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Contact Information

Benjamin N. Levy (born 29th of May, 1985 in Paris, France)
MSc in Acoustics, Signal Processing and Computer Science applied to Music (IRCAM, Paris, France)
MSc/Eng in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Telecommunications (ENSEA, Cergy, France)
Graduate in Cello (Regional Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Cergy, France)
benjamin.n.levy@wanadoo.fr
benjamin.levy@atiam.fr

Brief Bio

After 15 years of cello lessons in private lessons and music schools, I attended the classes of Cello and Composition in Cergy's Regional Conservatoire of Music while getting graduated from the Engineering School of Electronics, Computer Science and Telecomunication, at ENSEA.
I combined 2008-09 my technical and artistical studies with a masters degree in Acoustics, Computer Science and Signal processing Applied to Music at IRCAM.

Along my studies I accumulated experiences in computer assisted music with internships and projects. Using mostly Max/MSP I had the opportunity to work with motion capture systems (electromagnetic and optical) and dancers. I also worked on augmented instruments and tools for computer enhanced music education as well as computer based improvising system.

I continue nowadays the conservatoire with cello and orchestra and I am currently working at IRCAM with the Musical Representation research team and the production department as a musical assistant to musicians/composers on a computer based improviser project.

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Projects

OMax, MoMax, WoMax [2009-10]

OMax and its new modular (MoMax) and interactive version (WoMax) is a computer based improviser which analyses and recombines an instrumental sequence to play in real time as a new musical partner. It started before 2004 in the Musical Representation team at IRCAM with automatic style modelling attempts based on compression and repetition detection algorithms.

The last version, WoMax, now displays an interactive visualisation of the internal knowledge of the system and allows to drive responsively two computer based improvisations. It also include incremental clustering features.

Augmented Acoustic Cello [2008]

Augmented Acoustic Cello’s project is to provide the cello with additional possibilities to allow new expressions with technology. The approach is focused on the player’s sonic control. It uses features extracted from the audio to control the digital effects.
The system was developed in ICSRIM for Max/MSP programming environment and it can be used for both live improvisation or compositional contexts.

MoCaRT [2007]

MoCaRT is a collection of externals and patches developed for Max/MSP during an internship in CIANT. It aims to use the motion capture system Liberty Latus in the programming environment Max/MSP to enable a communication between movement and music for interactive performances.

EMux [2006]

EMux is an emulation of the dedicaced synthesizer E-Mu 6400 Emulator IV in the programming environment Max/MSP. It is an add-on for the 2PIM project developed around the Meta-Instrument (MI) in Puce Muse (et al.). EMux allows the MI player using the 2PIM platform to perform existing pieces for MI without owning the dedicaced synthesizer.
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Publications

B. Lévy, K. Ng, Audio-driven Augmentations for the Cello, in Proceedings of the 4th i-Maestro Workshop on Technology-Enhanced Music Education, pp. 49-51, University of Leeds - ICSRiM, 2008, ISBN 978 0 85316 269 8
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Teaching

Columbia University, NYC [2010]

Invited speaker with Steve Lehman (saxophone) in Brad Garton's class Computer Music II. Presentation and demo of the OMax project.

EHESS, Paris [2010]

Invited speaker with Gerard Assayag and Raphael Imbert (saxophone) in Marc Chemillier's seminar. Presentation and Demo of the OMax project.

ENSEA (Graduate School of Engineering), Cergy [2008-10]

1st year students, practical: Implementing Ford-Fulkerson algorithm in C
3rd year students, project supervison: Porting GSM standard from Matlab to C using the Mex API
2nd year students, Musical and Electro Acoustics: An overview of digital synthesis methods and audio effects.
2nd year students, Musical and Electro Acoustics: Practical on Matlab: Karplus-Strong algorithm.
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Music

Villa Medici, Rome [2010]

• Sound installation with OMax software, 4-6. June 2010, Villa Medici, Teatro delle esposizioni (Elias Genoun architect)
  Yann Robin composer, Benjamin Lévy controlling OMax

IRCAM, Paris [2009-10]

• Concert: Improvisation with OMax software, 11. February 2010, IRCAM, Espace de Projection
  Brice Martin bassoon, Beñat Achiary voice, Médéric Collignon bugle & voice, Michel Doneda saxophone, Benjamin Lévy controlling OMax

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Downloads

Curriculum vitae

Masters thesis

Internships reports

Externals for Max/MSP

Scripts for Max/MSP

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Last updated:
June 2010