The creation of a digital audio laboratory through this Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Project will support an interdisciplinary teaching venture in Digital Technology in Music involving the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. The new laboratory facilities will support key curricular components in the education of engineering and science students and it will support a valuable component in the technical education of students of Music as well as for a large group of students in disciplines spanning these extremes. Digital representation and manipulation of signals is one of the keystones of Electrical Engineering; and in music study, this technology is being increasingly incorporated to the extent that it has emerged as an essential aspect. The laboratory facilities created through the project will enable practical instruction in digital signal technology to students via hands-on experience and the creation of original student work. Additionally, in Electrical Engineering the equipment will add new instructional capabilities in the areas of Signals, Communications, and Digital Signal Processing, and at the Eastman School the equipment will enable new instructional capabilities in Digital Technology in Music production, Multimedia Production Technology and Music Education. The latter will include CD-ROM based instructional and pedagogical materials, as well as research into sound manipulation and transmission. The digitized format of these materials will allow for their dissemination in conventional computer disk format, CD-ROMs, or networks such as the INTERNET via World Wide Web.
