The University of Birmingham has long been recognised as a leading research centre in the field of electroacoustic music, both within the UK and internationally.
Research activity involving the studios and BEAST includes a number of major themes:
- Electronic Music Composition including acousmatic and other approaches
- Soundscape Composition / Field Recording / Phonography
- Mixed Instrumental/Vocal and Electroacoustic Composition
- Live or Interactive Electroacoustics
- Software development (BEASTmulch, BEASTtools, contributions to SuperCollider)
- Live Coding
- Network Music Systems
- Large-scale multichannel composition and presentation, including higher order Ambisonic workflows and hybridised approaches
- Sound Installations
- Non-standard synthesis
- Sound Recording
- History and Aesthetics of Electronic Music
Other research at the studios
A variety of other research has been undertaken at the studios, including:
- Development of control interfaces for real-time sound diffusion
- Development of a viola-based controller for sound synthesis
- Development of stochastic synthesis techniques
- Idiosyncratic approaches to multichannel spatialisation such as Spatial Swarm Granulation