hello
I am currently a Machine Learning Engineer for the CORPUS project, working on large-scale music analysis and generation systems.
Previously, I completed a PhD in AI & Music at the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), supervised by Mathieu Barthet and Andrew McPherson. My research was located at the intersection of machine learning, mixed reality technology and human-computer interaction.
I hold an MSc in Sound and Music Computing from QMUL and a BSc in Media Informatics and Visual Computing from the Vienna University of Technology.
Drop me a message at max.graf@live.at.
News
-
23 Feb 2026
PhD Thesis Defense!
I successfully defended my PhD thesis at Queen Mary University of London! I am very grateful to my examiners, Professor Rebecca Fiebrink and Dr Florent Berthaut, for their time, insight, and the thoughtful discussion.
-
10 Oct 2025
Springer LNCS Book Chapter Published
The extended version of our CMMR work was published as a Springer LNCS book chapter: Multimodal Hand Tracking for XR Musical Instruments Using Electromyography.
-
21 Sep 2025
ISMIR 2025 in Daejeon
Attended ISMIR 2025 in Daejeon, South Korea, representing the CORPUS project. A great week of music information retrieval research, super interesting papers & talks with the broader MIR community. 감사합니다!
-
31 Mar 2025
Joined the CORPUS Project
I joined the CORPUS project, where I am working on AI and music technology including large-scale music analysis pipelines and related creative tooling. -
14 Nov 2024
ADC 2024
Just got back from ADC 2024. It was great meeting this lovely group of people and chatting about everything from nerdy low-level high-performance audio in C++ to musical XR applications 🤟 -
23 Oct 2024
AWE EU 2024
I will be attending AWE EU 2024 in Vienna, looking forward to meeting more people in the XR industry!
-
05 Sep 2024
Innovate UK ICURe Explore Grant
Very excited to join the September 2024 ICURe Explore programme. For the next three months I will explore collaborations and future directions for Netz, my XR musical instrument. -
06 Jun 2024
AES AI & The Musician 2024
Our paper When XR Meets AI: Integrating Interactive Machine Learning with an XR Musical Instrument was published at the 1st AES International Symposium on AI and the Musician at Berklee College of Music in Boston!
-
20 Feb 2024
Innovate UK ICURe Discover
I got a place on the February 2024 ICURe Discover programme for my XR instrument Netz.
-
25 Jan 2024
NAMM 2024
Had a great time at the 2024 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA! Nice meeting so many people in music tech and connecting with our friends at the MIDI association. -
13 Nov 2023
CMMR 2023
Going to Tokyo! Our paper Combining Vision and EMG-Based Hand Tracking for Extended Reality Musical Instruments was published at the 16th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research and nominated for the best paper award 🎉.
-
16 Sep 2023
2023 MIDI Innovation Awards
Today Netz, my XR musical instrument, won the MIDI Innovation Awards in the category Software Prototypes and Non-Commercial Products! -
10 Sep 2023
VRST 2023
Our paper Reducing Sensing Errors in a Mixed Reality Musical Instrument was published at the 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology. Going to present it in Christchurch, NZ!
-
01 Jan 2022
Paper accepted at NIME 2022
My paper Mixed Reality Musical Interface: Exploring Ergonomics and Adaptive Hand Pose Recognition for Gestural Control was accepted for NIME 2022!
-
18 Jun 2021
Part of Master's Thesis Published at AES 2021
We published a paper adjacent to my master’s thesis at QMUL titled An Audio-Driven System for Real-Time Music Visualisation at the 2021 AES International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality.
Press & selected mentions
- Nov 2024 ICURe Audio Developer Conference (ADC) · Bristol — attended representing Netz as part of the Innovate UK ICURe Explore programme
- Oct 2024 ICURe AWE EU 2024 · Vienna — attended representing Netz as part of the Innovate UK ICURe Explore programme
- Jun 2024 Paper When XR Meets AI · 1st AES Symposium on AI and the Musician, Berklee College of Music, Boston
- Feb 2024 Press Will AI mean the death of music, or herald a new era of creativity? · Reuters — Netz featured in a piece on AI and music
- Jan 2024 Showcase NAMM 2024 · Anaheim — exhibited Netz with the MIDI association as a MIDI Innovation Awards winner
- Sep 2023 Award MIDI Innovation Awards 2023 · Winner — Software Prototypes & Non-Commercial Products, for Netz