“So the first thing you’ll notice is…how dry it is,” said my guide Michael Repper ’12. These were the confusing words I heard as I was let into what is arguably the coolest room on the Stanford campus. After much anticipation and a grueling bike ride up the hill, I had finally gained access to a place that has been a mystery to me since the day I found out it existed: the listening room at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

Where? CCRMA (pronounced “Karma”) is located at the Knoll, in the old residence of the University President. The research done at CCRMA has brought us some of the most important technological developments to come out of Stanford, including digital synthesizers and “I am T-Pain” iPhone apps.

In its day-to-day operations, CCRMA is home to some incredible facilities and research, mostly dealing with the use of computers in music. Like any academic department, CCRMA hosts projects led by world-renowned faculty. Take, for example, the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, led by Ge Wang, the co-founder of the iPhone app maker, Smule.

Something that sets CCRMA apart from other departments, however, is the freedom that students get to develop and present their own projects. As part of the Music, Science & Technology track, music students are given tools that computer science or electrical engineering majors would be familiar with. But here, students receive prompts along the lines of “make a musical interaction.”

My guide tonight, Repper, is one of those students. He is a junior majoring in music with a concentration in Music, Science & Technology. According to him it’s this freedom and open-endedness that sets CCRMA apart.

“The best part,” he says, “is that all the work is creative.” And since all that creativity needs an outlet, they have places like the listening room.

So naturally, I ventured down the CCRMA music hole.

Upon entering the listening room, I found myself standing on a metal cage in the middle of a practically soundproof room, quite literally suspended in the ideal place to hear sixteen channels of surround sound coming from some of the best speakers in the world. I waited for Repper to play the song I had selected off my iPhone: “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.

Then the music started. The room speakers are set up so that the sound from each of them hits you at exactly the same time, which makes it nearly impossible to tell where the sound is coming from. The experience was similar to wearing really good headphones, except I was standing inside of them. If I took a step in any direction, I could detect a sound change: as I neared each speaker, I began to make out which speaker was playing what. It’s mind blowing to think that this room is so specialized that no one records music in a way that takes full advantage of its potential.

As I stepped out of them room, mind completely blown, I realized what Repper meant by how “dry” it was. My ears started to ring immediately from the echoes going around in the hallway and I could suddenly hear my voice coming back at me from the walls. I also realized that I had been spoiled by this experience and will quite possibly never be able to appreciate lesser sound again. Oh well.