Students Impress with End-of-Year Projects

Animation instructors Giles Timms and Scott MacKenzie showed off the amazing work from their 2D and 3D animation classes this semester at the Animation Spotlight event. Additionally, our DAD-498 "Undergraduate Research" class displayed their work in the campus gallery. Projects included graphic design, animation, sound design, video, and web design.

As a part of the exhibition, graduating graphics student Tyler Wall showed off his amazing video highlighting the DSU Football program. Other great work included customized tarot cards, an interactive storybook, designs for a fictional brewery, and sound effects from a live stage performance.

Lots of Musical Talent Visits DSU

Our live sound organization, DSU Live, has been very busy this past month, hosting a number of different bands and musicians.  This included a visit from national touring musician Tony Memmel, who put on a highly impressive performance and also talked to music and audio classes about the business of being a professional musician.  Here's a video of a song from the show, edited by Cody Welu and Nathan Fields:


We also helped with sound for Washington D.C.-based band, Black Alley.  Their show included upbeat interpretations of popular pop, rock, and R&B songs.

Lastly, we had a visit from another highly-talented touring musician, Preston Pugmire.  He specializes in live looping, and showed off his impressive vocal skills.

There's more to come!  We are really looking forward to a visit from last year's Battle of the Bands winners, Amos Slade.  And in December, acoustic musician Adam Hammer will perform a show and visit with students in Audio Production classes.  There's a lot of great music going on here at DSU!

Getting Hands-On in Recording Sessions

Every Audio Production students takes our "Recording Sessions" class at least once during their college career.  In this class, we do a number of hands-on projects including recording stereo piano, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, and work on mix techniques in the control room.  If students choose to repeat the class, they can do independent projects, building more hands-on skills with Pro Tools and our analog mixing console.

Student Dan Stefanich practices his acoustic guitar skills as we set up mics in the tracking room.

Earlier this semester, I demonstrated various different common stereo microphone techniques as we recorded a student, Michael Rugg, playing piano while we tracked with mics set up in a number of different configurations:

Basic Stereo Mic Techniques from Nathan Edwards on Vimeo.

Tony Memmel to Perform at DSU!

The DSU Arts & Sciences department and DSU Live are really excited to be hosting Tony Memmel to visit us and perform on campus. Tony is a phenomenal acoustic singer/songwriter from Milwaukee. During his show, he will tell about his life as a highly-active touring musician, and how he excels at his craft despite having a limb difference as a result of being born with only one arm. He will also tell us about how he is helping young people with his same condition as a part of the "Lucky Fin" project. 

While visiting, Tony is also going to interview with us for the podcast, Here in the Middle, and talk to our classes about what it takes to be a full-time touring musician and songwriter.  We can't wait for his visit!

Avian Sunrise Performs at DSU

Our campus live sound organization, DSU Live, was excited to bring one of our favorite Sioux Falls band, Avian Sunrise to the Trojan Center Underground last Thursday night along with excellent opening band, The Seen.

An excited crowd of students gathered to enjoy the performance, which featured songs from their new EP, Little Visits.  The students also produced a live video of the band's final encore song of the evening, How Love Works.  This was accomplished by capturing a live multitrack recording by student Nathan Fields, and four-camera video capture and editing by Cody Welu with assistance from Taylor Kannas.

Internships for Digital Arts and Design Students

College to Career - Dakota State University from Nathan Edwards on Vimeo.
Our Spring 2012 semester of our Audio for Video class decided to focus on a singular project for the latter half of the semester. After some in-class brainstorming, the students decided that they wanted to make a video about how to find internships as a Digital Arts and Design student here at DSU. Our production process involved the use of several High-Definition DSLR cameras, and we were able to test out a professional boom microphone for recording audio.

The project helped the students to gain an appreciation for just how much work it is to go through the process of designing an outline, finding interviewees, setting up each interview, editing video and sound, and ultimately coming up with the final product. Since we were nearly finished at the end of the semester, I spent the summer working on the final tweaks and bringing all of the elements together. I'm happy to finally see it finished!

Back to class in Fall 2012!

Class is back in session, and our audio students and DSU Live members are ready and anxious to get back to working on projects and bringing in great live music!  Over the course of the summer, our recent DSU grad, Paul Schipper, put together a series of high-definition videos from various DSU Live events last year, including our Battle of the Bands. Other students who helped with the production of these videos included Luke Arens, Nathan Fields, and Cody Welu. Keep an eye on our blog because there's much more to come! Amos Slade and Olde Funk Riot are featured below:

DSU Audio and Animation Spotlight on Monday

We are excited to be hosting a screening on Monday to showcase the work of DSU audio and animation students! Animation Professor Giles Timms started the event last year, and he invited audio students to join in on the fun this year. We will be watching animations and music videos, giving away door prizes, and voting for best in show. The good times will continue after the screening downtown at The Stadium.  Don't miss it!!

