Human Computer Music Performance

Human Computer Music Performance (HCMP) is the study of music performance by live human performers and real-time computer-based performers. One goal of HCMP is to create a highly autonomous artificial performer that can fill the role of a human, especially in a popular music setting. This will require advances in automated music listening and understanding, new representations for music, techniques for music synchronization, real-time human-computer communication, music generation, sound synthesis, and sound diffusion. Thus, HCMP is an ideal framework to motivate and integrate advanced music research. In addition, HCMP has the potential to benefit millions of practicing musicians, both amateurs and professionals alike. The vision of HCMP, the problems that must be solved, and some recent progress are presented

Human-Computer Music Performance: From Synchronized Accompaniment to Musical Partner

Live music performance with computers has motivated many research projects in science, engineering, and the arts. In spite of decades of work, it is surprising that there is not more technology for, and a better understanding of the computer as music performer. We review the development of techniques for live music performance and outline our efforts to establish a new direction, Human-Computer Music Performance (HCMP), as a framework for a variety of coordinated studies. Our work in this area spans performance analysis, synchronization techniques, and interactive performance systems. Our goal is to enable musicians to ncorporate computers into performances easily and effectively through a better understanding of requirements, new techniques, and practical, performance-worthy implementations. We conclude with directions for future work

A Framework to Evaluate the Adoption Potential of Interactive Performance Systems for Popular Music

Popular music plays a central role in the lives of millions of people. It motivates beginners, engages experienced musicians, and plays both functional (e.g. churches) and non-functional (e.g. music festivals) roles in many contexts. Forming and maintaining a popular music ensemble can be challenging, particularly for part-time musicians who face other demands on their time. Where an ensemble has a functional role, performing music of consistent style and quality becomes imperative yet the demands of everyday life mean that it is not always possible to have a full complement of musicians. Interactive music technology has the potential to substitute for absent musicians to give a consistent musical output. However, the technology to achieve this (for popular music) is not yet mature, or in a suitable form for adoption and use by musicians who are not experienced with interactive music systems, or who are unprepared to work in experimental music or with experimental systems (a particular concern for functional ensembles). This paper proposes a framework of issues to be considered when developing interactive music technologies for popular music ensemble performance. It explores aspects that are complementary to technological concerns, focusing on adoption and practice to guide future technological developments

Active Scores: Representation and Synchronization in Human-Computer Performance of Popular Music

Computers have the potential to significantly extend the practice of popular music based on steady tempo and mostly determined form. There are significant challenges to overcome, however, due to constraints including accurate timing based on beats and adherence to a form or structure despite possible changes that may occur, possibly even during performance. We describe an approach to synchronization across media that takes into account latency due to communication delays and audio buffering. We also address the problem of mapping from a conventional score with repeats and other structures to an actual performance, which can involve both “flattening” the score and rearranging it, as is common in popular music. Finally, we illustrate the possibilities of the score as a bidirectional user interface in a real-time system for music performance, allowing the user to direct the computer through a digitally displayed score, and allowing the computer to indicate score position back to human performers

Active Scores: Representation and Synchronization in Human-Computer Performance of Popular Music

Computers have the potential to significantly extend the practice of popular music based on steady tempo and mostly determined form. There are significant challenges to overcome, however, due to constraints including accurate timing based on beats and adherence to a form or structure despite possible changes that may occur, possibly even during performance. We describe an approach to synchronization across media that takes into account latency due to communication delays and audio buffering. We also address the problem of mapping from a conventional score with repeats and other structures to an actual performance, which can involve both “flattening” the score and rearranging it, as is common in popular music. Finally, we illustrate the possibilities of the score as a bidirectional user interface in a real-time system for music performance, allowing the user to direct the computer through a digitally displayed score, and allowing the computer to indicate score position back to human performers

Methods and Prospects for Human-Computer Performance of Popular Music

Computers are often used in performance of popular music, but most often in very restricted ways, such as keyboard synthesizers where musicians are in complete control, or pre-recorded or sequenced music where musicians follow the computer's drums or click track. An interesting and yet little-explored possibility is the computer as highly autonomous performer of popular music, capable of joining a mixed ensemble of computers and humans. Considering the skills and functional requirements of musicians leads to a number of predictions about future human–computer music performance (HCMP) systems for popular music. We describe a general architecture for such systems and describe some early implementations and our experience with them