Accelerating the Mixing Phase in Studio Recording Productions by Automatic Audio Alignemtnt

International audienceWe propose a system for accelerating the mixing phase in a recording production, by making use of audio alignment techniques to automatically align multiple takes of excerpts of a music piece against a performance of the whole work. We extend the approach of our previous work, based on sequential Montecarlo inference techniques, that was targeted at real-time alignment for score/audio following. The proposed approach is capable of producing partial alignments as well as identifying relevant regions in the partial results with regards to the reference, for better integration within a studio mix workflow. The approach is evaluated using data obtained from two recording sessions of classical music pieces, and we discuss its effectiveness for reducing manual work in a production chain

Redefining electro-acoustic: Applying techniques from electronic music to the composition of Pivot, an acoustic work for percussion quartet

There are a number of characteristics that distinguish acoustic and electronic music. The most apparent difference is the nature of their sound sources, but there is also substantial variation in the compositional process and in the techniques available to composers of each medium. The history electronic music extends from two traditions: Western Ali Music and popular music. During the 20th Century, composers and popular musicians alike took advantage of the many advances in electronic equipment technology to create new styles of music. The development of electronic instruments and recording equipment offered new sounds and provided new methods for the creation and distribution of music. Working strictly within the framework of a single medium potentially restricts the possibilities available to a composer. By analysing techniques found in electronic music and incorporating them into acoustic composition, one can expand the creative tools at their disposal. The goal of this dissertation is to contextualise the field of study, examine a range of techniques from electronic music, and to suggest ways they can be applied to acoustic music composition, with reference to existing works and my original composition, Pivot

Automatic Lecture Recording

Lecture recording has become a very common tool to provide students with additional media for their examination preparations. While its effort has to stay reasonable, only a very basic way of recording is done in many cases. Therefore, watching the resulting videos can get very boring completely independent of how interesting the original topic or session was. This thesis proposes a new approach to lecture recordings by letting distributed computers emulate the work of a human camera team, which is the natural way of creating attractive recordings. This thesis is structured in six chapters, starting with the examination of the current situation, and taking its constraints into account. The first chapter concludes with a reflection on related work. Chapter two is about the design of our prototype system. It is deduced from a human camera team in the real world which gets transferred into the virtual world. Finally, a detailed overview about all parts necessary for our prototype and their planned functionality is given. In chapter three, the implementation of all parts and tasks and the incidents occurring during implementation are described in detail. Chapter four describes the technical experiences made with the different parts during development, testing and evaluation with a view to functionality, performance, and an proposal towards future work. The evaluation of the whole system with students is presented and discussed in the fifth chapter. Chapter six concludes this thesis by summing up the facts and gives an outlook on future work

A Process for the Restoration of Performances from Musical Errors on Live Progressive Rock Albums

In the course of my practice of producing live progressive rock albums, a significant challenge has emerged: how to repair performance errors while retaining the intended expressive performance. Using a practice as research methodology, I develop a novel process, Error Analysis and Performance Restoration (EAPR), to restore a performer’s intention where an error was assessed to have been made. In developing this process, within the context of my practice, I investigate: the nature of live albums and the groups to which I am accountable, a definition of performance errors, an examination of their causes, and the existing literature on these topics. In presenting EAPR, I demonstrate, drawing from existing research, a mechanism by which originally intended performances can be extracted from recorded errors. The EAPR process exists as a conceptual model; each album has a specific implementation to address the needs of that album, and the currently available technology. Restoration techniques are developed as part of this implementation. EAPR is developed and demonstrated through my work restoring performances on a front-line commercial live release, the Creative Submission Album. The specific EAPR implementation I design for it is laid out, and detailed examples of its techniques demonstrated

2023-2024 Course Catalog

2023-2024 Course Catalo

STEVEN BRYANT’S THE AUTOMATIC EARTH: A CONDUCTOR’S ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVES

The purpose of this research is to present a conductor’s analysis and performance perspectives of The Automatic Earth, composed by Steven Bryant for the Arizona State University Wind Orchestra, and premiered by its conductor, Professor Gary Hill, at the 2019 College Band Director’s National Association National Conference. Through the conductor’s analysis and performance perspectives, the author seeks to provide future conductors and performers with necessary musical interpretations and technical guidance. The four-part process of research includes: 1. detailed analysis of the musical score of The Automatic Earth, 2. observation of rehearsals and world premiere of the work, 3. in-depth interviews with composer Steven Bryant, conductor Gary Hill, and technical support personnel, and 4. personal insight from the author, specifically pertaining to a conductor’s first-time performance of electroacoustic music. This study is not intended to be all-inclusive of the field of electroacoustic music, nor a complete history of electronic music. The scope of this study is intended to focus on this single work; however, an understanding of Bryant’s previous works, most notably those in the electroacoustic wind band idiom, will provide a frame for consideration in the research. Through traditional means of musical analyses in melody, harmony, structure, and other common elements, the research will communicate necessary musical interpretations for future performances of the work. Technical guidance will aid future programming for conductors, as well as encourage advancement of the electroacoustic idiom in music composed for wind band

Automating the Production of the Balance Mix in Music Production

Historically, the junior engineer is an individual who would assist the sound engineer to produce a mix by performing a number of mixing and pre-processing tasks ahead of the main session. With improvements in technology, these tasks can be done more efficiently, so many aspects of this role are now assigned to the lead engineer. Similarly, these technological advances mean amateur producers now have access to similar mixing tools at home, without the need for any studio time or record label investments. As the junior engineer’s role is now embedded into the process it creates a steeper learning curve for these amateur engineers, and adding time onto the mixing process. In order to build tools to help users overcome the hurdles associated with this increased workload, we first aim to quantify the role of a modern studio engineer. To do this, a production environment was built to collect session data, allowing subjects to construct a balance mix, which is the starting point of the mixing life-cycle. This balance-mix is generally designed to ensure that all the recordings in a mix are audible, as well as to build routing structures and apply pre-processing. Improvements in web technologies allow for this data-collection system to run in a browser, making remote data acquisition feasible in a short space of time. The data collected in this study was then used to develop a set of assistive tools, designed to be non-intrusive and to provide guidance, allowing the engineer to understand the process. From the data, grouping of the audio tracks proved to be one of the most important, yet overlooked tasks in the production life-cycle. This step is often misunderstood by novice engineers, and can enhance the quality of the final product. The first assistive tool we present in this thesis takes multi-track audio sessions and uses semantic information to group and label them. The system can work with any collection of audio tracks, and can be embedded into a poroduction environment. It was also apparent from the data that the minimisation of masking is a primary task of the mixing stage. We therefore present a tool which can automatically balance a mix by minimising the masking between separate audio tracks. Using evolutionary computing as a solver, the mix space can be searched effectively without the requirement for complex models to be trained on production data. The evaluation of these systems show they are capable of producing a session structure similar to that of a real engineer. This provides a balance mix which is routed and pre-processed, before creative mixing can take place. This provides an engineer with several steps completed for them, similar to the work of a junior engineer