MRC Facilities

Built in 2004, the Music Research Centre provides high-quality listening environments and state-of-the-art technical facilities. The acoustic designs were developed and modeled by Arup Acoustics and the architects were van Heyningen and Howard.

Arthur Sykes Rymer Auditorium

The Rymer Auditorium is the premiere listening space for reproduced sound in the UK. The space is equipped with an in-house Genelec 5.1 surround sound system and is used for contemporary electronic music and sound art, along with performances from a variety of musical traditions. It also features a 16 channel horizontal speaker rig (often used for ambisonics), and a 24 channel mixing desk, and can accommodate an audience of 150 people. It houses a Faziloi grand piano, and a large high-quality projection screen, used for audiovisual work. The Rymer is connected to the control room of the Trevor Jones Recording Studio and can be used for recording.
The Rymer is a well appointed space designed for both experimentation, research and performance. It has a unique acoustic and is built on separate foundations to the other areas of the mrc. It is constructed to prevent external noise from entering the space, and performs to a specification better than the PNC 15 standard. The room is built to give the best possible frequency response. The Rymer also contains suspension systems to mount large numbers of surround sound loudspeakers.

Studios

All rooms in the basement production area of mrc have been constructed on suspended floors which are separate from each other. The walls are built from the suspended floors to reduce sound transmission through the structure of the building and create a room in room construction.

Trevor Jones Recording Studio

Recording Room

The Trevor Jones recording room was developed by Arup Acoustics and features adjustable wall panels that can vary the acoustic quality of the room, changing the reverberation time with great precision. It also has a small recording booth designed to provide an acoustically "dead" environment.

Control Room

The control room contains all the recording equipment for the Trevor Jones Studio. It is an entirely digital studio, based around a quad core Mac pro (running OSX and Windows XP) and has high-quality AD converters operating at sample rates up to 192kHz. The control room also contains high quality microphone pre-amp equipment and professional surround sound reverberation devices. Genelec monitoring is provided in stereo and 5.1 surround, along with a full with-height, 16-speaker Genelec ambisonics rig and broadcast reference monitoring.

Ralph Vaughan Williams Composition Studio

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Composition Studio is a smaller studio, used for composition and post-production work. The studio is entirely digital (based around a similar Mac Pro) and has a high level of acoustic treatment. It features stereo, 5.1 and 7 channel ambisonic sound reproduction using Genelec and ATC speakers.

Facilities For Students

Simon Best Music Technology Room

The Simon Best Music Technology provides teaching and seminar space for York's successful taught Masters course in Music Technology. It is also a student work room where MA students study, conduct research training projects, complete course assignments and access the mrc computer systems. Workshop facilities are also provided here for MA students doing interactive projects.

Terry Holmes Postgraduate Room

The Terry Holmes Postgraduate Research Room provides a space for doctoral and visiting researchers and composers.

Costcutter Creative Technology Room

Work related to electronics and hardware development may be carried out in the Costcutter Creative Technology Room. The range of activities in this area include the development of professional audio products, sensors for human interaction with computer music systems and small scale mechanical engineering projects for sound installations.