The Japanese company KORG is to launch an innovative product that incorporates technology developed in collaboration with the Music Technology Group (MTG) of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at Pompeu Fabra University.

It is a tuner and metronome that brings new interactive features that allow improved quality of music. The product, called the TM-50TR, includes a new function, “tone trainer”, which, in addition to tuning, enables evaluating the volume and tonal characteristics as the musician plays the instrument.

These three features appear on the screen in real time, and provide information to make for more efficient playing. The technology used to analyse and evaluate the sound has been developed through a joint research project between the Japanese company and the MTG, with the supervision of the group director, Xavier Serra.

UPF's MTG research group specializes in digital technologies related to sound and music. With more than 40 researchers coming from different, complementary backgrounds, the group performs a large amount of research both nationally and internationally. Its projects include collaboration with the Japanese company Yamaha in the development of the Vocaloid product, the creation of the interactive digital instrument, Reactable, and the creation of the benchmark platform in the free exchange of sounds, Freesound.org.