Center for New Music and Audio Technologies

What Center for New Music and Audio Technologies does

The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) is a multidisciplinary research center at UC Berkeley, founded in 1987 by composer Richard Felciano within the Department of Music. It pursues research at the intersection of music composition, sound synthesis, spatial audio, digital signal processing, augmented instruments, sensors, machine learning for music, and human-computer interaction. CNMAT operates as a unified research-and-performance environment that merges laboratory and stage, anchored by the Main Room with a 16-channel Meyer Sound system, a professional recording studio, and a DIY hardware lab at 1750 Arch Street, Berkeley.

CNMAT's outputs fall into four buckets: (1) open-source software distributed via GitHub and the Max Packages Manager, including the CNMAT tools for Max/MSP, odot programming objects, the qrm~ Max object, and a visual metronome; (2) widely adopted specifications, most notably the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol and Sound Description Interchange Format (SDIF); (3) educational programs including the Music and Technology curriculum (Music 158A, Music 159), the Undergraduate Research Program launched in 2024, and the graduate student-led CNMAT Users Group; and (4) performance and convening programs including the resident ECO Ensemble, the Sound Spatialization Theater, public concerts, OpenLab events (often featuring speakers from Meta, NVIDIA, Adobe Research, MIT Media Lab, and others), and participation in ICMC.

CNMAT is not a commercial entity. Operating funding comes from UC Berkeley institutional budgets, grants, and donations, with the Industrial Affiliates Program ($20,000 annual membership, half as cash contribution) serving as the primary external revenue stream. Long-standing and current partners include Gibson Guitar (historically), Meyer Sound, Stanford CCRMA, UC Santa Cruz Music Department, and the National Gugak Center (Seoul). Customers and audiences are principally composers, graduate and undergraduate researchers, UC Berkeley students, industrial affiliates in audio and music technology, and the general public attending free or low-cost concerts and lectures.

Name

Center for New Music and Audio Technologies

Legal name

Center for New Music and Audio Technologies

Website

https://cnmat.berkeley.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) is a UC Berkeley research center that develops open-source tools, protocols, and spatial-audio facilities for music composition and audio technology research, serving composers, students, and industry affiliates through concerts, education, and the Industrial Affiliates Program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Music Technology Research

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

akta.pro primary industry

Music Education Hardware (Practice Tools, Metronomes, Tuners, Lab Systems) (MPAIAJAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Pro Audio Equipment (Mics, Interfaces, Mixers, Studio Monitors) (MPAIAJAB)

Keywords

• Music technology research
• Audio signal processing
• Spatial audio systems
• Computer music education
• Open source audio tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Berkeley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Industrial Affiliates Program: Annual membership program providing industrial firms access to CNMAT's research, faculty, students, and technical resources. Membership fee of $20,000 annually (half must be cash contribution). Funds support research, graduate students, equipment, and annual IAP conference costs. This is the primary external revenue stream for the center.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CNMAT is an interdisciplinary research center at UC Berkeley that conducts research and development in music and audio technologies. It produces open-source software tools for music composition (CNMAT Tools for Max/MSP, odot objects, OSC, SDIF, qrm~, Visual Metronome), operates research and performance facilities (Main Room with 16-channel Meyer Sound system, professional recording studio, DIY hardware lab), and runs an Industrial Affiliates Program that gives industry partners access to its faculty, students, and research outputs.

Product overview

CNMAT is an interdisciplinary research center at UC Berkeley focused on multidisciplinary research and the creative use of sound. It operates as a unified research and performance environment that merges the laboratory and the stage. The center's offerings include: (1) open-source software tools for Max/MSP including CNMAT Tools, odot programming objects, qrm~ Max object for resonant model estimation, and a visual metronome; (2) state-of-the-art research facilities including a Main Room with 16-channel Meyer Sound system, a professional recording studio, and a DIY hardware lab; (3) educational programs including a Music and Technology curriculum and the CNMAT Users Group (CUG) for graduate students; (4) performance programs including the resident ECO Ensemble and the Sound Spatialization Theater; (5) the CNMAT OpenLab event series featuring industry and academic speakers on audio AI; and (6) an Industrial Affiliates Program for industry collaboration. Software outputs are freely shared via GitHub and Max Packages Manager. The center does not offer commercial software products but rather research tools and educational resources for composers, musicians, and researchers worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP)

