Working as a composer, sound designer and programmer, Rob has a passionate interest in how sound behaves acoustically and has developed a number of techniques for controlling and building virtual spaces for use within live performance and installation. His fascination in the work of the Roman Architect Vitruvius has led to frequent conference engagements and appearances on UK and American documentary TV shows.

An enthusiastic collaborator, Rob has worked on experimental and large-scale commercial music and sound design projects including the interactive installation The DARK.

Rob has received performances from artists such as the Siobhan Davies Dance Company, The BBC Singers, Evelyn Glennie, Gemini, Philip Mead, Vivienne Spiteri, Kate Romano, Andrew Sparling and the Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble QuintEssential.  In collaboration with Philip Mead, they have formed a duet of pianist and sound and image projection. The emphasis is on piano and live electronics using custom-built hardware and software. They have recorded an album for the UH record label.

Rob has been commissioned by Braunarts to write the software for a VJ project (4DMusic) with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. The work was first presented at a series of concerts in the CBSO Centre, Birmingham in January 2008. The software captured audio and analyzed it with the purpose of detecting musical gesture. Rob is using the system for his own audio/visual works (The Ryan Belson Tribute) and for a variety of other artists including the breakbeat outfit Diverted in major London nightclubs. In addition, he is researching the performance of electroacoustic music with the perception of ‘liveness’ being a significant factor. Alyona (a collaborative work by David Mapp, Lee Richardson and Rob Godman – a fusion of poetry, hip-hop and immersive sound http://www.dmandlr.co.uk) is a significant outcome of this research.  He is currently working on a number of projects with Simeon Nelson including creating the audio for Simeon’s Wellcome Trust project Anarchy in the Organism.

Rob Godman is Reader in Music and Programme Leader for Composition at the University of Hertfordshire, a unique BSc honours degree programme focusing on composition with digital technology in the widest sense.

Other research and compositional interests include interactive audio (live and responsive), multi-speaker sound projection (Rob is the director of UH Diffuse – the Music Centre’s multi-speaker diffusion system), programming, commercial expectations and industry requirements, collaborative methods and cross-arts (music and architecture, music and image, music and text etc.).