Robustness of Features and Classification Models on Degraded Data Sets in Music Classification

There exists a large number of supervised music classification tasks: Recognition of music genres and emotions, playing instruments, harmonic and melodic properties, temporal and rhythmic characteristics, etc. In recent years, many studies were published in that field, which are either focused on complex feature engineering or application and tuning of classification algorithms. How- ever, less work is done on the evaluation of model robustness, and music data sets are often limited to music with some common characteristics, so that the question about the generalisation ability of proposed models usually remains unanswered. In this study, we examine and compare the classification perfor- mance of audio features and classification models when applied for recognition of genres and instruments on music data sets which were degraded by means of techniques available in the Audio Degradation Toolbox including attenuation, compression, live and vinyl recording degradations, and addition of noise

Lauluyhtyeen intonaation automaattinen määritys

The objective of this study is a specific music signal processing task, primarily intended to help vocal ensemble singers practice their intonation. In this case intonation is defined as deviations of pitch in relation to the note written in the score which are small, less than a semitone. These can be either intentional or unintentional. Practicing intonation is typically challenging without an external ear. The algorithm developed in this thesis combined with the presented application concept can act as the external ear, providing real-time information on intonation to support practicing. The method can be applied to the analysis of recorded material as well. The music signal generated by a vocal ensemble is polyphonic. It contains multiple simultaneous tones with partly or completely overlapping harmonic partials. We need to be able to estimate the fundamental frequency of each tone, which then indicates the pitch of each singer. Our experiments show, that the fundamental frequency estimation method based on the Fourier analysis developed in this thesis can be applied to the automatic analysis of vocal ensembles. A sufficient frequency resolution can be achieved without compromising the time resolution too much by using an adequately sized window. The accuracy and robustness can be further increased by taking advantage of solitary partials. The greatest challenge turned out to be the estimation of tones in octave and unison relationships. These intervals are fairly common in tonal music. This question requires further investigation or another type of approach.Tässä työssä tutkitaan erityistä musiikkisignaalin analysointitehtävää, jonka tarkoi- tuksena on auttaa lauluyhtyelaulajia intonaation harjoittelussa. Intonaatiolla tar- koitetaan tässä yhteydessä pieniä, alle puolen sävelaskeleen säveltasoeroja nuottiin kirjoitettuun sävelkorkeuteen nähden, jotka voivat olla joko tarkoituksenmukaisia tai tahattomia. Intonaation harjoittelu on tyypillisesti haastavaa ilman ulkopuolista korvaa. Työssä kehitetty algoritmi yhdessä esitellyn sovelluskonseptin kanssa voi toimia harjoittelutilanteessa ulkopuolisena korvana tarjoten reaaliaikaista tietoa intonaatiosta harjoittelun tueksi. Vaihtoehtoisesti menetelmää voidaan hyödyntää harjoitusäänitteiden analysointiin jälkikäteen. Lauluyhtyeen tuottama musiikki- signaali on polyfoninen. Se sisältää useita päällekkäisiä säveliä, joiden osasävelet menevät toistensa kanssa osittain tai kokonaan päällekkäin. Tästä signaalista on pystyttävä tunnistamaan kunkin sävelen perustaajuus, joka puolestaan kertoo lau- lajan laulaman sävelkorkeuden. Kokeellisten tulosten perusteella työssä kehitettyä Fourier-muunnokseen perustuvaa taajuusanalyysiä voidaan soveltaa lauluyhtyeen intonaation automaattiseen määritykseen, kun nuottiin kirjoitettua sointua hyödyn- netään analyysin lähtötietona. Sopivankokoista näyteikkunaa käyttämällä päästiin riittävään taajuusresoluutioon aikaresoluution säilyessä kohtuullisena. Yksinäisiä osasäveliä hyödyntämällä voidaan edelleen parantaa tarkkuutta ja toimintavar- muutta. Suurimmaksi haasteeksi osoittautui oktaavi- ja priimisuhteissa olevien intervallien luotettava määritys. Näitä intervallisuhteita esiintyy tonaalisessa musii- kissa erityisen paljon. Tämä kysymys vaatii vielä lisätutkimusta tai uudenlaista lähestymistapaa

Cubaneo In Latin Piano: A Parametric Approach To Gesture, Texture, And Motivic Variation

ABSTRACT CUBANEO IN LATIN PIANO: A PARAMETRIC APPROACH TO GESTURE, TEXTURE, AND MOTIVIC VARIATION COPYRIGHT Orlando Enrique Fiol 2018 Dr. Carol A. Muller Over the past century of recorded evidence, Cuban popular music has undergone great stylistic changes, especially regarding the piano tumbao. Hybridity in the Cuban/Latin context has taken place on different levels to varying extents involving instruments, genres, melody, harmony, rhythm, and musical structures. This hybridity has involved melding, fusing, borrowing, repurposing, adopting, adapting, and substituting. But quantifying and pinpointing these processes has been difficult because each variable or parameter embodies a history and a walking archive of sonic aesthetics. In an attempt to classify and quantify precise parameters involved in hybridity, this dissertation presents a paradigmatic model, organizing music into vocabularies, repertories, and abstract procedures. Cuba\u27s pianistic vocabularies are used very interactively, depending on genre, composite ensemble texture, vocal timbre, performing venue, and personal taste. These vocabularies include: melodic phrases, harmonic progressions, rhythmic cells and variation schemes to replace repetition with methodical elaboration of the piano tumbao as a main theme. These pianistic vocabularies comprise what we actually hear. Repertories, such as pre-composed songs, ensemble arrangements, and open- ended montuno and solo sections, situate and contextualize what we hear in real life musical performances. Abstract procedures are the thoughts, aesthetics, intentions, and parametric rules governing what Cuban/Latin pianists consider possible. Abstract procedures alter vocabularies by displacing, expanding, contracting, recombining, permuting, and layering them. As Cuba\u27s popular musics find homes in its musical diaspora (the United States, Latin America and Europe), Cuban pianists have sought to differentiate their craft from global salsa and Latin jazz pianists. Expanding the piano\u27s gestural/textural vocabulary beyond pre-Revolutionary traditions and performance practices, the timba piano tumbao is a powerful marker of Cuban identity and musical pride, transcending national borders and cultural boundaries

The Semantics of Timbre

Because humans lack a sensory vocabulary for auditory experiences, timbral qualities of sounds are often conceptualized and communicated through readily available sensory attributes from different modalities (e.g., bright, warm, sweet) but also through the use of onomatopoeic attributes (e.g., ringing, buzzing, shrill) or nonsensory attributes relating to abstract constructs (e.g., rich, complex, harsh). The analysis of the linguistic description of timbre, or timbre semantics, can be considered as one way to study its perceptual representation empirically. In the most commonly adopted approach, timbre is considered as a set of verbally defined perceptual attributes that represent the dimensions of a semantic timbre space. Previous studies have identified three salient semantic dimensions for timbre along with related acoustic properties. Comparisons with similarity-based multidimensional models confirm the strong link between perceiving timbre and talking about it. Still, the cognitive and neural mechanisms of timbre semantics remain largely unknown and underexplored, especially when one looks beyond the case of acoustic musical instruments