James Adams

James Adams is the director of Sound Recording Technology at SFA. He teaches many courses in undergraduate and graduate SRT programs and is the director of the Contemporary Music Ensemble. Prior to his role at SFA, Adams lived and worked in Los Angeles, California, where he was a technical producer and engineer for Incite, a design and production company.

While working as a producer and engineer at Incite, Adams contributed to the design of MAUD — a large synthesizer which has been featured at several installations and performances throughout Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Since joining SFA in 2016, Adams continued to work with several companies to produce music experience installations for major music festivals such as the Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas and Orlando. From 2010 to 2013, while attending Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, he was an audio engineer at the C. Crane Company where he co-founded their specialized audio division Center Point Audio and the Senta product brand, contributing to the design and production of several successful audio products.

Adams studied music technology at the University of Akon in Ohio, where he earned his Master of Music and held a graduate teaching assistant position under professor Douglas Hicks. While at UA, Adams also studied electronic and electro-acoustic composition under Drs. Resanovic, Brownlow and McCarthy.

Adams completed his Bachelor of Music at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, where he studied composition, piano, guitar and vocals. Prior to his formal music education, he received a certificate in computer electronics technologies from College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California.

As a professional musician, Adams was the lead guitarist and vocalist for a West Coast rock group named The Malone from 2006 to 2011, which created over 60 original compositions, had several live radio broadcast performances and performed frequently throughout northern California.

Special areas of interest for Adams, in addition to music technology, include the evolving field of music cognition's study of the relationship between music and the brain, new spatial audio mixing formats such as Dolby Atmos, Audio Over IP (AOIP) technologies, music composition and sound as reinforcement for plot and themes in video games, and opportunities for using interactive visual media in live music performances.

He is currently serving as an academic advisor on The National Association of Music Merchants GenNext advisory committee.