NUGEN Audio Backs SFCM Students

Students on the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) programme at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) are securing hands-on experience in professional film audio long before graduating, thanks to an annual collaboration with SFFILM, the Bay Area institution that has championed cinema for nearly 70 years and hosts the San Francisco International Film Festival — the longest-running festival in North and South America.

As part of the partnership, SFCM Adjunct Professor and award-winning video game composer Lennie Moore embeds NUGEN Audio’s Halo Upmix and Halo Downmix plug-ins into a curriculum centred on multichannel workflows. Known for credits including Halo Anniversary, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Outcast and the Rising Storm series, Moore leads a multi-semester scoring and post-production initiative pairing TAC students with independent filmmakers supported by SFFILM fellowships.

Each year, SFFILM curates a line-up of independently produced films by local creators. Students submit bespoke demos, after which directors choose a lead composer and lead sound designer. Those leads head small teams that handle the full audio brief: original score, sound design, foley, ADR, a 5.1 post-production mix and stereo downmix deliverables. The completed works are slated for a special showcase at the 70th San Francisco International Film Festival in 2027.

Moore's classes transition many students from stereo into the complexities of multichannel film audio, with Halo Upmix and Halo Downmix central to that leap. "NUGEN has really been the go-to for our class," he said. "I've looked at a few others, and I find the user interfaces on the NUGEN tools to be very easy and accessible to students."

To accelerate learning, Moore supplies a full multichannel Pro Tools template with Halo Upmix and Halo Downmix pre-routed, enabling immediate experimentation inside TAC’s three ATMOS mixing studios. "This set-up easily allows them to access everything they’re going to need," he explained. "I want them up and running where they can just start making content and use the tools immediately. I tell them continuously Don't just pick a preset and call it a day. Start messing with the knobs, start seeing what the tool does."

Students are quickly drawn to Halo Upmix's spatial control interface. "For them, the first impression is typically less than two words: usually a 'whoa' or an 'ooh'," Moore laughed. "They start moving sliders around, checking out presets, moving the spatialization around. That's the main thing they go for."

Downmix training covers practical delivery concerns, including centre-channel levels, L/R distribution and low-frequency energy — skills crucial for professional outcomes. "Those values—how many dB down you want in your centre channel, how much subwoofer, etc. You’re trying to find a balance that keeps the excitement of the mix," Moore said. "NUGEN makes that easy."

Moore adopted NUGEN after surveying other upmix/downmix solutions on previous game projects, ultimately favouring its clarity, flexibility and intuitive workflow. "The things I look for are workflow, speed, ease-of-use and how robust it is," he explained. "With NUGEN, the presets are nice, but the real strength is how easy it is to go in and start moving things around. It's just really flexible."

That flexibility aligns with TAC's culture of creative exploration. "I always tell students I don't care how crazy the idea is; go for it. Experiment," Moore said. "Technology isn't static. It's always evolving. NUGEN fits perfectly into that mindset."

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