Elastic net subspace clustering applied to pop/rock music structure analysis

A novel homogeneity-based method for music structure analysis is proposed. The heart of the method is a similarity measure, derived from first principles, that is based on the matrix Elastic Net (EN) regularization and deals efficiently with highly correlated audio feature vectors. In particular, beat-synchronous mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, chroma features, and auditory temporal modulations model the audio signal. The EN induced similarity measure is employed to construct an affinity matrix, yielding a novel subspace clustering method referred to as Elastic Net subspace clustering (ENSC). The performance of the ENSC in structure analysis is assessed by conducting extensive experiments on the Beatles dataset. The experimental findings demonstrate the descriptive power of the EN-based affinity matrix over the affinity matrices employed in subspace clustering methods, attaining the state-of-the-art performance reported for the Beatles dataset

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the newborn to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other fields of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years in Firenze, Italy. This edition celebrates twenty-two years of uninterrupted and successful research in the field of voice analysis

Interfaces avanzados aplicados a la interacción musical

The latest advances in human-computer interaction technologies have brought forth changes in the way we interact with computing devices of any kind, from the standard desktop computer to the more recent smartphones. The development of these technologies has thus introduced new interaction metaphors that provide more enriching experiences for a wide range of different applications. Music is one of most ancient forms of art and entertainment that can be found in our legacy, and conforms a strong interactive experience on itself. The application of new technologies to enhance music computer-based interaction paradigms can potentially provide all sorts of improvements: providing low-cost access to music rehearsal, lowering knowledge barriers in regard to music learning, virtual instrument simulation, etc. Yet, surprisingly, there has been rather limited research on the application of new interaction models and technologies to the specific field of music interaction in regard to other areas. This thesis aims to address the aforementioned need by presenting a set of studies which cover the use of innovative interaction models for music-based applications, from interaction paradigms for music learning to more entertainment-oriented interaction interfaces, such as virtual musical instruments, ensemble conductor simulation, etc. The main contributions of this thesis are: · It is shown that the use of signal processing techniques on the music signal and music information retrieval techniques can create enticing interfaces for music learning. Concretely, the research conducted includes the implementation and experimental evaluation of a set of different learning-oriented applications which make use of these techniques to implement inexpensive, easy-to-use human-computer interfaces, which serve as support tools in music learning processes. · This thesis explores the use of tracking systems and machine learning techniques to achieve more sophisticated interfaces for innovative music interaction paradigms. Concretely, the studies conducted have shown that it is indeed feasible to emulate the functionally of musical instruments such as the drumkit or the theremin. In a similar way, it is shown that more complex musical roles can also be recreated through the use of new interaction models, such as the case of the ensemble conductor or a step-aerobics application. · The benefits in using advanced human-computer interfaces in musical experiences are review and assessed through experimental evaluation. It is shown that the addition of these interfaces contributes positively to user perception, providing more satisfying and enriching experiences overall. · The thesis also illustrates that the use of machine learning algoriths and signal processing along with new interaction devices provides an effective framework for human gesture recognition and prediction, and even mood estimation

Feeling the groove: shared time and its meanings for three jazz trios

The notion of groove is fundamental to jazz culture and the term yields a rich set of understandings for jazz musicians. Within the literature, no single perspective on groove exists and many questions remain about the relationship between timing processes, phenomenal experience and musical structures in making sense of groove. In this account, the experience and meaning of groove is theorised as emerging from two forms of sharedness. Firstly, a primary intersubjectivity that arises through the timing behaviours of the players; this could be likened to the 'mutual tuning-in' described in social phenomenology. It is proposed that this tuning-in is accomplished through the mechanism of entrainment. The second form of sharedness is understood as the shared temporal models, the cultural knowledge, that musicians make use of in their playing together. Methodologically, this study makes use of detailed investigation of timing data from live performances by three jazz trios, framed by in-depth, semi-structured interview material and steers a new course between existing ethnographic work on jazz and more psychologically informed studies of timing. The findings of the study point towards significant social and structural effects on the groove between players. The impact of musical role on groove and timing is demonstrated and significant temporal models, whose syntactic relations suggest musical proximity or distance, are shown to have a corresponding effect on timing within the trios. The musician's experience of groove is discussed as it relates to the objective timing data and reveals a complex set of understandings involving temporality, consciousness and communication. In the light of these findings, groove is summarised as the feeling of entrainment, inflected through cultural models and expressed through the cultural norms of jazz

Investigating the build-up of precedence effect using reflection masking

The auditory processing level involved in the build‐up of precedence [Freyman et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 874–884 (1991)] has been investigated here by employing reflection masked threshold (RMT) techniques. Given that RMT techniques are generally assumed to address lower levels of the auditory signal processing, such an approach represents a bottom‐up approach to the buildup of precedence. Three conditioner configurations measuring a possible buildup of reflection suppression were compared to the baseline RMT for four reflection delays ranging from 2.5–15 ms. No buildup of reflection suppression was observed for any of the conditioner configurations. Buildup of template (decrease in RMT for two of the conditioners), on the other hand, was found to be delay dependent. For five of six listeners, with reflection delay=2.5 and 15 ms, RMT decreased relative to the baseline. For 5‐ and 10‐ms delay, no change in threshold was observed. It is concluded that the low‐level auditory processing involved in RMT is not sufficient to realize a buildup of reflection suppression. This confirms suggestions that higher level processing is involved in PE buildup. The observed enhancement of reflection detection (RMT) may contribute to active suppression at higher processing levels

