The Eastman Audio Research Studio [EARS] emerged from the Eastman Computer Music Center [ECMC] founded by Allan Schindler in 1981, who led the Center until 2015, when Oliver Schneller succeeded him as director.
EARS is a platform for research, experimentation, and realization of new music and sound art. It offers state-of-the-art electronics, digital audio workstations, sound computing facilities, and a space for the diffusion of multi-channel works. Focusing on the creation and innovation of new works by Eastman students, EARS features a dedicated concert series and a variety of projects, public lectures and events, international exchanges and collaborative community services in the arts.
Events
No Upcoming Events
The primary objective of EARS is to encourage and enable the creation of new works at the intersection of musical expression and sound technology. These can be created as part of course work, or as independent research projects by Eastman students and faculty, as well as guest artists and researchers. Seeing artistic creation and research as complementary components, EARS is a platform for exchange in many disciplines.
The courses offered at EARS form a part of the core curriculum of the composition program at Eastman. However, undergraduate and graduate students from all departments at the Eastman School and the University of Rochester are welcome.
In addition to its regular concert series at Hatch Hall, EARS presents guest lectures by visiting artists, researchers, and developers, as well as two portrait concerts per academic year, centered around the work of guest artists. These events are free and open to the public.
EARS also provides support for the performance of works involving special electronics and sound diffusion needs. If you are interested in performing one of these works and need assistance, please fill out the form below.
Facilities
While all of our computers have a standard suite of software [Logic, ProTools, pd, MAX, Csound, Chuck, SuperCollider, NI Reaktor etc., in addition to the complete Ircam Software and GRM-Tools] each of our four studios have dedicated workstations, designed to assist students and visiting artists with specific tasks. Some of these are an 8-channel 3D-cube for spatial audio, a workbench station for experimentation, circuit-building, and Arduino projects, a KYMA workstation, and a miniature black-box room for projects involving work with light, and/or image tracking and projection.
As a first step towards future expansion in the field of spatial audio, Room 514 holds an expandable 16-channel loudspeaker array, which serves to introduce students to working with multiple loudspeakers. The set-up can diffuse multi-channel audio compositions in various formats, including ambisonics, surround sound, 5.1, 7.1, and point-source.
