Electronic Production and Design
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"The characteristic that I've noticed common to highly successful people is that they're fanatical. They don't just practice or work a little bit; they go to incredible extremes. They perform amazing feats, primarily because they can focus intensely. They're not constantly entertaining themselves and don't need to be frivolously stimulated. I would really like to see my students become more monk-like about music, technology, and business. I'd like to see that sort of devotion."
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"I was a guitar player and composition major at Berklee. My first foray into synthesis was to control the results of my compositions. Even before I had a piece done, I could model it using tools like tape recorders and synthesizers before getting musicians to record it. There weren't many synthesizer programmers back then, so I got a lot of work even before I finished at Berklee, doing TV commercials and small independent film scores."
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"Technology is a tool and, ultimately, when mastered it can become transparent. It takes time and discipline to learn, of course, but this is no different from other musical skill sets. On the piano, for example, one develops technical proficiency through the practice of specific exercises and repertoire with the aim to ultimately express oneself fluently and effortlessly. It's the same way with music technology. You have to spend the time required to get the fundamentals-the principles that work behind it-to really know it inside and out, in order to support those unexpected and creative leaps of imagination."
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Kari Juusela, Dean
DEPARTMENT : Professional Writing Division"Professional Writing has to do with all the music that is composed. We try to encompass all the styles that are happening today, all the way from contemporary classical to hip-hop. Although we work with older music, our focus is on what's happening now—which keeps us on our toes. There's been a real blending of musical styles, and Berklee is a perfect place to do that because we have so many faculty experts in all these areas."
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"You can look at the synthesizer as a keyboard instrument—a physical, playable instrument. It's an instrument unto itself. But it allows players and composers an outlet for sounds and layering that potentially you can't get anywhere else. For me, studying music synthesis at Berklee allowed me to realize music is around us almost all the time. Sounds, rhythms, patterns surround us more often than we realize."
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"Some people have stereotypes that electronic music is just about dance beats, but there's a ton of music you can make using these technologies. One ensemble I'm now teaching focuses on compositions using electronic instruments and processes. Advanced students are writing their own software and doing all sorts of things in all genres. Using the technology is the thread that holds the ensemble together, often with fascinating results!"
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"The technology changes; the concepts do not change. The foundational concepts do not change, but it’s easy to bypass those concepts and get on to the great sounds. It’s easy to go up to a synthesizer and have a lot of fun with it and come away really not knowing what you just did. If you do that, it’s a problem later on. That’s why we’re trying to teach the fundamentals, even though the technology is new every second."
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