Projects

Ongoing Projects

LEVIKO-XR – Extended Reality: Teacher Education in Virtual Contexts

2023–2026
funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

In the LEVIKO-XR consortium, Osnabrück University, the University of Music Trossingen, and Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences develop Virtual & Augmented Reality–based teaching–learning designs for music education and music teacher training. Together with state institutes and music academies, these designs are evaluated, implemented in professional-development formats, and made available via common OER repositories.

 Project page: LEVIKO-XR

CA/AXR - Computer Audition & Acoustical Extended Reality

2020 - 2026
funded by the Volkswagen Foundation

The core idea focuses on two partially interconnected pillars: Acoustical Extended Reality (AXR) and Computer Audition (CA). Both areas fall under music informatics and digital musicology. AXR employs virtual, augmented, or mixed reality technologies in connection with music-related research questions, while CA uses methods from artificial intelligence (AI) to extract semantic information from audio files—for example, to determine genre or detect emotions. Grounded methodologically in music technology and systematic musicology, CA and AXR address important societal challenges of the future from an interdisciplinary perspective.

 Project page: CA/AXR

Mentoring for the EXIST start-up grant “Beast Cleaning Service”

2025-2026
funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi)

Beast Cleaning Service is a PC-based learning and action game that combines instrumental instruction with playful motivation through real-time pitch detection. Sounds captured via a microphone are robustly recognized by an algorithm and translated into in-game actions; the target group is learners from around age 12. This creates an individualized, instrument-specific training flow with high recognition accuracy under optimal conditions.

epOs-Music - Electronic publishing Osnabrück

epOs-Music is an open-access publisher for music research, with freely accessible online publications and additional print and e-book editions available in the shop. The technologies used are partly based on results from the MUSITECH project.

Directors: Prof. Dr. Bernd Enders / Prof. Dr. Michael Oehler

Completed Projects

PRESET – Prinzipien elektronischer Klangerzeugung: Systematisierung und Entwicklung einer Terminologie

2019 - 2022
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

There is a striking discrepancy between the omnipresence of electronic sound in art and everyday life and the apparent lack of universally applicable conceptual tools to adequately explore this phenomenon scientifically. The aim and purpose of PRESET is therefore to subject this field to a clear and robust systematization that goes far beyond previous approaches. This will ultimately enable the development of a more precise terminology, providing new tools for discourse on electronically generated sounds. To this end, historical and current technologies and concepts of electronic sound generation will be examined from a musicological and practical music perspective. A central component of the methodological approach is the investigation of various studios (for electronic music), which have been the source of many of the innovations that have shaped music practice.

 Projektseite PRESET

NOSTRESS – Customizable Stress Reduction through Multimodal VR Environments and Empathetic User Interfaces

2018-2021
funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

The goal of the NOSTRESS project is to develop a combination of technologies that specifically promotes the relaxation technique of “guided imagery” in everyday life. To this end, mobile, multimodal VR technologies are combined with automated sound generation in immersive 3D audio and a massage technique synchronized with the virtual environment. Custom-developed, body-proximal sensors make it possible to capture physiologically measurable stress indicators (heart rate, respiration, skin conductance, blood pressure) and tailor the training to the individual. The benefits of the individual components as well as the effectiveness of the overall system will be validated in two studies.

The project links VR technology, smart wearables, and empathic computing and applies them in practice. The overall system provides users with a tool that enables anyone to learn stress management individually. Development focuses on a balanced cost–benefit ratio for the final product, so that the technology can be widely deployed later on.

MUSITECH - Music- and Sound-Objects in Information Technology (Multimedia Publishing, Archiving, and Teleteaching)

2001-2004
funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

The aim of this three-year DFG-funded research project was the development, conceptualization, and implementation of navigation elements and communication models for the interactive handling of acoustic information in virtual knowledge spaces, such as online publishers, databases, and networked teaching/learning systems.

New Music Technology || KlangArt

The  " Neue Musiktechnologie" conferences held as part of the Osnabrück  KlangArt Biennial (1991–2001) were conceived and organized by the Research Center for Music and Media Technology.

