CIRMMT: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology

If the Internet and the iPod forever changed the way people obtain their music, expect the next wave of innovations in sound to come from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.

That's where CIRMMT — otherwise known as the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology — is firmly based as a central tenant of the New Music Building. CIRMMT is a hotbed of talent, attracting leading multidisciplinary scientists. And it has drawn big names to its Board of Directors, too. Stand-outs are music producer Sandy Pearlman, often called the Godfather of Heavy Metal, and Howie Klein, former president of Reprise/Warner Music records who helped fashion the careers of megastars from Joni Mitchell to Alanis Morissette.

Since its 2001 birth, what's given CIRMMT an edge are its associations with a variety of research streams, as well as the Montreal Neurological Institute, the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke. CIRMMT's main off-campus link is with BRAMS — a neurological research group whose name is a contraction of brain, music and sound — which is headquartered at the Université de Montréal. BRAMS works with electroencephalography, a process where researchers use brain-imaging electrodes attached to the skulls of subjects to monitor how they react when listening to music. The intention? To complement the McGill emphasis on the theory of music perception and cognition.

"The key word of the CIRMMT acronym is interdisciplinary," says CIRMMT Director Stephen McAdams. "This is an environment where people from different disciplines complement each other and solve problems they couldn't have solved, and imagine new avenues of research they couldn't have considered, before the disciplines came together."

CIRMMT scientists are involved in projects ranging from the psychology of hearing to the use of computers to create state-of-the-art videoconferencing. Thanks to facilities in the New Music Building, future CIRMMT projects will include:

• Testing audiences of the Tanna Schulich Hall, in real time, through wireless Palm Pilots;
• Using Wirth Opera Studio cameras and sensors to learn more on the movement and breathing of singers;
• Monitoring orchestras and choirs at the New Music Building's scoring stage;
• Development of revolutionary online music retrieval systems;
• Research to generate better surround-sound for recreation rooms and cinemas;
• Audible, visual and real-time transmission of music through telepresence, which allows a violinist in Montreal to play a Mozart sonata with a pianist in Sydney.

"Music is changing and technology is playing a strong role," says McAdams. "Montreal has become the mecca of music technology and music psychology. Now those two areas are coming together and making something really incredible."

To read more on CIRMMT, please consult the CIRMMT website.