The Curb College kicked off its first 2016 ASCAP Writers Night by introducing student writers Betsy Lane, Brad Blackburn, Noreen Prunier and Alyssa Newton. After the students performed, Marc Beeson, veteran song-writer, was invited to the stage.

Beeson has written many number one hits including, “We Are Tonight,” a country music star Billy Currington recording. The song gained popularity and broke into the top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 list in 2013.  Beeson has songwriting credits for numerous other acts including Sam Hunt, Lady Antebellum, Garth Brooks and Ronnie Milsap.

Blackburn won the night and will be performing at Belmont’s Best of the Best showcase on April 9.

Curb College recently hosted a seminar with 22-year-old singer-songwriter Tor Miller. Students listened eagerly as Miller answered questions and played four of his original songs.

Miller moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey during his childhood but continued going to the same school in the city. To fight the boredom from the long car rides, Miller’s mom gave him albums from artists including Elton John, David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac. Miller claims that this, in addition to his childhood piano lessons, sparked his interest in music.

Miller began writing and playing constantly and even started a pop-punk band in high school. His passion for music led him to attend New York University’s Tisch School of The Arts as a student at the Clive Davis School of Recorded Music. Miller signed with Glassnote Records in early 2014, dropped out of New York University and moved to London one week later.

Miller shared how he started writing non-stop and honed in on his personal style after living in London. “I infuse a lot of dark imagery into my music and base it off of my experiences and relationships,” said Miller. Miller’s best advice for the students was to write about what you know because then people will believe it and want to hear more.

“I have gotten to do some pretty cool things in the past few years,” said Miller. These experiences include co-writing with the writer of Adele’s smash hit “Set Fire to the Rain” and opening up for Grammy nominated English singer-songwriter James Bay.

Miller shifted over to his keyboard and played his songs “Midnight,” “Carter & Cash,” “Ketamine Cat” and his upcoming single, “Baby Blue.” He is releasing a single in March, starting a tour with Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora in April and is projected to release an album this upcoming summer.

Belmont’s AES Chapter recently hosted a seminar that included audio professionals Dr. Sungyoung Kim and Hiraku Okumura. Kim is a resident teacher of engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Mr. Okumura is an engineer for the Yamaha Corporation. The two came to meet at Yamaha while working in the division tasked with discovering how people listen to music.

The seminar featured a brief overview of what height channels are and how they are created, along with several demonstrations.

Kim explained height channels as an “illusion of construction that is purely dependent upon the listener. Height can be created with two channels or twenty-four.” As long as the channel provided the possibility for someone to perceive height from the current inputs, Kim deemed the track as a success.

The two then went over how they create virtual height within sound through AFC, active field control and TLF, the creation of height using multiple microphones and speakers. TLF stands for thin light flexible loudspeaker which provides the possibility for sounds to come off screens, thus using the surroundings as an amplifier.

The seminar concluded with students participating in a survey which recorded their reactions to auditory height channels or perceived height channels.