Completed Individual Projects

  • A. Bense: Digital Virtuality in the Context of Computer-Based Music Production (epOs-Music)

  • B. Enders / O. Feser / B. Müßgens / T. Wollermann: Music Space

  • B. Enders / H. Gust: Rule-Based Generation of Musical Structures (in the AI language Prolog)

  • B. Enders / B. Han: Documentation and Multimedia Presentation of Chinese Musical Instruments

  • B. Enders / B. Müßgens / J. Stange-Elbe: Virtual Music Seminars (with multimedia components)

  • B. Enders / B. Müßgens / O. Vornberger / E. Cordes: MUSITECH – Music and Sound Objects in Information Technology (Multimedia Publishing, Archiving, and Tele-teaching)

  • B. Enders, T. Weyde, M. Gieseking et al.: Development and Didactic–Methodological Testing of Musical Teaching/Learning Programs, Computer College Music (CAMI) (since 1988)

  • B. Enders, R. Fauck, B. Schwenter: Learning Program “Harmonic Tensions”

  • C. Flender: Use of Internet Media Applications in German-Language Musicological and Music-Pedagogical Research

  • C. Flender (as research associate) and O. Feser: Ongoing involvement since 2001 in establishing a German Music Information Center (MIZ) (database design). FMT member Oliver Feser has served as technical project lead at the German Music Information Center (MIZ) in Bonn since early 2020, coordinating the relaunch of the website miz.org.

  • M. Gieseking: Conception and Implementation of Code-Based Generation of Interactive Music Notation Graphics for Music-Specific Multimedia Applications (epOs-Music)

  • H. Kinzler: Modeling Musical Creativity

  • Kim, Jin Hyun: Embodiment in Interactive Music and Media Performances, with Particular Consideration of Media-Theory and Cognitive-Science Perspectives (epOs-Music)

  • B. Müßgens: Studies on Computer-Assisted Music Instruction in Primary Schools

  • C. Reuter (with B. Enders, R. Jacobi): CD-ROM Project “Mechanical Music Automata”

  • J. Stange-Elbe: Music-Informatics Approaches to the Analysis and Interpretation of J. S. Bach’s The Art of Fugue (habilitation thesis) (epOs-Music)

  • T. Weyde: Development of Music-Specific WWW and CD-ROM Presentations (including ISI-net)

  • T. Weyde: Automatic Rhythm Recognition and Analysis Using Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic (epOs-Music)

  • T. Wollermann: Music and Medium – The Development History of the Storage, Publication, and Distribution of Music-Specific Information (epOs-Music)

  • Yoon, Hae Jeong: Stochastic and Fractal Models in Algorithmic Composition (epOs-Music)

Doctoral Dissertations / Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses (selection with music-technology focus)

Translation (selection with music-technology focus):

