Senior Research Associate
Cluster Hearing
Head of the group Binaural Audio and Auditory Modelling (BAAM)
Head of the Lab
Member of the Machine-Learning Team
Tel. +43 1 51581-2511
Email: piotr.majdak(at)oeaw.ac.at
Scientific IDs:
ORCID (0000-0003-1511-6164), Scopus, Research Gate, Google Scholar
Academic background
After completing a technical school for electrical engineering, Piotr Majdak studied audio engineering at the University of Technology in Graz (TU-Graz) and at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz (KUG). During his studies, he developed hardware and software for measurement tools and process-controlling devices. In 2002, Piotr Majdak graduated with the Master's thesis entitled "Implementation of a head-related binaural technique", in which he dealt with an Ambisonics-based real-time binaural reproduction system for binaural virtual acosutics.
In 2002, he joined ARI as a junior researcher being involved in setting-up the group "Psychoacoustics and experimental audiology".
In 2008, he finished his PhD about sound lateralization in cochlear-implant listeners, in which the effects of different aspects of the interaural time differences on sound lateralization are described.
In 2015, his habilitation for the area "Acoustics and audio engineering" was approved, which allows him to supervise PhD students at the KUG.
From 2016 to 2024, Piotr was the deputy director of the institut. Since 2024, he is head of the group "Binaural Audio and Auditory Modelling" (BAAM).
Current research
General research field is spatial hearing, in particular:
- Sound localization in normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and cochlear-implant listeners;
- Virtual acoustics;
- Effects of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and its numerical simulation;
- General binaural effects in electric hearing.
Piotr Majdak was the main developer of ExpSuite, an open-source software framework for psychoacoustic experiments in normal-hearing and cochlear-implant listeners, used at ARI since 2003 and now mainly developed by Michael Mihocic. Piotr Majdak is also the main developed of SOFA, the file format to store spatially oriented acoustic data. Piotr initiated the development of the corresponding SOFA Toolbox, which is now mantained by Michael Mihocic. Further, Piotr is the leader of the AMT project: The Auditory Modeling Toolbox.
Publications
- Toward Improved Consistency Between Databases of Head-Related Transfer Functions. / Bahu, Helene; Jot, Jean-Marc; Carpentier, Thibaut et al.
In: Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 74, No. 1-2, 01.03.2026.Since the creation of the spatially oriented format for acoustics (SOFA, Audio Engineering Society standard AES69), numerous databases of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are now available as standardized SOFA files. However, the methodologies for measuring and postprocessing HRTFs vary significantly across laboratories. This leads to objective and perceptual inconsistencies between HRTF databases and makes it challenging to integrate multiple databases into a single repository to facilitate wide-scale research and application. This paper introduces a normalization procedure, applicable to any HRTF data set, aimed at enhancing the consistency across HRTF data sets obtained from different laboratories while preserving the spatial information essential to HRTFs. The proposed approach consists of six processing steps: low-pass filtering, temporal alignment, temporal windowing, diffuse-field equalization, low-frequency extrapolation, and far-field correction. The normalization was evaluated on 17 HRTF data sets of the same dummy head by means of acoustic analyses and auditory simulations and further validated with respect to a database of 54 human subjects. Results show that the proposed normalization improves data set applicability and consistency while maintaining the directional cues within each data set.
- Effects of Dual-Electrode Asynchrony on Temporal Pitch Discrimination With Amplitude Modulation and Short Inter-Pulse Intervals in Cochlear Implant Listeners. / Lindenbeck, Martin; Majdak, Piotr; Laback, Bernhard.
In: Trends in Hearing, Vol. 30, 23312165251408983, 12.01.2026, p. 23312165251408983.
Additional Information
Teaching
Since 2002, Piotr Majdak teaches "Algorithmen in Akustik und Computermusik" (algorithms in acoustic and computer music) at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, KUG in Graz.
From 2014 to 2021, he was teaching "Audiotechnik" at the Fachhochschule Technikum Wien.
Professional societies and activities
Piotr Majdak is member of the ASA, AAA, DEGA, ARO, and the president of the Austrian section of the AES.
Since December 2020 Piotr Majdak is chairing the technical comittee of the Psychological and Physiological Acoustics (PPA) of the European Acoustics Association (EAA).
Past Functions
From January 2016 to August 2024, Piotr Majdak was the deputy director of the ARI.
From 2017 to 2022, Piotr Majdak was a first aider of the ARI.
From 2014 to 2021, Piotr Majdak was the ARI's representative for research ethics.