Musical Meter: Examining Hierarchical Temporal Perception in Complex Musical Stimuli Across Human Development, Sensory Modalities, and Expertise

Performing, listening, and moving to music are universal human behaviors. Most music in the world is organized temporally with faster periodicities nested within slower periodicities, creating a perceptual hierarchy of repeating stronger (downbeat) and weaker (upbeat) events. This perceptual organization is theorized to aid our abilities to synchronize our behaviors with music and other individuals, but there is scant empirical evidence that listeners actively perceive these multiple levels of temporal periodicities simultaneously. Furthermore, there is conflicting evidence about when, and how, the ability to perceive the beat in music emerges during development. It is also unclear if this hierarchical organization of musical time is unique to – or heavily reliant upon – the precise timing capabilities of the auditory system, or if it is found in other sensory systems. Across three series of experiments, I investigated whether listeners perceive multiple levels of structure simultaneously, how experience and expertise influence this ability, the emergence of meter perception in development, and how strong the auditory advantage for beat and meter perception is over visual meter perception. In Chapter 1, I demonstrated that older, but not younger, infants showed evidence of the beginnings of beat perception in their ability to distinguish between synchronous and asynchronous audiovisual displays of dancers moving to music. In Chapter 2, I demonstrated that adults, but not children, showed evidence of perceiving multiple levels of metrical structure simultaneously in complex, human-performed music, and this ability was not greatly dependent upon formal musical training. Older children were more sensitive to beat than younger children, suggesting beat and meter perception develops gradually throughout childhood into adolescence. However, perception of multiple levels of meter was not evident in younger children, and likely does not emerge until late adolescence. Formal musical training was associated with enhanced meter perception in adults and beat perception in children. In Chapter 3, both adults and children demonstrated an auditory advantage for beat perception over visual. However, adults did not show an auditory advantage for the perception of slower beat levels (measure) or the perception of multiple beat levels simultaneously. Children did not show evidence of measure-level perception in either modality, but their ability to perceive the beat in both auditory and visual metronomes improved with age. Overall, the results of the three series of experiments demonstrate that beat and meter perception develop quite gradually throughout childhood, rely on lifelong acquisition of musical knowledge, and that there is a distinct auditory advantage for the perception of beat

Multiple Approaches to Auditory Rhythm: Development of Sustained Musical Beat and the Relation to Language, Development of Rhythmic Categories Via Iterated Production, and a Meta-Analytic Study of Neural Entrainment to Beat

Rhythm is ubiquitous to human communication, coordination, and experience of music. In this dissertation, I address three empirical questions through three different methodologies, all of which contribute to the growing body of literature on human auditory rhythm processing. In Chapter 2, I present a registered report detailing the results of independent conceptual replications of Nozaradan, Peretz, Missal, & Mouraux (2011), all using the same vetted protocol. Listeners performed the same tasks as in Nozaradan et al. (2011), with the addition of behavioral measures of perception. In neuroscience, neural correlates to musical beat perception have been identified, yet little to no replication of seminal findings in this area leaves room for error. Meta-analyses will estimate the true population-level effect size and examine potential moderating variables. In Chapter 3, I examine the developmental trajectory of sustained musical beat perception and the relation to phonology in children. While some prior research has suggested that the beat (periodic pulse) in music can be perceived by humans as early as days after birth, more recent work (including that presented here) suggests a more elongated trajectory of attainment for this capacity, through adolescence. In this study, participants aged 4-23 years completed a musical beat discrimination task and a phonology task. Results suggest that subjective musical beat perception improves throughout middle childhood (8-9 years) and does not reach adult-like levels until adolescence (12-14 years). Furthermore, scores on the subjective beat task were positively related to phonology. Finally in Chapter 4, I investigate whether children assimilate rhythms to culture-specific structures, as previously shown with adults. Previous studies show that both adults and children can entrain their movements to a perceived musical beat, but children tend to perform much worse than adults, and whether children assimilate their tapping behavior to predictable rhythmic structures remains to be understood. In this study, children aged 6-11 years completed a rhythm perception task and a rhythm production task. In the perception task, children showed greater sensitivity to rhythmic disruptions of culturally familiar simple-meter than unfamiliar complex-meter songs. Overall, the results of these three studies demonstrate one of the first pre-registered EEG replication studies in the field of auditory neuroscience, that musical sustained beat perception develops gradually throughout childhood, and that children’s tapping behavior demonstrates enculturation to rhythm as early as 6 years of age