  • Digital feedback systems in vocal instruction: A functional analysis of selected singing apps with respect to vocal-technical parameters and their didactic relevance in the vocal-pedagogical context (Max Winter, 2025)
  • Isolation of superimposed songs of different bird species and removal of noise using various signal-processing methods (Heike Wilkens, 2025)
  • Analysis of the suitability of different transformer architectures for classifying birdsong (Erik Winkelmann, 2025)
  • A new teaching–learning reality of conducting? On the use of VR technology in conductor training using the “Digital Conducting Station” research project at Osnabrück University as an example (Malte Julitz, 2025)
  • Comparison of the localization precision of noise impulses between humans and an algorithm on the azimuth plane (Sören Hesterberg, 2025)
  • Perception- and sound-based investigation of the comparability of organ stops and their instrument representations (Malte Kolmanitsch, 2025)
  • How well do Spotify’s algorithmically generated song recommendations match users’ musical preferences? (Leonard Herrmann, 2025)
  • Selection criteria for professional music-production equipment in the context of digital transformation (Dr. Karsten Kaiser, 2025)
  • A focused comparison of AI-generated and human music with regard to emotionality, creativity, and authenticity (Jan Schepmann, 2025)
  • Virtual and interactive sound worlds: PatchXR as a tool for scoring media in music education (Julian Röcher, 2025)
  • Musical sound synthesis and AI: Models and techniques (David Dücker, 2024)
  • Room acoustics in the “Unikeller” event space — options for sound optimization (Alina Ratermann, 2024)
  • Image-Based Technique Analysis: Using Deep Learning Methods to Analyse Trumpet Embouchure Technique (Jasper Oldach, 2024)
  • Effect of plectrum material on the perceived sound of acoustic guitars (Mathilda Bruns, 2023)
  • The Bebop Ontology — an RDF-based extension of the Jazz Ontology for domain-specific knowledge representation of bebop in 1940s New York (Max Westkemper, 2023)
  • Music in the spectrum of digitalization — effects of FM synthesis on synth-pop (Marvin Kreimeier, 2023)
  • Virtual Music Creation — an examination of music-related teaching and learning environments (Leonard Bruns, 2023)
  • Development of an algorithm for localizing noise impulses in dummy-head recordings — training and testing on the azimuth plane (Sören Gaedcke, 2023)
  • Spatial perception with playback over circum-aural and intra-aural headphones: On the interaction between HRTF and HpTF regarding localization and spatial hearing across different headphone designs (Marlon Regener, 2023)
  • Effects of digitalization on musicians’ fields of work, with particular consideration of changing distribution processes (Julian Röcher, 2022)
  • The MIDI Shaker — development of a music interface for realistic reproduction of shaker sounds (Malte Akkermann, 2022)
  • Changes in the perception of singers depending on their position in common performance spaces at Osnabrück University (Kevin König, 2022)
  • Tone colors – color tones: Historical, scientific, and practical approaches to the synesthetic relationship between color and sound, using Wassily Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art as an example (Jiska Schmidt, 2022)
  • Differentiation of various beer varieties of a single brand through audio branding — an empirical study (Joscha Grosser, 2021)
  • Investigation of interfaces for positioning sound sources in virtual and extended reality (Benedict Saurbier, 2021)
  • Implementation of an ontology for representing film-music information using the cinematic works of Stanley Kubrick as a case study (Philip Schwarzbauer, 2020)
  • Nursing Home 2.0. Can digital entertainment concepts in nursing homes generate added value? An analysis using the start-up Fit für Immer as an example — problem statement and objectives (Sebastian Lammers, 2020)
  • De Linguis Musicam Notare (Contributions to determining the semantics and stylistics of modern music notation through mathematical remodeling) (Dr. Markus Lepper, 2020)
  • Investigations into the influence of spectral and temporal modulations on music perception in cochlear-implant users (Maxim Fischer, 2020)
  • Introduction to programming through music — a workshop for lower-secondary students (Philip Schwarzbauer, 2019)
  • Influences and opportunities of 3D printing in musical-instrument making (Andreas Schönwitz, 2019)
  • Acoustics as a problem area: The challenge of room acoustics in musical theatre using Osnabrück Municipal Theatre as an example (Jonathan Splettstößer, 2019)
  • Transferring the radiation behavior of acoustic musical instruments into virtual space — considerations on virtual sound-field synthesis based on recorded sound sources (Minh Voong, 2018)
  • The Calliope Orchestra: An interdisciplinary physical-computing project for upper-secondary school (Christian Ventker, 2018)
  • The Hammond organ — an object of continual (re)discovery? (Tim Hocks, 2017)
  • Listening test on binaural reproduction of 3D microphone systems (Maxim Fischer, 2017)
  • The development of sound and sonic aesthetics in popular music — illustrated by studio productions of Beatles songs (Till Beiersdörfer, 2015)
  • Technical and artistic aspects of the interaction between sound control and musical performance (Tray Minh Voong, 2014)
  • Construction of the interactive Morphologist synthesizer with Max/MSP + Lemur touchpad (Ben Baecker, 2014)
  • Stages of music-technology development and the artistic-practical possibilities of electronic drum sets (E-drum sets) (David Springer, 2014)
  • Musica ex Machina — artistic and technical aspects of algorithmic composition, illustrated by works of Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl (Eileen Schreiber, 2012)
  • Electroacoustic and computer music in China (Nan Tang-Wissmann, 2008)
  • SVG and Java applets as web interfaces for interactive notation graphics (Sascha Wegener, 2007)
  • Aspects of musical communication in computer networks (Jan-Hendrik Kramer, 2005)
  • Modeling memory processes in melody perception (Andreas Wilhelm Lüsse, 2004)
  • Usability criteria for evaluating music-learning programs (Wolfram Heyer, 2004)
  • Conception and implementation of a computer-assisted system for melody search (Christian Datzko, 2004)

Cooperations