1 PhD position in Music Acoustics in Austria | University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

The Institute of Music Acoustics (IWK) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna seeks a PhD student to work on the project "Transient Phenomena in Single-Reed Woodwind Instruments", funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Salary: € 2,024.90 Euro / Month before tax (14 times a year).

Duration: Three years (starting March 2016).

Job description

This project lies at the forefront of Music Acoustics Research, aiming to investigate sound generation in musical instruments. The main goal of the proposed project is to analyse the transient mechanical behaviour of the single-reed excitation mechanism during tongue articulation in woodwind performance. This analysis will take place using experimental measurements, physical modelling and comparisons between the two approaches in terms of the underlying model parameters and the measured and synthesized signals. The results of this analysis will be incorporated into real-time physically-based sound synthesis applications.

Applicants should have

• a Master's degree in a field allowing them to carry out research in Music Acoustics (such as mathematics, computer science, musicology, physics, engineering);
• basic skills in acoustics and/or audio signal processing;
• programming skills (e.g. Matlab, C++ or Python);
• ideally some experience in experimental acoustics;
• familiarity with numerical methods (such as finite differences, finite elements, numerical optimisation) is an advantage.

Candidates are expected to be creative and open for new research approaches, to be fluent in (spoken and written) English and to be ready to integrate themselves into an existing research group and contribute cooperatively.