David Blaine : Impossible
Currently in residency at the Wynn Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, David Blaine’s "Impossible" is an absolutely spectacular live show. Stationed at the front-of-house position at the Encore Theater, I help execute the music and sound effects playback within a highly dynamic and real-time, think-on-your-feet style theater show.
Ke$ha : Only Love Tour
This was a massive project that I am so happy to be a part of. With the exciting opportunity to build a show from scratch, I grabbed the wheel and built a system I am really proud of. Running five computers in total and a stack of iPads for the stage, I created a seamless playback and keyboard rig that brought the band directly into the future.
TOTEM : Sound Design 004 : SCI-FI
TOTEM is a boutique music company specializing in custom compositions for the film and movie trailer industry. They offer both bespoke trailer music services and exclusive sound library packs, available only to a select community of industry professionals. TOTEM’s libraries are not publicly released, with their content curated specifically for use by music supervisors and editors in the production of high-quality movie trailers.
I contributed over 150 custom sounds and musical phrases to the new sci-fi-themed library, focused on exploring modern sci-fi and space horror elements. The results of this creative work can be heard in the teaser trailer linked here.
Le Tigre : Live 2023 World Tour
Le Tigre is an incredibly iconic feminist electronic-punk band. Prior to this tour, the band hadn't played on stage together in over a decade.
I was able to help coordinate the effort of pulling off a modern live show and full tour by implementing modern playback techniques. It was important to me that the band had full control over the playback system and keyboard rig, eliminating the need for a side-stage playback engineer and allowing them the opportunity to run the show at any pace they wanted.
Till Lindemann (Of Rammstein)
For a surprise one off show with Till Lindemann (Lead singer of Rammstein) I put together a redundant, flyable audio playback / MIDI rig with extremely short notice. Heavy audio editing and programming were done on site in an abandon airplane hanger within Toluca Mexico for the Heaven and Hell festival.
Emerge : UX Sound Design + Music for VR
Together with Emerge.io I created a suite of user interfaces sounds as well as original music compositions for emended use within the Emerge home VR application. The forthcoming product from Emerge combines virtual reality, long distance communication and more specifically; the feeling of human touch.
Nine Inch Nails : Bad Witch
While staffed at Trent Reznor’s personal studio as a technician, sound designer, programmer and engineer, I was able to have creative input on a number of projects. The Nine Inch Nails’ album Bad Witch is the end piece in a three-part trilogy, and this section called for a mix of electronic and organic sounds. My involvement in this record was to facilitate any and all ideas Trent would bring to me. In general, I would spend time setting up and programming a selection of synthesizers, drum machines, and processors to obtain a specific sound or mood that he was trying to obtain. Along with Atticus Ross, we would often find ourselves working in headphones chipping away at all the components of this complex album. During this time, I did sound design, programming of melodic / drum patterns, field recordings, synthesizer programming as well as typical studio engineering duties.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross : Bird Box (Original Score)
Bird Box, the 2018 Netflix film, was another incredible opportunity for me to lend my creative hand while working at Trent Reznor’s studio. The music side of this project began long before a final edit of the film was complete and in the studio many creative challenges presented themselves. One particular recording methodology I came up with involved a unique way to process and record live stringed instruments and voices - This became the basis of the sound of the complete work. Aside from sound design and synthesizer programming work, I also handled the administrative aspects of interfacing between Trent’s recording studio and the wider film production universe.
Nine Inch Nails : Cold Black and Infinite (World Tour)
After taking a long break from touring, Nine Inch Nails returned in 2017 for another world tour. Reuniting with the team from 2013/2014’s Tension tour, I was again tasked with building, programming, sound designing, and, during the show, operating the keyboard/guitar rig that long-term band member, Alessandro Cortini performed with each night. This setup contained a very large amount of software in use on a computer but also hardware keyboards, synthesizers, guitars, bases and even vintage tape machines on stage.
This time, the show was stripped down visually but the band and system complexities were at an all-time high. Toward the middle of the tour cycle, the band was capable of playing over one-hundred and twenty songs from the extensive Nine Inch Nails catalog. Because of that, the system I built around Apple’s MainStage was programed with the ability to recall any of the songs the band would potentially play - at a moment’s notice.
Nine Inch Nails : Tension (World Tour)
In 2013, I made the unusual transition from being a sound designer at a desk to a sound designer and keyboard technician for the band Nine Inch Nails.
I was originally hired to work with long-time band member and multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Cortini. I designed, built, and maintained a mission-critical touring keyboard rig that would serve as one of the core sound sources as part of a newly-formed live band destined for a massive world tour. My duties started in a long-term rehearsal environment in which many different keyboard, synthesizers, guitars and other hardware were brought in on a daily basis to test and experiment. In this role, I was not only able to assemble and maintain the hardware side of things but I was also responsible for designing and programming the sounds that Alessandro would be performing with on stage.
