2003 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Dundalk Institute of Technology
Paul McGettrick
Music Technology at Dundalk IT

Embracing Music, Engineering, and Computer Science, Music Technology is a discipline which concerns itself with technology-based research and activity in sound and music. Throughout history, developments in technology have always had an impact on musical activity. What is different in recent times is the degree and nature of this impact. The computer revolution in digital audio, the ready availability of extremely powerful machines at affordable prices, and the pervasiveness of computer networks, have created new possibilities and career opportunities in almost every sphere of musical activity, and opened up new avenues of research that were scarcely imaginable twenty years ago.

Music Technology is a rapidly-developing area of teaching, learning, and research at Dundalk IT. A new four-year BA (Honours) programme in Applied Music (with a specialism in Music Technology) starts in September 2003 with a Masters programme in Music Technology beginning in September 2004. Core areas of study and research on these programmes include Acoustics & Psychoacoustics; Electroacoustic Music & Composition; Interactive Systems; Sound Synthesis & Manipulation; Digital Signal Processing; Music Programming; Algorithmic Composition; MIDI: Theory & Practice; Recording, Editing, and Production; Digital Audio; Technology in Music Education and Music Therapy; and Music and Multimedia. A key feature of music technology at DKIT is the strong connection between teaching and research.



A new Music Technology Centre is being designed to support these taught programmes, postgraduate research, and the work of the Music Technology Group. The Centre will also be home to a Technology in Music Education unit researching and developing the use of technology in music education.

The new Music Technology Centre at Dundalk IT will be a state-of-the art environment dedicated to teaching, learning, and research in Music Technology. Comprising fully equipped and networked computer music labs, music technology units, a recording studio, and a sonic arts performance space, it will be operational from 2004. Workstations will be a combination of Windows, MacOS, and Linux machines on a Gigabit Ethernet network.

Hardware and software tools for teaching, learning and research will include the following: sound synthesis (Csound and utilities, Reaktor); sound editing and manipulation (Wavelab, CDP); development (Max, MSP, PD, Matlab, C++, Java, PHP); multi-track recording (ProTools, CoolEdit and low-latency audio interfaces); algorithmic composition (Tabula Vigilans, Koan Pro); and gesture-tracking devices (SoundBeam, Atomic Pro). At the heart of the main recording studio will be a recently acquired Solid State Logic desk and high-end ProTools system on a Mac platform.


Music Technology Research: the Music Technology Group
Research interests of the Music Technology Group are many and varied and reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the subject - with group members from Music, Engineering, and Computing. Areas of research interest and expertise include Musical Pattern Matching; Music Programming; Technology in Music Education; Algorithmic Composition; Interactive Systems and their Musical and Therapeutic Applications; Acoustics & Psychoacoustics; Audio Circuit Design; Recording, Editing and Production; Electroacoustic Composition; and Audio Compression.


Recent and Current Research
Musical Pattern Matching - The process of pattern matching has many musical applications - e.g. melody retrieval and analysis, triggering function in live performance, gesture recognition, score tracking, music therapy. This MIDI-based project involved the development of a library of pitch, rhythm, and velocity (loudness) algorithms which can be used both singly and in combination. Variations of Boyer-Moore and other techniques were used in the pattern matching process.


Some Examples of Musical Pattern Matching: Name of matching function is on left; MIDI data stream 1 (the search string) is on left of vertical line; MIDI data stream 2 - the melody being searched - is on right of vertical line (with successful matches boxed)

A Simulation Study of Irish Traditional Dance Music - An analytical study of the characteristics of Irish traditional dance music, this project adopts a technology-based approach to the subject, involving web-based algorithmic composition, music modelling, and analysis/synthesis methods. Structure, melodic and rhythmic content, and performance style, provide the main focus of the study. Melodic corpora from printed collections and transcriptions of recorded material are analysed, at micro and macro levels, resulting in �rules� which drive a custom modelling program and also a grammar-based algorithmic composition program to produce new skeletal tunes in the form of Csound score files.


Contact: Paul McGettrick, Director, Music Technology Centre, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co Louth;
Tel: +353 42 9370493; Fax: +353 42 9331163;
E-mail: [email protected] ; Web: www.dkit.ie/mtc