My Weekend at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

Last weekend, I had the privilege of spending my time at the annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech. This is a large event where incredibly talented contestants from across the globe submit unique music technology instruments they have invented. Finalists are selected to come to Atlanta, Georgia where they can participate in some of the in-person events the Competition has to offer. This past weekend, I was able to experience a judges panel, the music technology fair, as well as the Guthman concert. At the judges panel on Friday, I along with a few dozen other Georgia Tech students had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with some incredibly fascinating people–music producer and YouTuber Rick Beato, Senior Curator at The Museum of Modern Art in the Department of Architecture & Design Paola Antonelli, as well as Ableton Co-Founder and CEO Gerhard Behles.

I also got to see some of the finalists’ projects beforehand. The Hypercubes, developed by Mateo Mena, were truly fascinating to me as it was a modular synthesizer that allowed users to connect small cubes together that represented different aspects of a synth–attack, decay, release, distortion, sustain, pitch, gain, etc.–to create their own sound. As a producer who usually throws on presets in Serum or Omnisphere or aimlessly fidgets with knobs, it was great to see a visual representation of the technology.

At the fair on Saturday, I got to interact with some of the finalists’ instruments, like the AirGlow (a functional air-guitar with flashy LEDs), as well as some projects of Georgia Tech students within the music technology department. One student built a website that automated chord inversions for composers and another student developed software that produced musical compositions entirely on its own. As fascinating as that was, I’ll admit it was a little frightening to know that software could potentially be after my job one day.

To finish off the weekend, Saturday night I attended the Guthman Concert, which truly blew me away. At the concert of the packed Ferst Center at Georgia Tech, the finalists performed with their instrument pieces that were improvised with local musicians they met the same day. I was shocked at how much the contestants had worked engineering into their music to not only develop something entirely new, but also present it in such a compelling way at the concert. The Guthman Musical Instrument Competition was truly an amazing experience, and I am looking forward to returning next year!