Student produces a cover song and video

One of our Audio students, Nathan Fields, produced a really great cover song in the studio.  This is what he wrote about the project:

"Here’s another product of a few hours spent in the studio with Andrew, this time with Austin Donley on guitar, and me doing a little bass work. I’d say I’m really pleased with how it turned out. This is probably one of the biggest mixes I’ve ever done, so I tried quite a few new things out, and got some sweet results. I definitely got a lot of the kinks that I had in the last one ironed out in this one. So, enjoy our cover of “Not Over You” by Gavin DeGraw!"

Producing Interviews in "Audio for Video" class

Our "Audio for Video" class is working on a video project that will show current and prospective Digital Arts and Design students at DSU how to seek out internships and start on a path to their careers.  As a part of this project, we are interviewing recent graduates of DSU to learn about their internship experiences and the positive impact that it had on their education.

Last week, we interviewed recent DSU alumni, Courtney Schlimgen and Jerad Schlobohm.  Not only did the interviewees lend us some great insight into the internship process, but it also gave us a chance to work on our production skills:  capturing sound, setting up lighting, and framing shots.  There is a lot of work still to complete, but we are already excited about our final product that we aim to complete by the end of the year.

Spring Studio Projects: Jake Killoran

One of our soon-to-be program graduates, Jake Killoran, has been spending a lot of time on projects in the studio this semester, bringing in musicians, recording some of his own tracks, and refining his Pro Tools skills.  One of his stand-out songs this year is his cinematic acoustic track, "RunAway".  Let's hope that we start hearing his work in an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster soon!  You can listen to Jake's track below, and here all of his recent work on his SoundCloud page.

Live Videos Created from Music Event

When our campus live music organization, DSU Live, hosted a recent event, they not only brought in some exciting live bands, but they also captured it on video from multiple angles.  Student Luke Arens set up a camera angle from high above the bands, while also shooting handheld footage from ground level along with student Nathan Fields, and advisor Nathan Edwards.  Student Paul Schipper captured the audio and complied all of the footage,  ultimately creating a series of highly-professional live videos.

The three bands who played the showcase included "I, Apparatus", "Victor Shores", and "No Parking on the Bridge".  Check out a song from Victor Shores above, and also visit Paul's YouTube page for many more videos from the event and elsewhere.

Students Perform at "Tips for Talent"

Ethan Shafer

For the second year in a row, students took to the stage on February 15th in the Trojan Center cafeteria for our second annual "Tips for Talent" event! The event, hosted by DSU Live and the campus Diversity club, is meant to show off the musical talents of DSU students while raising money for charity.  Just a few of the many performers are pictured in this post.

Amanda Welbig

This year, we made over $150 in a 90-minute timespan that will be donated to a local food pantry. Equally exciting was the amount of great talent that took the stage, which included many of music instructor Sandy Champion's students from her private lessons. The event garnered such positive feedback that we are hoping to host another one before the end of the semester. Congrats to all of the performers, and thank you to all of the students and faculty for their generous donations!

Billy Hofer

Tasha Draven

Audio Student Performs at Mochavino

We were excited to see DSU audio production student Mike Rugg play an acoustic show at Mochavino, which featured some fantastic cover songs from bands such as Radiohead and Tears for Fears.  A great crowd of students came out to check out the show.

Mike also performed recently at Myxers coffee shop on campus.  Check out his performance of Someday You Will be Loved by Death Cab for Cutie:

The video was filmed by Luke Arens and edited by Paul Schipper.

Bands Rock the Underground in January

Last Friday, DSU Live hosted three intense rock bands from areas of North and South Dakota.  These bands included I, Apparatus, Victor Shores, and No Parking on the Bridge.  In addition to hosting the performance, the students are working on producing a 4-camera HD video shoot.  Student Luke Arens set up a shot from a unique angle in the rafters and was able to control the camera via an ethernet connection to his laptop.

Fans at the show were impressed by the non-stop energy from the bands.  Despite playing music from a similar genre, each group had a unique sound to keep the intensity high throughout the evening.  It was an exciting first showcase of the semester!

Dust of War trailer debuts

During Summer 2011, the movie Dust of War was filmed near western South Dakota.  The film features several big screen veterans including Tony Todd, who has played roles in a number of films and television productions, and Doug Jones, who has also played a number of roles including that of "Pan" in the film, Pan's Labrynth.

Several DSU students assisted on the production crew of this film, including audio production student Mitch Williams, and digital arts students Carrie Aus and Donna Rice.  The DSU theatre instructor, Kelly MacLeod, was also a key member of the production crew.

The film is set for release within the next several months, and the trailer was just recently debuted.  We are hugely excited to have a connection with what looks to be a phenomenal movie production.