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About Me
My name is Kiyhana Criddle. I am a musician, composer, audio engineer, and aspiring sound designer. While most of my works involve music, I also have entry-level experience in games, podcasting, commercials, and short films. Below you will see some projects I have been involved in, as well as some passion projects I have been working on in my spare time.
My Works
Here are some works I’ve completed in areas such as transcriptions, compositions, and studio recordings:
The sheet music displayed above is a piano arrangement I did for the song Yotsuya by Su-zuum. I decided to combine some of the guitar and woodwind parts into this piano arrangement as well after noticing that the piano does not play the entire time. I used Musescore3 to notate and export the pdf.
I like to call the song above Barry’s Symphony because it was created by long-time client, Barry Crayton. After arranging his song, I received Mr. Crayton’s permission to record his piece using various audio hardware, most being Universal Audio mics, pre-amps, and compressors. Utilizing the assistance of several talented musicians, Christopher Beltran, Hope Lore, and Alaina Criddle, this was produced, recorded, and mixed, along with three cover songs, within six four-hour studio sessions. While initially the original composition was simply piano and a vocal melody, with the studio recording, Mr. Crayton allowed me to expand on his piece and truly get into the role of a producer. Everything was recorded into Pro Tools, and the final product was mixed completely out-of-the-box using the Solid-State Logic AWS900.
For a college course, several peers and I had to work together to make several commercials for made-up products. For my commercial project, I came up with a quick tag and opening jingle for a toy robot that is great for kids and parents alike. While I figured out a jingle right away, the next step was creating a script and timing out the commercial to end right at one minute. With a script in hand, I coached and directed the talented vocal acting of Juan Jiminez, Nicholas Graf-Juarez, and Krystal Morrow. I was able to record and produce a finished commercial for the hypothetical product recording within two hours of studio time acting as a producer and director.
^The commercial^
I had the privilege of being asked to score Bloom, a short film for my college’s student media department. The story follows a young boxer with a traumatic past, eager for a chance in the ring. I worked directly with the writers and directors, Clark Baird and Sai Varun Mallela to produce compositions that stayed true to the script and convey the nuanced dilemma the troubled protagonist faces. I used Ableton to create, mix, and match the music with each scene. I also connected with the sound design team, who worked in Pro Tools, to help ideate and synthesize sounds such as the punches, shuffling, and transitions. With that, the feedback from Clark Baird, and several other supportive peers, I was able to create a dynamic soundtrack with the purpose of enhancing the final product of Bloom.
^The soundtrack^
Passion Projects
I like to keep busy with projects for the purpose of trying new techniques, expressing myself, and attempting to replicate things that catch my attention. Here are some projects that I have been working on or have completed in my spare time:
After finishing an online course covering film scoring, I was excited to try out some of the techniques I learned. I went onto the Internet Archive and found this French cartoon from 1908 by Emile Cohl. This is my first project working with visuals and I made a point to not listen to the original track until I created a basic melody and rhythm. As I came to understand the short film after several silent viewings, I developed a score I felt suited the video. I wanted to craft a score that I felt matched the tone and pace of the animation as well as pay homage to the culture and period it was originally made in. I drew inspiration from impressionism and ragtime pieces, particularly a handful of songs by Claude Debussy. This is the score I created within Ableton using predominantly Spitfire Audio plug-ins and layers of myself playing guitar. The next step for this project is adding a more immersive soundscape to give better context to the environment and characters.
Here is some gameplay of a project quite different from my usual field of work. The game in progress is called “Lost Star” for now and the end goal is a 2D maze game where a star finds different planets within a maze while avoiding black holes. After I had the concept of what I wanted to do, I started creating a foundation for the background music in Ableton. Then, using MS Paint, I made simple shapes to act as sprites and a path to follow. After coding a few scripts in Unity, I got the physics working mostly how I wanted and decided to implement the current background music for when testing to make the experience a little less spooky. Some of the next steps from here are to incorporate dialogue for the NPCs, create a game over screen for when enemies hit the player, as well as implement a main menu, sound effects, polished sprites, and background music.
I have been writing and composing music ever since I was eleven years old, however, I recently found time to copyright and record some of my original songs, even performing at local cafes or bars to workshop the sound. Below is a recording of the first song I ever wrote, On Top Of The World. My next steps for this song in particular would be to improve on the mix, possibly re-record my vocals in particular, and learn to master for a more cohesive and polished product. This song was recorded in Ableton using both stock and spitfire plug-ins as well as recordings of my singing, guitar, and digital piano.
^The song^
Accomplishments
It is quite humbling to look back at certain accomplishments I have achieved:
I had the privilege to perform for The School of Creative Arts, Entertainment, and Design’s Berding Fordham Jones Endowment Awards Reception. I was nominated for the award by my professor and international pianist, Baya Kakouoberi. We worked on two compositions to perform for the awards ceremony if I were to be nominated. We agreed on one contemporary piece, Yuri On Ice by Taro Umebayashi, arranged by youtuber F.B. Piano, and one classical piece, Etude S.136 No 1 (Op. 6) by Franz Liszt. In the end, I was nominated, granted the endowment, and invited to perform the given pieces at the awards reception. Here is a video of said performance.
Contact Me
Text or Telephone
Discord
kc.inbox579@gmail.com
(469) 235-1747
kcriddle_3579
You can check out my website at:
[I’m still hunting down the great tune I’ve never written. You know? It’s somewhere out there and that’s what makes me get up in the morning. I just know I can do better. – Hans Zimmer]
Key's Corner 