Two Delaware Area Career Center students will be traveling to Louisville, Kentucky this summer to take part in an audio production competition.
Westerville South senior James Milnor and Delaware Hayes High School junior Kovy Arseneau are audio production students in the DACC’s digital design lab who recently won first place at a state SkillsUSA audio and radio production contest and will be heading to the national competition.
Milnor and Arseneau said for the state competition they were given three hours to write, record and edit a five-minute radio broadcast based around a band releasing a new song. Arseneau said they were not told any of the details ahead of time and were given the song and had recorded the promo around it.
Arseneau said on top of the time limit and the improvisation, they were plagued by technical issues with the equipment they were provided with to record on and ultimately used their own equipment.
Milnor said they barely finished the project in time. In addition to creating the promo, the pair had to also take a test that would evaluate their technical knowledge. After all that, Milnor said they were shocked when they won first place.
“It felt crazy,” Milnor said. “I felt like out of all the groups we were probably the most creative. Everyone else was smart and knew all the technical stuff but I felt like we had more open-mindedness and creativity.”
Arseneau said he has competed in similar competitions in the past, but said this first-place win has reinvigorated him.
“It was something I really needed to keep motivated and keep moving,” Arseneau said. “It was nice and refreshing.”
The pair said they have taken the feedback from their first promo and are working on ways to improve and streamline the process. Milnor said they did well on their first technical test, but said they could still improve and would be studying for the test at nationals.
Milnor said he will be getting plenty of practice before nationals, because he runs a recording studio that he set up at his home and has already done freelance production for local artists. Milnor said he aspires to be a successful recording artist and was tired of paying inflated studio fees, so he decided he would build his own studio and learn how to do professional audio production.
Milnor’s music can be found at soundcloud.com/jaymills1234
Likewise, Arseneau said he plays guitar and sings back up vocals in his metal band “Wait For The Day” and hopes to open his own recording studio. Info about Arseneau’s band can be found at waitfortheday.com
The pair will head to Louisville, Kentucky for the competition between June 19-23.
