MET-lab
Welcome to the Music Entertainment Technology laboratory home page.
The Music and Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab) is devoted to research in digital media technologies that will shape the future of entertainment, especially in the areas of sound and music. The MET-lab's primary research focuses on the following music and entertainment applications:
- Music production and playback technology: The iPod and digital downloads have changed when and where we experience music. In the near future, the impact of digital technology on how music is produced, created, and performed will be even more dramatic.
- Machine listening and music information retrieval: Computers are great at recording, editing, and playing audio, but they can’t tell you much about the sound itself. How can we teach machines to really listen? Can they help organize our ever growing personal music collections?
- New music interfaces: It generally takes years to learn to play a musical instrument. This research looks at creating simpler and more intuitive interfaces that enable people to start making music without prior experience.
The MET-lab is also heavily involved in outreach programs for K-12 students and hosts the Summer Music Technology program, a one-week learning experience for high school students.
News & Events
2 December 2011
A story about the Magnetic Resonator Piano, developed by MET-lab postdoctoral fellow Andrew McPherson, was broadcast on WHYY's Morning Edition and
NewsWorks Tonight radio programs and website, highlighting upcoming concerts on December 3 (in Drexel's Mitchell Auditorium) and December 4 (at Temple) featuring the instrument.
1 December 2011
MET-lab's three (soon to be six) Hubo+ robots were featured in a short segment on WHYY's NewsWorks Tonight radio program and website.
7 June 2011
Our musical humanoids research received mention on the Science & the Arts blog (from NPR's Science Friday). The article includes an interview with MET-lab Director, Youngmoo Kim.
9 May 2011
The iNotes project, MET-lab's collaboration with The Philadelphia Orchestra, was announced as a winner of the
iNotes: Orchestral Performance Companion
The iNotes project, a winner of the 2011 Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia, is based upon technology developed for the DrexelCast project described below.
Many people enjoy live orchestral performances, but those without musical training may find it hard to relate to the music. We have developed a system that helps users by guiding them through the performance using a handheld application in real-time. Using chroma features and dynamic time warping, we attempt to align the live performance audio with that of a previously annotated reference recording. The aligned position is transmitted to users’ handheld devices and pre-annotated information about the piece is displayed synchronously.
Audio Processing Library for Flash (ALF)
Quick Links
ALF v1.0.2 is here!
View the ALF documentation.
Download Pulse 2 here.
Hide & Speak and Tone Bender available at the METgames site.
What is ALF?
