CCRMA Studio Report
Fernando Lopez Lezcano (nando@ccrma.stanford.edu)
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics(CCRMA),
Stanford University
1. The place and the people
The Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and
Acoustics (CCRMA) is a multi-disciplinary facility where
composers and researchers work together using computerbased technology both as an artistic medium and as a research tool. CCRMA is located on the Stanford University
campus in a building that was refurbished in 1986 to meet
its unique needs. The facility includes a large quadraphonic
experimental space with adjoining control room/all digital
studio, a recording studio with adjoining control room, a
MIDI-based small systems studio, a general purpose analog/digital studio, several work areas with workstations,
synthesizers and speakers, a seminar room, a reference library, classrooms and offices.
For a detailed tour and more information feel free to visit us
in the World Wide Web:
* http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/
The CCRMA community consists of administrative and
technical staff, faculty, research associates, graduate research assistants, graduate and undergraduate students, visiting scholars and composers, and industrial associates. Departments actively represented at CCRMA include Music,
Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Psychology. CCRMA has developed close
ties with the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the
Humanities (CCARH), recently affiliated with the Department of Music.
Staff & Faculty: Chris Chafe-Associate Professor of Music, Director; Jay Kadis-Audio Engineer/Lecturer; Fernando Lopez-Lezcano-Systems Administrator/Lecturer;
Heidi Kugler-Secretary; Max Mathews-Professor of Music (Research); Jonathan Berger-Associate Professor of
Music; Julius Smith-Associate Professor of Music and
Electrical Engineering; John Chowning-Professor of Music, Emeritus; Leland Smith-Professor of Music, Emeritus; John Pierce-Visiting Professor of Music, Emeritus;
Jonathan Harvey-Professor of Music; David Soley-Assistant Professor of Music; Eleanor Selfridge-Field-Consulting Professor of Music; Walter Hewlett-Consulting
Professor of Music; William Schottstaedt-Research Associate; Dan Levitin, Lecturer; Marina Bossi; Lecturer.
2. The activities
Center activities include academic courses, seminars, small
interest group meetings, spring and summer workshops,
and colloquia. Concerts of computer music are presented
several times each year including an annual outdoor computer music festival in July. In-house technical reports and
recordings are available, and public demonstrations of ongoing work at CCRMA are held periodically.
Research results are published and presented at professional meetings, international conferences and in established
journals including the Computer Music Journal, Journal of
the Audio Engineering Society, and the Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America. Compositions are presented in new music festivals and radio broadcasts throughout
the world and have been recorded on cassette, LP, and compact disk.
3. The environment
The computing environment currently supported includes
Macintosh computers and several flavors of unix-based
workstations. The old and trusty network of NeXT computers has been augmented by two new supported hardware
and software platforms. High powered Pentium and PentiumPro PC's are running both NEXTSTEP and Linux, the
last one a fairly recent addition to the supported operating
systems list. A couple of SGI machines running Irix complete the current setup. Several servers offer shared resources that are available in all platforms, an Ethernet network being the glue that ties everything together and
connects CCRMA to the rest of the Internet. Supported
software in the unix world includes the CCRMA Lisp Environment (which includes Common Music, Common Lisp
Music and Common Music Notation), the MusicKit and associated programs (in NEXTSTEP only) and tons of utilities and packages for research and music creation. The
Macintosh world has a full complement of MIDI based
tools and is mostly used for MIDI applications, notation
and digital mixing (with hardware assist from Dyaxis II and
ProTools systems in two of the studios).
MIDI-based systems include Yamaha, Roland and Korg
equipment including Yamaha DX, TX, SY, TG and VL
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