Brian Michael Hansen, Ph.D. Music Technologist / Technical Sound Design / Composition
7805 Redondo Street, Ventura, CA 93004 | (805) 453.0545
brian.hansen78@gmail.com
www..sonimmersion.com
www.echob.it

Education

University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
PhD Music Composition (completed summer 2013)
MS Multimedia Engineering (completed 2012)
Focus: Music Technology and Composition

University of Saint Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota
Bachelor of Arts May 2001 (Cum Laude)
Major1: Mathematics
Major2: Music (piano performance / composition emphasis)

Professional Experience

Owner of Sonimmersion: Product Development in Music Technology and Software Service Consulting. Clients/projects include:

Echobit, Ventura CA
December 2016– Present
– Software Applcation Viz: music visualization tool utilizing live coding of glsl shaders.-
– Software Application Mosaic: sound design tool utilizing concatenative synthesis

Slate Media Technology Inc. Los Angles CA 
December 2012– Present
– Software development of the Slate Pro Audio RAVEN multi-touch production console. 
– Software development of the Slate Pro Audio Batch Commander.
– Software development of the Slate Pro Audio Remote for iOS

Apogee Electronics. Santa Monica CA 
March 2016– October 2019
– Software development of user interface Element and Symphony Control, used for Element series and Symphony audio interfaces.
– Software development of user interface for Dante Symphony Control.

Interactive Music Company, Shell Beach CA 
January 2017 – September 2017
– Development of the music education application HONE.

Louder Than Liftoff Inc. San Jose CA 
March 2016 – January 2017
– Analog circuit modeling of the filter Chop Shop 500.

Zya Inc., Calabasas CA 
August 2015 – December 2015
– Consultation and development of primary music algorithm (text-to-melody mapping) used forDitty application.

Music Mastermind Inc., Calabasas CA 
April 2010 – December 2012
– Core design of methodology and implementation of music content in Zya application
– Software development of advanced algorithmic techniques for music composition
– Research and implementation of machine learning and DSP applied music theory practices
– Composition of character hooks in Zya application

Academic Experience

Lecturer
April 2018 – Present    
University of California Santa Cruz:
– Instructor for CMPM 150 Creating Digital Audio. Course design focusing on sound recording and editing technologies, sound synthesis, and concepts in sound design for media production. Class size of approximately 100 students.
– Instructor for CMPM 151 Algorithmic Music for Games. Course design focusing on procedural audio and algorithmic music in video game settings. Class size of approximately 90 students.
– Instructor for CMPM 152: Musical Data. Course design focusing on techniques in music information retrieval and sonification. Class size of approximately 75 students.
– Instructor for CMPM 35: Data Structures for Interactive Media. Course design focusing on fundamental data structures and their implementation in common multi-media settings. Class size of approximately 75 students.

Research Associate and Project Scientist 
January 2019 – January 2021 
University of California Santa Cruz
– Research of sonification approaches for data science and analysis.
– Development of sonification based audio software.

Course Instructor 
January 2011 – March 2011
University of California Santa Barbara
– Instructor for Algorithmic Composition and the Gaming Industry
– Syllabus design focusing on procedural audio in video game settings.

Teaching Assistant 
September 2010 – June 2011
University of California Santa Barbara
– Teaching assistant to Curtis Roads for electronic music course sequence MUS 209.
– Responsible for lab lectures and tending to student needs.

Course Instructor 
September 2008 – December 2008
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN
– Instructor of record for Music 1001 Fundamentals of Music
– Responsible for syllabus design, lecturing, administering exams, and grading.

Mathematics Research 
June 2001 – August 2002
University of Saint Thomas, St Paul MN
– Creative modeling depicting chaos theory and fractal geometry in music.
– Presentation and Publications of paper Exploring Fractal Geometry in Music at National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and Bridges conferences (2001)

