Sound and music computing


Sound and music computing is a research field that studies the whole sound and music communication chain from a multidisciplinary point of view. By combining scientific, technological and artistic methodologies it aims at understanding, modeling and generating sound and music through computational approaches.

History

The Sound and Music Computing research field can be traced back to the 1950s, when a few experimental composers, together with some engineers and scientists, independently and in different parts of the world, began exploring the use of the new digital technologies for music applications. Since then the SMC research field has had a fruitful history and different terms have been used to identify it. Computer Music and Music Technology might be the terms that have been used the most, "Sound and Music Computing" being a more recent term. In 1974, the research community established the International Computer Music Association and the International Computer Music Conference. In 1977 the Computer Music Journal was founded. The Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University was created in the early 1970s and the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music in Paris in the late 1970s.
The Sound and Music Computing term was first proposed in the mid 1990s and it was included in the ACM Computing Classification System. Using this name, in 2004 the Sound and Music Computing Conference was started and also in 2004 a roadmapping initiative was funded by the European Commission that resulted in the SMC Roadmap and in the Sound and Music Computing Summer School.
With increasing research specialization within the SMC field, a number of focused conferences have been created. Particularly relevant are the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects, established in 1998, the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, established in 2000, and the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, established in 2001.

Subfields

The current SMC research field can be grouped into a number of subfields that focus on specific aspects of the sound and music communication chain.
SMC research is a field driven by applications. Examples of applications are: