Free software available for electronic musicians

A new piece of music software has been developed by researchers at Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, in the form of Integra Live; an open source programme, which allows musicians, composers, producers and DJs to transform music as it is being performed live.

The software, which can be downloaded for free from www.integralive.org, is the result of three years of work, and is designed to make working with electronic music as intuitive as possible.

It works by allowing the user to transform the sounds with a computer and obtain instant results, meaning that a musician can react to a changing aural landscape and make their performance truly ‘live’. Integra Live’s capabilities can be applied to all kinds of sound, from miced-up acoustic instruments through to synths, and the developers are actively encouraging anyone with an interest in cutting-edge creativity to try it out.

Furthermore, the programme also allows classic live electronic works from the 70s and 80s to be saved for future generations. With many of these compositions requiring specific pieces of technology that are now obsolete, Integra Live provides software-based versions of their capabilities, which can be used by anyone, with no need for the original hardware.

Lamberto Coccioli, project manager and head of Music Technology at Birmingham Conservatoire said: “We aim to provide the next generation of electronic musicians with friendly tools to explore new methods of creating music and we hope they will share their pieces with us using the Integra Live platform".

Integra is a €1.9M project funded by the EU Culture programme.