Vienna

Registration / Information: elak@mdw.ac.at

14.03.2024 - 10.00-17.00

Registration / Information: elak@mdw.ac.at

GRM Tools: a set of unique sound processing tools developed by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, Paris

The GRM is a long existing institution founded in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer and dedicated to the research, composition and diffusion of music associating new technologies. The music was called Musique concrète, electroacoustic music, electronic music and over the last years Acousmatic music.

In order to compose this new kind of music, specific tools for sound manipulation and transformation were needed, and since the beginnings of the GRM a strong effort was done to “invent” new machines for sound processing. After a long period of mechanical and electronic machines, the GRM started working with computers in order to create or transform sounds; several computer generations succeeded until in 1990 the first version of the GRM Tools arrived, developed by the engineer Hugues Vinet, and since then several generations of the Tools have existed and exist today.

The GRM Tools are a set of plugins, this is specific sound processing bricks that can be either included in other software or used independently, as a standalone tool. Each of the 16 GRM Tools explores different ways of modifying sound, acting on all the parameters of it: duration, pitch, color, internal organization; all this in a very intuitive and user-friendly environment.

Since 2001 and the version 2 of the GRM Tools, 16,000 volumes have been sold all the world around. It is used by composers, but also by sound designers, film makers and any, improvisers, electronica and any kind of use in which sound has to be modified. As an example, Sony pictures in Los Angeles, owns 50 volumes of the GRM Tools and the software received the Editor’s Choice Winner 2004 by the Electronic Musician magazine in the US.

The GRM Tools are now on its third version and a fourth version will be coming out in 2024. It is highly used and appreciated in conservatories and universities which constitute the main users of the Tools. Many workshops and seminars have been done around the world, mainly by one of its designers, Diego Losa, and strongly appreciated by users and students.