In today’s digital composition environment, building and providing high-quality audio data that captures the distinctive timbres and melodies of traditional Korean instruments serves as an important foundation for expanding the use of gugak and connecting it with a broader range of creative music fields.
The National Gugak Center is launching the “2026 Gugak Digital Sound Lab,” a music creation competition that utilizes digital gugak sound sources. The event is a rebranded version of the “Creative Competition Using Gugak Digital Sound Sources,” which has been held annually since 2021 to promote the distribution and use of digital gugak resources. This year’s competition will take place over five days, from July 20 to July 24.
The digital sound sources provided by the National Gugak Center consist of high-quality audio data designed for immediate use in virtual instruments and samplers. Since 2009, the institution has spent 17 years collecting sounds from a wide range of wind, string, percussion, and vocal traditions. It currently offers 16,721 audio samples in single-note, phrase, and extended formats.
These sound sources are available under Korea’s Public Nuri Type 1 License, allowing both commercial and non-commercial use as long as the source is credited. This significantly improves accessibility for music creators who previously had limited access to authentic gugak materials.
Participants are required to create and submit an original composition of approximately three minutes in MP3 format using the audio resources available through the National Gugak Center website. Winners will be selected through a combination of expert evaluation and online public voting, with assessment criteria weighted at 40% traditional authenticity, 30% popularity, and 30% creativity.
The list of award recipients will be announced on August 14, while the awards ceremony is scheduled for August 21 at Pungryu Sarangbang Hall of the National Gugak Center.
The digitization of traditional gugak sound sources enables creators to incorporate authentic Korean musical sounds without the need for instrument ownership or specialized performance environments. This broadens the potential use of gugak across various creative sectors, including game music, film scores, and popular music production.
The National Gugak Center also plans to utilize winning entries in promotional videos and expand their application to future performances, educational programs, and other cultural content initiatives.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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