High Level : Soundtrack for the Graphic Novel
In collaboration with Steven Alexander Ryan (The Black Queen), I am currently working on a complete soundtrack for the graphic novel version of High Level, a recently released DC/Vertigo comic by Rob Sheridan. The full upcoming soundtrack is over forty tracks long and will be a triple vinyl release that can be played while reading the complete book version of High Level. Every studio trick and fascination I have was put to test here with a large amount of analog and digital instrumentation paired with magnetic tape manipulation and unusual recording methodologies.
Moog Music : Sub 37 Preset Sound Design
The Moog Sub 37 is a duo-phonic modern analog synthesizer that takes the pedigree of the classic Moog synths from the past while pairing them with modern technology and workflows. I was given the opportunity to create a large sound bank for this synthesizer for Moog. The audio below contains an overview of the preset sounds and patterns I created.
Access Virus : Festival Anthem Preset Sound Design
The Access Virus synthesizer is one of the most well-known early ‘Virtual Analog’ synthesizers (dating from 1997). This synth has been regularly updated since then and now lives in the form as the Access Virus TI2. Access had me put together a complete bank of sounds to both showcase what this amazing synthesizer is capable of and to capture sounds suitable for all EDM genres. Here, I’ve put together a few demo songs I’ve created using only the sounds in this preset pack.
Puscifer and A Perfect Circle (World Tours)
Both Puscifer and A Perfect Circle are projects centered around the legendary singer of the band Tool - Maynard James Keenan.
Though Puscifer’s music spans a lot of different genres, the live show takes the music and merges it with theatrical performances and unusual stage setups. For the Money Shot tour, I was involved from the very start of pre-production and toured with the project for a full world-tour cycle that lasted over a year. I took the role of playback engineer, sound designer and keyboard tech for this project. The sound design and programming work to prep for this tour involved taking the songs from Puscifer’s new record and adapting the source material to backing tracks as well as sounds that performers could perform with during the show. The rig I programmed and operated during the show contained both Q-Lab and MainStage. Q-Lab ran all backing tracks as well as video content while MainStage was responsible for all live played electronic sounds, (drum triggers, keyboards, etc) as well as all processed guitar sounds. One MainStage system served three performers simultaneously.
In 2017, Maynard’s other project, A Perfect Circle, came out of hiding for a new album and tour. I took what I designed and learned on the Pusicfer tour and advanced into new territory with A Perfect Circle.
Again starting in the pre-production phase, it was my duty to translate the new elements contained on the album Eat The Elephant to backing tracks and keyboard sounds I designed for performance. At this time, I decided to push MainStage even further by having it take the duties of backing tracks in addition to live keyboard sounds.
Motorola Mobility : Ringtone Notification and User Interface Sounds
While staffed at Motorola, I was able to work on every device that contained a speaker. I would create as well as curate a wide variety of content that was included with the devices out-of-the-box. Ringtones, Notification tones, User Interface Sounds and even FCC-specified emergency sounds were what I worked with on a daily basis.
In 2013, just after Motorola Mobility was purchased by Google, the two sides combined forces to release an Android-based smartphone known as the Moto X. The default set of Ringtones and Notification sounds were composed and designed by myself with direction of the wider team I worked in known as CXD (Consumer eXperience Design). Below are a handful of these sounds (that still remain the default, out-of-box sounds, on every Motorola Mobility device that currently ships).
Magic + Might : Automotive UX Sound Design
Chicago-based firm Magic+Might serves as the advanced user interface design studio for the Ford and Lincoln automotive companies.
Over the years, I have worked with Magic+Might to deliver sounds for projects that were both concept-driven and further along in product development. Similar to developing sound for future-oriented mobile devices, the advancement of complex automotive safety technology requires appropriately-designed auditory cues.
Just like visual and industrial design, interaction and feedback sounds require periodic refreshment and an eye toward the future. I developed an audio palette balancing the need for attention-getting alerts while still maintaining a level of calmness and a sense of high-quality luxury design.
Audio Sets included Power Up sounds for electric vehicles in which no traditional physical engine start noise was present; safety warnings to give feedback on automated systems (lane change actions, proximity to other vehicles, etc); and driver-selectable ‘skinned’ User Interface sounds for navigating and receiving feedback from the in-dash display.
Justin McGrath : Music Reel
Here are some samples of projects I’ve done over the years in different genres, modes, and for diverse purposes. Each track is a compilation grouped by similar characteristics.
More : justinmcgrath.bandcamp.com
POLYFUSE : Side Project
POLYFUSE is my long-running personal audio and music art project / band. I like to treat it as a place to sonically experiment. The many releases under this moniker touch a wide range of genres - everything from solo piano, ambient soundscapes, complex ‘IDM’ and ‘EDM’ as well as industrial and rock music. This video includes an overview of my latest release set to visuals I created for a live show performed in early 2020.
More : http://polyfuse.bandcamp.com
