 thumb|western face of the ircam building ircam () is a french institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. it is situated next to, and is organisationally linked with, the centre pompidou in paris. the extension of the building was designed by renzo piano and richard rogers. ==a centre for musical research== thumb|right|ircam's machine room in 1989 several concepts for electronic music and audio processing have emerged at ircam. john chowning pioneered work on fm synthesis at ircam, and miller puckette originally wrote max at ircam in the mid-1980s, which would become the real-time audio processing graphical programming environment max/msp. max/msp has subsequently become a widely used tool in electroacoustic music. many of the techniques associated with spectralism, such as analyses based on fast fourier transforms, were made practical by technological contributions at ircam. ircam has also developed a special microphone capable of isolating each of the cello's four strings for separate amplification or electronic treatment. ircam provides classes to train composers in music technology.software training courses, ircam composers who do not have programming experience to create the technology end of a piece for ensemble and electronics are provided with an assistant who helps them to realise technically intensive parts of the piece. the assistant will follow the conceptual advice of a composer with no technology experience to realize a computer part, or will help a composer who can program in max/msp to make their "patch" more efficient and elegant. tristan murail's dÃ©sintÃ©grations is an example of a piece realized in this program by a composer with significant technological skill, whereas harrison birtwistle's the mask of orpheus required an active and creative role for the technology assistants, such as barry anderson and ian dearden. ==a cultural centre for musical modernism== apart from electroacoustic programmes, ircam has programmes in contemporary classical music. it has disseminated music of post world war ii modernist musicians such as that of luciano berio or pierre boulez, as well as younger performers and composers. musical spectralism such as that of tristan murail, has also received support from ircam. murail taught at ircam for a time.anderson 2001 kaija saariaho, whose work has been influenced by spectralism, has also been supported by ircam.born 1995, 363 fn3 ircam has also helped to develop various performance models. a resident ensemble of ircam, ensemble intercontemporain, 
Contemporary_music_organizations Electronic_music_organizations Experimental_music Organizations_established_in_1970 Renzo_Piano_buildings Research_institutes_in_France