Cover Letter

One page.

A one-page cover letter describing your academic and professional background and how these make you suitable for the position.

Background

Musician: Double Bass principle.

Berklee College of Music, Bachelors in Music (BM), focus on Electronic Production and Design

Stanford University, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Master of Arts (MA).

Notable Projects

Microsoft Research, Hands Free Sound Jam, SXSW 2018 innovation award in Music

Monolith, live coding suite of tools with integrated Monome support.

Sporth, a stack-based language for Music

Soundpipe, ANSI C DSP library

Ethersurface, Android App

Boulanger Labs, CsSpectral on iOS

Boulanger Labs, Muse and The Leap Motion

QuBit Electronics, Development of the Nebulae

ElectroSmith, Initial Research for Daisy

Muvik Labs, CTO. Developing procedural generated and interactive audio experiences for wellness.

AudioKit 3: instrumental in transitioning AudioKit from Csound to Soundpipe.

Why am I suitable for the position?

I know what it means to get computers to sing.

I have a strong musical background. As a bassist, I've had exposure to a lot of genres (classical, jazz, funk, rock, gospel, folk, etc). And with that, a strong musical intuition.

Lots of practical experience building music software from scratch. When you build these, you learn a lot about what goes into building these systems.

Very well organized. I have very good self-discipline, and am very productive in short periods of time. I manage dozens of personal projects that are in active development using custom time management and documentation software.

Starting Words

Dear Reader,

My name is Paul Batchelor. I am a Audio Technologist, Multimedia Composer, and Musician from Boston, Massachussets. It is with great enthusiasm that I submit my application and research proposal for the INTENT PhD Scholarship. For most of my life, I have explored the possibilities that the computer medium can bring to the rich traditions of music.

My formal education includes a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music with a focus on Electronic Production and Design, and a Master of Arts from Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, with a focus on Music, Science, and Technology.

Being an audio technologist and composer has taken me to interesting collaborations and projects. I developed spectral synthesizers on iPads, and new musical interfaces for celebrity DJ's using the Leap Motion Controller. I helped some friends of mine strap a Raspberry Pi to the back of a eurorack module and watched it become the Nebualae by QuBit Electronix. I got my hands on a SOLI, cutting-edge research radar technology from Google, and turned it into a musical instrument for them. I got to work with Microsoft Research and created award-winning musical interfaces for musicians with ALS that utilized eye-tracking technology. I now work closely with pranayama breathing specialists and write generative music that helps pace your breathing and reduce anxiety.

As an audio programmer, I've built tools for myself over the years, and some of these have helped others. Soundpipe and Sporth enables composers and artists to develop beautiful interactive sounds. It most notably is included as the low level DSP layer in AudioKit, an iOS framework that has found itself in hundreds of music apps, and runs on millions of devices. I also built a fun Android App called Ethersurface, which has been very well received over the years. For reasons I do not fully understand, it has become a viral sensation in Russia (something about cats).

My hope is that you'll find my distinct blend of musical and technical facilities to be a valuable addition to your program. I look forward learning from my future colleagues with similar passions and collaborating with them to create meaningful new things.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Paul Batchelor