About
The Music Technology & Digital Musicology Lab (MTDML) is a research and teaching facility of the Institute of Musicology and Music Education at Osnabrück University. Its work explores how digital technologies can transform and expand the creation, analysis, perception, communication, and shared experience of music. The lab combines research questions from musicology and music education with approaches from computer science, acoustics, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interaction.
One of the MTDML’s main research areas is Acoustical Extended Reality (AXR). This field combines virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies with spatial audio, motion capture, and eye tracking to investigate new forms of musical interaction. Research topics range from the perception and design of virtual sound environments and collaborative music-making to the use of immersive technologies in music education and teacher training.
In the field of Computer Audition, the MTDML develops and investigates methods that enable computers to extract musical and semantic information from audio data. These approaches draw on digital signal processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Closely related to this is Computational Creativity, which examines the computer-based modelling of creative processes, with a particular focus on the automated generation and processing of music. Further areas of research include musical acoustics, music perception, electronic sound synthesis, and the development of new musical interfaces.
Research and teaching are closely integrated at the MTDML. In project-based courses, students work on topics such as virtual learning environments, interactive musical instruments, object-based music production, 3D models of musical instruments, and applications for virtual reality. This allows academic research to be directly connected with creative, technical, and musical practice.
The MTDML provides a broad range of research and production facilities, including an XR Lab, a Perception Lab, a Computer Audition Lab, a professional recording studio, and workspaces for prototyping, 3D printing, and electronics development. High-performance GPU systems, physiological measurement technologies, spatial audio systems, and mobile recording and streaming equipment support interdisciplinary research, teaching, and production projects.
A particular strength of the MTDML lies in its close connection between technological research and active musical practice. Its collaboration with the institute’s ensembles, choirs, bands, and symphony orchestra creates a wide range of opportunities for recordings, experiments, and joint projects. The MTDML therefore serves not only as a research laboratory, but also as a development environment, production facility, and creative space for musical work.
