By Jonathan Williams
Music Synthesis Ambassador, Berklee SGA

Jonathan Williams

There are a lot of exciting changes happening that make Synthesis at Berklee the best electronic music program in the world.

The most important change happening this year is the department’s new name, “Electronic Production and Design (ELPD)” which will take effect on January 1, 2010. This new name is a result of years of discourse and planning among the faculty, students and alumni. According to an official statement from Stephen Croes, the Dean of Music Technology, “The new name more accurately represents the department’s mission, curriculum and learning outcomes for students and graduates, while also providing strong support for professional trends in the music industry.” The new name and prefix will be used in the Spring 2010 registration manual and all classes that are prefixed “MSYN” will be “ELPD” so be sure and look out for this as you register for spring classes.

Stephen Croes, Dean of Music Technology

This semester, Synthesis students have access to a brand new ensemble room (A59) next to the Synthesis studios. Not only is great to have our own group performance space, but it also comes loaded will all sorts of geeky goodies! The room has a full electronic drum set, a wall-mounted plasma TV for those working with video composition tools like Jitter and Quartz Composer, quad speakers and several modular systems including a pair of ARP 2600 synthesizers. All connections into the sound system feed into Studio T, allowing students to record multi-track audio straight into ProTools. The ensemble room is available to all Synthesis students and may be booked in 3-hour blocks from the Synth Studio office in the 150 building

The SGA and Synthesis Department will be holding a town hall meeting on Thursday, November 19 to talk about these and other happenings in the major. More information about this meeting will be post here and on Campus Cruiser next month.

If you have any questions about anything Synth, feel free to contact me directly at jwilliams6@berklee.net.