Steph's Summer Intern Blog Day 1

            Day 1: The sounds of the grand organ fill the vast cathedral, giving no one in the room any doubt the concert has begun. First day as a summer intern at Tapeworks Inc and I am assisting in the recording of renowned organist Jason Roberts at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hartford, CT. Upon arriving at the church, after battling the early morning Hartford traffic, I assisted Bill, the Chief Engineer at Tapeworks Inc., in setting up for the recording, helping run cables, check levels and the like. Once the concert began we were able to more or less sit back and enjoy, while keeping one eye on the meter levels to ensure nothing was overdriving or clipping. Mr. Roberts performed a beautiful concert for us all, and as confirmed by one very enthusiastic janitor, "The European organists have nothing on this guy!"

            After the performance, I helped pack up our equipment and wrap cables, before leaving the cathedral to travel back to Tapeworks across town. Once we got back to the studio, the all-important topic, as I was soon to find out, was the decision on where to get lunch. I brought my own lunch that day, but for Bill and Chris, the endless possibilities of where to acquire food that day was a difficult choice. However, in the end, Subway won out.

            Following lunch, I sat in with Chris and shadowed him on the latest project for Lego he was working on. This latest endeavor was for the newest Lego Academy training video. The project mainly involved adding sound effects to tutorial videos, which show viewers the possibilities of how to construct objects using the Lego kit. The way this is accomplished, is by searching through a folder stored on the computer for various sound effects that would fit the scene or image. I did not know much at all about sound design before this, and honestly never put much thought into how the sounds, besides the music and voices, got into videos. Watching this process made me more aware in the time and effort that goes into choosing, placing, and manipulating each sound effect in a video. 

            All in all it was a very fun and insightful first day! I cannot wait to see what awaits me tomorrow at Tapeworks Inc!