Quantifiable outcome

• Several hundred juried publications established international reputation
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability10 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• UC Berkeley Department of MusiccoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2025Primary affiliated department. CNMAT is structured as an interdisciplinary research center closely aligned with the music composition program. Provides concert venues including Wu Hall and Hertz Hall for CNMAT events.
• Stanford University CCRMAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2025Co-host of Korean Experimental Music Festival 2025 with 10 performances across UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and Stanford. Ongoing collaboration on music technology research and performances.
• UC Santa Cruz Music DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2025Co-host of Korean Experimental Music Festival 2025 as part of two-year collaboration between National Gugak Center, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, and Stanford.
• National Gugak Center (Seoul, Korea)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2025Korea's foremost institution for traditional music, providing musicians for the Korean Experimental Music Festival featuring traditional Korean instruments integrated with technology.
• Del Sol String QuartetcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2025Bay Area acclaimed string quartet collaborating on Korean Experimental Music Festival, performing new works blending Western classical with Korean traditional music.
• Meyer SoundcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 April 2025Equipment donor for Wu Performance Hall audio system including Ultra-X40 speakers, USW-112P subwoofers, 900LFC, and Ultra-X20 XP surround speakers. Provided generous support for design and implementation of ATMOS-compatible multi-channel spatialization system.
• Voices of Silicon ValleymajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2025Collaboration on American premiere of Gerard Grisey's 'Les Chants de l'Amour' performed at Wu Hall, UC Berkeley. CNMAT provided technical support for this historic achievement.
• UC Berkeley Undergraduate Research ProgrammajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024New program initiated in 2024 inviting students who have completed several courses to join active research at CNMAT.
• Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1987Collaborating center involving contributions from multiple departments including Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) and Berkeley Center for New Media.
• Industrial Affiliates Program MembersmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorIndustrial firms supporting CNMAT research. Membership includes early access to research, collaboration with faculty/staff, student contacts, and annual conference. Long-standing partnership with Gibson Guitar mentioned historically.

Scale indicators5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• MIT Media Lab: MIT Media Lab is a broader interdisciplinary research institution with active groups in music, generative AI, and spatial audio (e.g., Opera of the Future, Responsive Environments). Its scale and industry funding models offer a benchmark for what a top-tier audio/AI research program can become — wider in scope but overlapping in research themes.

Direct peers

• IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique): Paris-based IRCAM is the preeminent European counterpart to CNMAT, combining scientific research on acoustics/computer music with composition and performance. Both centers develop widely adopted open-source tools, host resident ensembles, and serve as bridges between industry and contemporary music.
• McGill University CIRMMT: CIRMMT is a multi-university music and sound research center at McGill with a comparable scope to CNMAT: acoustics, composition, digital music, and music perception. Both centers operate as interdepartmental research hubs with shared facilities and industry engagement.
• Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology: Georgia Tech's music technology center conducts comparable interdisciplinary research on machine listening, music information retrieval, and computer music, and trains graduate researchers in audio/Machine Learning — a direct functional analog to CNMAT's research agenda.
• Stanford University CCRMA: Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics is the most natural peer to CNMAT: both are university-based music technology research centers in the Bay Area focusing on sound synthesis, DSP, spatial audio, and computer music, with overlapping faculty networks and joint events (e.g., Korean Experimental Music Festival 2025).
• Princeton University Music — Sound and Music Computing: Princeton's music department hosts the Sound Lab and active computer-music research closely comparable to CNMAT's composition + engineering workflow. Both centers blend composition practice with computer-science research and publicly release score/technology.

Others

• Cycling '74: Cycling '74 develops Max/MSP, the visual programming environment in which much of CNMAT's tooling (CNMAT Tools, qrm~, odot) is built and distributed via the Max Packages Manager. Cyclic '74 sits as a foundational ecosystem partner to CNMAT's developer output.
• Meyer Sound: Meyer Sound is a professional audio equipment manufacturer and CNMAT's equipment partner, donating the 16-channel Meyer Sound system for the Main Room and helping design the ATMOS-compatible Wu Performance Hall installation — a strategic adjacency to CNMAT's spatial-audio research.
• Berklee College of Music (Music Technology): Berklee's MP&E/Music Technology programs focus on professional music production and emerging technology for performers, complementing CNMAT's research-heavy model. Berklee offers a useful industry-adjacent benchmark for educational scale and employer pipeline in music technology.

Emerging players

• Symbolic Sound Corporation: Symbolic Sound develops Kyma, a sound design environment widely used in academic computer music alongside Max/MSP. As a small, specialist vendor serving the same composer/researcher niche that CNMAT supports, it is a partial-overlap emerging peer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cnmat
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@cnmat4998
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cnmat
• Instagraminstagram.com/cnmat_berkeley

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Center for New Music and Audio Technologies