Realtime Experimental Audio Laboratory

UCI Music Department
University of California, Irvine


The REALab (Realtime Experimental Audio Laboratory) is a newly installed laboratory in the UCI Music and Media Building for research and creative work in the use of computers in live musical performance, including realtime audio processing, sound spatialization, networked performance, interactivity, and alternative computer-mediated instruments. The REALab is affiliated with the Gassmann Electronic Music Studio in the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts, and is directed by Christopher Dobrian.

Michael Zbyszynski and Christopher Dobrian
REALab Director Christopher Dobrian and erstwhile Research Associate Michael Zbyszynski
Software for interactive remote simultaneous concerts via internet

Current and Recent Research

Remote Simultaneous Concerts via Internet

Researchers at UCI and UCSD collaborated to realize live simultaneous interactive music performances in the two locations, in which the audience enjoyed the realtime interaction of musicians in both sites. The result was "Internet Pianos" (a.k.a. "Dueling Disklaviers"), two simultaneous concerts of duo piano performances with the pianists in two different locations, featuring renowned jazz pianists Kei Akagi (UCI) and Anthony Davis (UCSD), Wednesday October 17, 2001.

Sound Spatialization

The REALab is equipped with a high-performance JBL (LSR series) speaker system for 5.1 audition, reconfigurable for other experiments in sound diffusion (quadraphonic, etc.). This system has been used for production of such works as the four-channel piece "Insta-pene-playtion (Interproviplaytion II)" for computer-processed flute by Christopher Dobrian, featuring flute excerpts by James Newton. You can hear a brief excerpt of a stereo MP3 reduction.

Realtime Interactive Performance Systems

Composers at the REALab are involved in designing new works for live performance with computers in which the computer plays an active quasi-intelligent role in the performance. Examples of such works are the entirely computer-controlled performance work Microepiphanies: A Digital Opera (2000) by Christopher Dobrian and Douglas-Scott Goheen, and There's Just One Thing You Need To Know for pianist (playing a Yamaha Disklavier), synthesizer, and interactive computer system.

Research Associate Michael Zbyszynski
Research Associate Michael Zbyszynski
Interactive compositions for instrumentalist and computer

Christopher Dobrian, Director

Affiliated Centers

Gassmann Electronic Music Studio, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA), University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Working Group for Interactive Systems and Instrument Design for Music

This working group is a consortium of researchers and institutions focusing on experimentation and study of interactive computer music performance. The group is organized with the collaboration of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) and the Electronic Music Foundation (EMF).


This site is designed and maintained by Christopher Dobrian. (dobrian@uci.edu)
This page was last modified August 31, 2002.