Whether it’s 8 a.m. in Room 110 or 8 p.m. in the studio in the Buell Communications Center, Juniper Stulb lightens up the classroom. Be it their witty sense of humor or their elaborate range of outfits, Stulb’s presence in CSU Pueblo’s Media & Entertainment department has been significant. Recently, one of Stulb’s greatest contributions to the program involves their senior capstone project, Padded Cell Sessions, a Tiny Desk style production hosted in the Revolution 89.5 KTSC-FM (REV 89) radio station.
“Padded Cell Sessions is a way for me to hone my skills as a mixer, a masterer and a recording engineer. It’s just been a phenomenal opportunity and I’ve had a great time with it,” Stulb said.
Starting Padded Cell Sessions
After a conversation with the REV 89 station manager in December 2024 and a series of studio remodels which included new soundproofing and aesthetic upgrades, Stulb saw an opportunity to bring a “Tiny Desk” style production to the Media and Entertainment department, whilst also providing exposure for local talent. “We have so many local artists here in Pueblo and Colorado Springs who maybe don’t get the run time they want on the radio or at concerts,” Stulb said.
However, bringing these sessions to life requires meticulous planning and organization. Alongside their mentor, Professor Clifton Hyde, Stulb decided to focus strictly on acoustic instruments, allowing for more creative freedom for things such as microphone placement and video production.
Stulb’s philosophy throughout has been keeping things as transparent as possible in the final mixes. “From a mixing perspective, I’m not doing a whole ton to add. I just want to allow these musicians to be heard exactly how they played it. So, adding in a little bit of reverb, EQ compression, but I’m not going around and making something that it is not,” Stulb said.
As with any major project, there are always bumps in the road, for Stulb it was the studio itself providing the biggest hurdle. “From an audio perspective, something that I really wasn’t expecting [was it] being an entirely dead room dead room–meaning there’s not a lot of sound reflections,” Stulb explained. They said it can be difficult to showcase dimension in a space like that, especially with groups like Ellement–the first featured artists–who are a femme+ a cappella group.
Stulb Looks Toward the Future
While Stulb is open to film or voiceover work, their heart says the desired path is focused around production, “I don’t see any way that I can succeed in this world without having my hands in audio. My goal is I want to find ways to support my living, making music, recording music, listening to music, collecting music by working on music, by doing these live events,” Stulb added.
Stulb’s eyes lit up when describing the rewarding process of hitting ‘bounce’ after a long night of mixing, “My ears are getting fatigued. I’m getting tired. My eyes are heavy. 2:30 a.m. I finally hit bounce. Put my headphones in. I listen. I’m like, I did it! Usually I wake up the next morning and realize I have more to do. But that’s where I want to be. I would love to be a full-time mastering engineer,” Stulb concluded.
Padded Cell Sessions
Cleverly named with some of the padded sound-proofing studio upgrades in mind, Stulb successfully executed two Padded Cell Sessions, first with Ellement, then with the Van Manens. The series is expected to be continued in fall 2026 by two additional media and entertainment students, Michael Applegate and Lauryn Gollihugh, who Stulb has peer-advised and trained. Watch the full recorded episodes with each of the spring artists below.
