BMW
Initiative Award
The MTG received the BMW Initiative Award inFebruary 2008 for the research and innovative contributions carried out in the music technology field. This award is valued at 30,000 euros and strives to furtherencourage the development of new creations in the technological and the music spheres, as well as new pioneering initiatives within the audio processing fieldand other similar sectors such as culture, entertainmentand leisure.
The MTG has become an international benchmark for music technology and featured in the news last year owing to several major projects, such as the company BMAT, the FreeSound project and the instrument reactable. BMAT was set up in 2005 and was the first spin-off to be established in UPF. This company develops technology and markets products based on the results of MTG applications in order to take advantage of the music industry situation and market possibilities on an international scale. It currently has 15 employees and its 30 partners are all members or former members of the research group.
The FreeSound project is an online community that promotes open exchange of sounds free of charge between artists, researchers and other interested parties from the audio world. The FreeSound website includes several technological advances, such as a specific search engine that makes it possible to look for sounds, which are organised according to their similarity and the physical links between them.
Ten years of successful cooperation with Yamaha
The MTG and the company Yamaha have, for the past ten years, been cooperating on the development of research projects in the field of sound technology. In order to mark the event, Mr Hiro Kato, CEO of Yamaha, visited UPF on 11 January 2008. Relations between UPF and the Japanese multinational, a leading company in the production and sale of musical instruments, entertainment products and consumer audio products, originally took off in November 1997 when they signed an agreement for MTG researchersto develop a new computer application.
A great deal has been gained from these relations and Yamaha have come to market various products created using MTG-developed technology, such as the Vocaloid, a sound synthesizer that enables computers to sing, or karaoke machines to replicate the pitch and tone of any singer thanks to specific software.
The reactable, the cutting-edge instrument from 2007
The reactable (picture above) is a multi-user electronic musical instrument which incorporates a user-friendly interface that has managed to meet current needs in terms of electronic music. Created by MTG researchers, the reactable stands out owing to its forward-looking design and particularly on account of the music it produces by gathering and linking objects on a lit panel. Indeed, it has become a benchmark for 2007 ever since Icelandic singer Björk used it as a prominent feature on her worldwide tour to mark the release of her new album Volta. To date, the reactable has made an appearance in more than 20 countries in three continents. It has been bought by several museums in Spain, Canada and Greece, and it has also been chosen as instrument of the year by American music magazine Rolling Stone. The remarkable success achieved by this novel musical creation has been illustrated by the latest edition of MIDEM, the foremost gathering of the record label industry in Europe where it was chosen as the most pioneering project in the musical industry for the MusicAlly/MidemNet New Business Showcase.
The designers of the reactable - Sergi Jordà, Marcos Alonso, Gunter Geiger and Martin Kaltenbrunner - earned the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona in the multimedia category, especially for the manner in which this project has helped Barcelona to achieve renown the world over in the field of arts.The designers were recently awarded two yellow pencils at the D&AD ceremony in the Digital Installations and Environmental Design categories, as well as the prominent Golden Nica Award at the 2008 Prix Ars Electronica in the category of Digital Musics.