The Music Computing Lab (MCL) is a group of researchers who work on computational methods for understanding, creating, and interacting with music. The MCL is part of the Artificial Intelligence and Human Systems (AIHS) research group in the Department of Computer Science. It was formed in 2023 and, together with the Music Psychology Lab, it is part of Music & Science at Durham.

Research

Our members contribute to research in music information retrieval, machine learning & artificial intelligence, music psychology, and digital humanities. We ask questions about music that are inspired by and lend themselves to new computer applications, and we develop new computational techniques that are inspired by and lend themselves to the study of music. We also contribute to the scientific community as peer reviewers and editorial staff for a number of leading venues.

Examples of research done in the MCL include:

• Using neural topic models of YouTube comments to find patterns in how users write about contemporary popular music online.
• Development of heuristic search, constraint satisfaction, and optimization methods for modelling and generating symbolic 20th-century music.
• Bayesian modelling and inference applied to music and music-related data
• Structured graphical models and dynamic programming for modelling pitch-class distributions in common practice tonal music based on the Tonnetz, a music-theoretic representation.

Activities

We hold weekly lab meetings, which include work-in-progress discussions, development of research students, methods training, grant development, critical discussions of recent papers, and building impact and partnerships. Please contact any one of the core lab members if you are interested in joining a meeting, or if you would like to present your work or work-in-progress to the lab.

Members of the MCL are involved in the design and delivery of undergraduate modules in music computing. We offer up to 40 credits of undergraduate teaching in COMP3721 Introduction to Music Computing and COMP4221 Advanced Music Computing, which are open to students in all departments that meet the prerequisites. (If you do not meet the prerequisites, but still want to take either module, please contact any one of the core lab members). We also teach core modules in several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes offered by Computer Science, and specialist modules in reinforcement learning and natural language processing.

Our members are also active as consultants, and have worked with international music therapy-based music recommendation companies and as part of a multidisciplinary digital art-making team. We also contribute to nationally-funded digital skills training initiatives for music researchers.

Facilities

The MCL is sited in the Mathematical and Computer Science building, a modern purpose-built facility shared with the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Members of the Department of Computer Science have access to the NVidia Compute Cluster (NCC), a shared-compute facility supporting GPU-intensive applications. We collaborate closely with members of the Music Psychology Lab at the Department of Music, which hosts a Music Technology Lab, audio recording and electronic music studios, and an electronic workshop.

Prospective students, post-docs, and visitors

We welcome enquiries about opportunities to study for research and taught postgraduate degrees in topics related to our interests and approaches. If you are interested in research postgraduate study (at the masters’ or doctoral level), please contact the MCL member with the most relevant expertise with a short description of your proposed research project. If you are interested in spending time in Durham as a visiting student, a postdoctoral researcher, or as a distinguished visitor, please do get in contact with any one of the MCL core staff members at the Team page.