

“We are exploring perception and production aesthetics using a 9.1 speaker configuration with height channels,” says Brossard. “The 9.1 system is a fairly new format.”

He adds that sound systems by Auro3D, the company that proposes the 9.1 format, are used in only a couple of theatres in Canada, although three-dimensional audio is starting to become more prominent in the movie industry.

“We are exploring the potential of three-dimensional sound reproduction with respect to perception of sound," adds Spencer. "Our aim is to develop a thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the 9.1 playback format with the addition of height information.”

The students want to creatively exploit the possibilities of the system to improve the listener’s experience, making it more immersive and engaging.

“We already know one strength of the 9.1 system is that the sound comes from multiple directions,” says Spencer. “This means the listener is enveloped in a more natural sound experience because it has the potential to recreate sound reflections from all directions."

Since conducting listening tests involves people, the students had to design their tests and then obtain approval from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Human Subjects Committee.

“The whole process has been a learning experience for us,” says Brossard. “It’s been going quite well so far.”

The elaborate project has several facets.

“We are exploring perception, localization, aesthetic preferences and spatial mixes,” says Spencer. “Our ultimate goal is to create music using this environment to its best advantage.”

“We also want to determine whether there is a difference in perception between different types of listeners,” says Brossard. “We are separating the average consumer of music from avid listeners and expert or technical listeners.”

The researchers are using music faculty as expert listeners, while other digital audio arts majors provide intermediate listeners - people with some experience with careful listening. Non-music majors are being used as beginner or non-technical listeners.

Using a clip from a song the pair composed and recorded last spring, they tested 26 subjects using the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Studio 1 as their lab. The students expect to spend most of the next semester analyzing the information they collected and developing their conclusions. In addition to doing a public presentation of their results in the spring, they plan to record three of their original songs using fellow student musicians and taking advantage of the information they gained from their research.

“It is exciting to think that we are adding to the general body of knowledge,” says Spencer. “Who knows, this could help us develop our career niche.”

Sakamotos show support

trevor.kenney — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:47:29 +0000

Curtis Litchfield and Calvin Shiu are the inaugural winners of the Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Award for Research and Development. Open to continuing students in the Bachelor of Music program with a declared major in Digital Audio Arts, the awards amount to a $5,000 scholarship for each recipient.

"Considering the outstanding quality of the 12 submitted proposals, it was the unanimous decision of the committee to select two Sakamoto Award recipients this year," says Dr. Rolf Boon, Chair of the Music Department.

The selection committee consisted of Boon, Dr. Arlan Schultz, Thilo Schaller and Ian Burleigh.

The eight-month long proposal projects start in September and feature a public presentation component upon completion.

Curtis Litchfield and Calvin Shiu, the inaugural winners of the Joyce and Ron Sakamoto Award for Research and Development.

"The Sakamoto research grant gives me the great opportunity of collaborating with The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble to present ethnic music in a new surround sound listening experience," says Shiu.

The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble is an internationally recognized ensemble that performs traditional Chinese and contemporary compositions with a wide repertoire of fine Eastern instruments.

"My project will be carried out in three stages: research into traditional Chinese instruments and their recording techniques, organizing a public performance by the ensemble in Lethbridge and the production of a 5.1 surround sound album in the Digital Audio Arts Studio 1 facility," says Shiu. "I would like to express my gratitude towards the DAA faculty and Dr. and Mrs. Sakamoto for providing me with the resources and support to make my dream of working with this ensemble come true."

Litchfield intends to create a set of audio filters for use when wearing headphones.

"These filters will create the illusion that the sound a person is listening to is coming from outside of their head, in the space around them, rather than from inside their head somewhere between their ears," explains Litchfield. "This concept is similar to wearing glasses to watch 3D movies, but with more variables to account for. In the end I hope to create a program that will allow people to create their own 3D sonic space to listen to, using headphones."

These two projects are just the start of many creative opportunities for students in the future thanks to the generous support of Joyce and Ron Sakamoto.

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ affords great opportunity

trevor.kenney — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:17:03 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge President Dr. Bill Cade chats about what's happening in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community

I consider myself very fortunate to be in a position that affords me the opportunity to meet truly exceptional people from all walks of life. In recent weeks I have shared the company of two such people, Mike Babcock and Ron Sakamoto, who are not only accomplished in their respective fields, but who are personable, genuine and generous friends of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Babcock headlined the inaugural Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner, a wonderful affair that packed the grand ballroom at The Westin. Recently crowned as an Olympic champion, Babcock turned the event into a very special evening by taking his audience into the dressing room and behind the bench of the Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey Team. At the same time, his message of humility and being true to your roots, as he is with the strong connection he maintains to the U of L, resonated with the crowd.