Honors & Activities

– Navigating the Sonic Landscape: Machine Learning and Audio Feature Extraction for Enhanced Sound Design. Presentation outlining the current state of audio content demand and the need for tools to assist in this domain. Demonstration of a sound design tool utilizing related concepts at GameSoundCon (Burbank, CA. 2023).
– AI Generated Sound Effects for Games: Presentation on using variational autoencoders to synthesize sound effects for games at GameSoundCon (Los Angeles, CA. 2022).
– AI Generated Sound Effects for Gaming and Movies: CineGrid talk on exploring use of generative adversarial neural networks to synthesize sound effects for games and movies (2021).
– Quasar Spectroscopy Sonification: Talk on sonification of quasar spectroscopy at Sonification World Chat (12/2020).
– Exploring Sonic Parameter Mapping for Network Data Structures: Talk at the International Community for Auditory Display (Newcastle, UK. 2019) .
– Siggraph Paper Reviewer: Reviewed conference paper submissions with emphasis on art and (2018)
– Mosaic music application: Audio effects plug-in peforming real-time concatenative synthesis on signal granulation (2017)
– Viz music visualization application: Audio reactive music visualization standalone and audio plug-in application allowing for real-time manipulation and live coding of glsl shaders. (2017)
– White Rest music application: noise generator application allowing for interactive customization of the sound with generative melodic accompaniment. (2017)
– Deeep Modular – Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology (SBCAST): music visualization performance with projection and virtual reality – (Oct 2016).
– Audio Engineering Society (141st Convention, Los Angeles): presentation of products Mosaic, concatenative synthesis plug-in, and Viz, music visualization software – (Sep 2016)
– Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology: presentation of arrason, musical soundscape with visualization in virtual reality – (Jul 2016)
– Cloud Organum for laptop ensemble: premiered by the Laptop Orchestra at UI (LOUi), University of Iowa School of Music (April 2016)
– Designing Musical Games : Gaming Musical Design summer workshop at Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, Stanford University) – exploration of procedural audio with virtual reality and the Unreal game engine – (Jul 2015).
– Designing Musical Games : Gaming Musical Design summer workshop at Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, Stanford University) – exploration of procedural audio embedded in Unity game engine and iOS devices – (Jul 2014).
– Sonic Focus music application: generative music application utilizing bilateral sound desensitization and reprocessing (BSDR), Available in app store – (2014)
– 1st Prize Corwin award in electro-acoustic category for San Viento – (2010)
– 3rd Prize Corwin award in chamber ensemble category for Binated Triphasis – (2010)
– Collaboration with UCSB Symphony Orchestra for electro acoustic rendition of Charles Ives’The Unanswered Question – (2009).
– UCSB Composition Forum coordinator – (2010)
– Coordinator of Dance concert for UCSB Primavera festival – (2008)
– UCSB Central Fellowship award to pursue PhD – (2007)
– American Composers Forum Subito grant – (2005)
– University of St Thomas Sacred Arts Festival Commission of One Girl (2001)
– University of St Thomas “Patchwork” Composer Collaboration Commission (1999)
– University of St Thomas Coordinator of Composer’s Workshop (2000)
– University of St Thomas scholarship for piano performance (1999)

Papers & Publications

– N Abate, B Hansen, Feature Based Delay Line using Real-Time Concatenative Synthesis, Digital Audio Effects Conference (DAFx) 2023.
– B Hansen, J N Burchett, and A G Forbes, Quasar Spectroscopy Sound: Analyzing Intergalactic and Circumgalactic Media via Data Sonification, J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 68, no. 11, pp. 865- 875, (2020 November.). doi: https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2020.0011.
– B Hansen, LB Baltaxe-Admony, S Kurniawan, and AG Forbes. Exploring Sonic Parameter Mapping for Network Data Structures. ICAD 2019.
– B Hansen. Spatial Utilization of Sensory Dissonance and the Creation of Sonic Sculpture.Proceedings of the 40th International Computer Music Conference (2014).
– B Hansen, C Shakiban. Exploring Fractal Geometry in Music in Bridges Conference Proceedings (2001).

General Skill Set

– Machine Learning including applicative approaches of neural network architectures and hidden Markov models.
– Audio DSP modeling of sound synthesis techniques including analog circuitry, spatialization, and psychoacoustics.
– Proficient with software languages C, C++, Objective C, Lua, SAS, Python, Visual Basic, XML, JSON, Max/MSP, CSound, Swift
– Unreal and Unity game engines
– Open Frameworks artistic programming platform
– Operating system experience with OSX, iOS, Linux, and Windows.
– Extensive experience with JUCE API.
– IDE proficiency with Visual Studio and Xcode
– DAW proficiency with Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton Live, Digital Performer, Cubase, Nuendo, LUNA, and Studio One
– Advanced piano repertoire