Jason Araujo is a Chicago-based independent sound designer, audio engineer and certified Pro Tools Operator functioning under the name Inner Ear Design Labs.

Early on, Jason began experimenting with the relationship between sound and music by teaching himself to play guitar and piano. Rehearsing and performing in school ensembles later taught him the organized experience of music, while learning how to modify IDsoftware's Doom to incorporate custom sounds and music taught the concept of sound as aesthetic creation.

Studying classical guitar and attaining a B.S. from Pacific Union College in music fostered an intrest in sound as discrete experience, and continued to evolve through various projects and performances. Following this passion, he went on to obtain a degree in Sound Arts from Ex'pression College for New Media in Emeryville, California, in order to explore aural experience as an artform through various aspects of sound production.

While working in live sound in various venues, he became the assistant engineer at Bay Records recording studio in Berkeley, California. Here he fell in love with recording jazz and the idea of helping artists capture the magic of the moment through technical knowledge as well as through an implicit understanding of the creative process. Bay Records was an incredible wealth of experience, providing various projects such as sampling ensembles for softsynths, assisting in recording contemporary ensembles for film, and worked with a host of great Jazz artists.

During this time Jason also became involved in the thriving scene of local bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, sometimes engineering records from the control room of Bay Records, and sometimes recording on a shoestring budget with two mics and a laptop in a living room. During a conversation with Ayla Nereo of Beatbeat Whisper about the prohibitive prices of recording studios, an idea was born. Jason went on to organize the Dapper Bay Bootleggers series. The underlying idea was to create a hybrid studio session / live show supported by the community that provided both high quality recordings for bands who couldn't otherwise afford it, as well as providing fans with an intimate view inside the process of studio recording.

The continuing development of aural experience led Jason to become involved in doing sound design, performance art and interactive sound manipulation in Max/MSP. In this interactive art vein, he worked on Anomaly and the Perceptron project. Jason is currently working on an interactive sound art and performance collaboration with Chicago dance artists Christine Betsill and Laura Chiaramonte.