If you had told me 10 years ago, when I first came on as President, that we would be able to fill a ballroom of that size, in Calgary, with our alumni, I never would have thought it was possible. We have come a long way in that time and our ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is evolving to where we now have alumni who are well into their own careers and are in a position to give back to their alma mater. This is a very important bond that's been established and events like the one in Calgary will only nurture that relationship going further.

Just recently, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and the Faculty of Fine Arts had a sneak peek at the new digital audio arts studio, and with that came a very valuable contribution from Ron and Joyce Sakamoto. Ron had always said he'd do something significant for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ while I was still President, so this announcement was very special to me and will benefit students for years to come.

Ron is someone I've really enjoyed over the years. He's been a lot of fun to be around and is a keen supporter of the U of L. In 2003, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ granted him an honorary degree and Ron regaled the convocation crowd by yodeling his acceptance speech. It remains one of the three most memorable honorary degree speeches of my time as President. It ranks with Tom Droog's electric presentation and Chava Rosenfarb's heartfelt address, which both took place in 2006. I still cannot listen to Chava's speech without crying.

When I look at the lives of these three unique individuals, they are very similar in that none of them had a formal education and they all have been extremely successful while also using their talents to benefit other people.

On another note, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ continues to hum along with exciting news from every corner of campus. Congratulations to Dr. Robert James Ellis, the new Dean of the Faculty of Management. With a new Dean in place and Markin Hall readying to open, the future is very bright for this Faculty.

As well, congratulations to the people in the Alberta Water and Environmental Sciences Building. The recent announcement of federal funding to support the establishment of a Water and Environmental Sciences Hub and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's significant role in this project further illustrates the research excellence that exists on campus.

Sakamoto makes major gift to DAA program

trevor.kenney — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:03:30 +0000

On Tuesday, Mar. 23, officials from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge announced $400,000 in support of students in the Digital Audio Arts (DAA) program in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

A $200,000 gift from Ron and Joyce Sakamoto will be matched by the Government of Alberta's Access to the Future Fund, bringing the total of the contribution to the impressive $400,000 figure.

"For some students, the costs of post-secondary education prohibit them from pursuing advanced studies," acknowledges Dr. Bill Cade, the U of L's President and Vice-Chancellor.

"As a result of the Sakamotos' support of students in the DAA program, we are going to see even more students graduate with the skills, knowledge and confidence to effectively navigate the ever-growing and changing landscape of music technology – these are the very people who will be leaders in the field in years to come."

Responding to the globally expanding communication environment, the U of L launched the DAA program in the fall of 2009.

Building on the U of L's highly successful Bachelor of Fine Arts in New Media, this innovative program produces graduates who are experts in music technology and whose skills integrate with visual media, audio and advanced research, matching the needs of industry – today and into the future.

"The role of audio across all media has changed monumentally from the traditional broadcast media of the past. The culture of audio and visual media is growing and evolving rapidly," says Ron Sakamoto.

"Programs like this one play a crucial role in creating the next generation of sound engineers. As I built my company and moved through my career, I have always been struck by the lack of high-end, formalized training available in Canada for young people wanting to move into a career in sound engineering. I am very excited and motivated to now have a program of this quality and stature built in my hometown. Joyce and I are happy to support students in the Digital Audio Arts program, as they work to meet their educational and professional goals and eventually contribute to growing the industry that has been so good to me."

The DAA program was the first of its kind in western Canada when it launched last fall and offers students a unique experience.

"The DAA program – which includes experience in professionally designed studios and labs featuring industry standard hardware and software – provides a unique experience to students interested in pursuing a career in music technology," says Dr. Rolf Boon, the chair of the department of music at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Rebecca Holmes is a DAA major and is excited by the possibilities offered by the program.

"As someone who's always been interested in music, this program was an ideal fit for me because it offers such a broad scope of education and training: I am learning music theory, history and ear training, in addition to the technical skills required to capture, manipulate and reproduce sound," explains Holmes.

"I want to thank Dr. and Mrs. Sakamoto on behalf of DAA students for their generous donation to the program. It's extremely encouraging to receive support from someone so respected in the music industry. Your support will enable more students to complete their degrees in this exciting field."

UNews - Joyce Sakamoto

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