Digital Preservation and Access of Audio Heritage: a Case Study for Phonographic Discs

Περιέχει το πλήρες κείμενοWe investigate differences among the approaches to the digitization of phonographic discs, using two novel methods developed by the authors: a system for synthesizing audio signals from still images of phonographic discs and a tool for the automatic alignment of audio signals. Results point out that this combined approach can be used as an effective tool for the preservation of and access to the audio documents

A systemic approach to the preservation of audio documents: methodology and software tools

This paper presents a methodology for the preservation of audio documents, the operational protocol that acts as the methodology, and an original open source software system that supports and automatizes several tasks along the process. The methodology is presented in the light of the ethical debate that has been challenging the international archival community for the last thirty years. The operational protocol reflects the methodological principles adopted by the authors, and its effectiveness is based on the results obtained in recent research projects involving some of the finest audio archives in Europe. Some recommendations are given for the rerecording process, aimed at minimizing the information loss and at quantifying the unintentional alterations introduced by the technical equipment. Finally, the paper introduces an original software system that guides and supports the preservation staff along the process, reducing the processing timing, automatizing tasks, minimizing errors, and using information hiding strategies to ease the cognitive load. Currently the software system is in use in several international archives

STILL RECORDING AFRICAN MUSIC IN THE FIELD

Field sound recordings are an indispensable source of data for ethnomusicologists. However, to my knowledge there are no standards or guidelines of how this data should be captured and managed. With the progress made in machine learning, it has become vital to record data in a way that also supports the retrieval of information about the music. This article describes a model developed for field recordings that aims to aid an objective data gathering process. This model, developed through an action research process that spanned multiple field recording sessions from 2009–2015, include recording equipment, production processes, the gathering of metadata as well as intellectual property rights. The core principles identified in this research are that field recording systems should be designed to provide accurate feedback as a means of quality control and should capture and manage metadata without relying on secondary tools. The major findings are presented in the form of a checklist that can serve as a point of departure for ethnomusicologists making field recordings

Identification of expressive descriptors for style extraction in music analysis using linear and nonlinear models

La formalización de las interpretaciones expresivas aún se considera relevante debido a la complejidad de la música. La interpretación expresiva forma un aspecto importante de la música, teniendo en cuenta diferentes convenciones como géneros o estilos que una interpretación puede desarrollar con el tiempo. Modelar la relación entre las expresiones musicales y los aspectos estructurales de la información acústica requiere una base probabilística y estadística mínima para la robustez, validación y reproducibilidad de aplicaciones computacionales. Por lo tanto, es necesaria una relación cohesiva y una justificación sobre los resultados. Esta tesis se sustenta en la teoría y aplicaciones de modelos discriminativos y generativos en el marco del aprendizaje de maquina y la relación de procedimientos sistemáticos con los conceptos de la musicología utilizando técnicas de procesamiento de señales y minería de datos. Los resultados se validaron mediante pruebas estadísticas y una experimentación no paramétrica con la implementación de un conjunto de métricas para medir aspectos acústicos y temporales de archivos de audio para entrenar un modelo discriminativo y mejorar el proceso de síntesis de un modelo neuronal profundo. Adicionalmente, el modelo implementado presenta la oportunidad para la aplicación de procedimientos sistemáticos, automatización de transcripciones usando notación musical, entrenamiento de habilidades auditivas para estudiantes de música y mejorar la implementación de redes neuronales profundas usando CPU en lugar de GPU debido a las ventajas de las redes convolucionales para el procesamiento de archivos de audio como vectores o matriz con una secuencia de notas.MaestríaMagister en Ingeniería Electrónic

An algorithm for multi tempo music lyric transcription

Applied Thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, April 2018.This paper documents an attempt to create an algorithm for multi-tempo music lyric transcription. This paper reviews music information retrieval as a field of study and identifies music lyric transcription as a subset of the music information retrieval field. The difficulties of music lyric transcription are highlighted and a gap in knowledge in the field is identified. There are no algorithms for music transcription that are applicable to all forms of music; they are usually specialised by instrument or by genre. The author attempts to fill this gap by creating a method for multi-tempo music lyric transcription. The methodology used to achieve this goal is a three-step process of taking audio as input, processing it using the REPET separation technique, and transcribing the separated audio file. The result of this paper was a relative success, with the music being separated successfully and the lyrics being transcribed but with accuracy lost

SOUNDCASTLES: Play and process in field-recording composition

Soundcastles: Play and process in field-recording composition is a practice-led research in experimental music, which investigates the medium of field-recording as a contested vanguard between the listener and the listened; the self and the soundscape; the composer and the material. The research consists of a portfolio of nine field-recording compositions and a corresponding commentary exploring the ideas, approaches, and discourses behind. It studies the complex boundary where the listener and the sonic environment meet, and explores the music potential of sounds in the urban everyday between the immediacy of their emergence, and the cognitive-emotional context of their subjective perception. In the tradition of soundscape composition with field recordings, a main focus of this research is the integration of the affective and the effective qualities of being in the world and listening. The music properties of urban soundscapes can thus be both emphasised and transfigured, so as to include the subjective aesthetic perception without losing the unique connection to their place of origin. The resulting compositions—soundcastles—become mediations between subject and object, soundscape and inner-scape, the actualised and the potential. This research investigates this liminal space of convergence where a listener encounters the sonic environment, and explores the potency of this encounter. It thus problematises the perceived bifurcation of subject and object of listening, and treats the soundscape in terms of imbricated processes within a network of relationships. Each soundcastle is a process of reducing the continuous acoustic environment to a concrete form as perceived from a standpoint. In particular, the methodology of this practice utilises modern signal processing and editing tools to highlight the subjective experience of a soundscape, while preserving the connection of the composition to the specific place and occasion of its recording. In this way, the Soundcastles project aims to situate itself at the in-between space between phonography and acousmatic music within the field of soundscape composition

Reimagining the ‘phonographic’ in sample-based hip-hop production: making records within records

‘Reimagining the ‘phonographic’ in sample-based hip-hop production: Making records within records’, deals with the poetics of hip-hop record production making use of originally constructed sample material, rather than previously released phonographic content.¹ The idea behind the research project was borne out of a practical conundrum during the author’s record-label tenure with EMI Music (Greece) as an artist/producer. The national/major-label profile highlighted issues in sample-based music-making in an acute way, illuminating a tangible gap between underground beat-making and mainstream hip-hop practice: the majority of creators who find themselves between the two extremes appear starved of access to raw phonographic sources, with some seeking innovative ways to practice the artform whilst avoiding licensing implications related to copyrighted sample use.² Inspired by the author’s parallel academic career, the examination of the phenomenon has taken the form of a practice-based doctoral research project, grounded in the musicology of record production, and accompanied by an independent instrumental album-creation process, which supplies the applied investigative context. The largely autoethnographic approach relates the personal in creative practice to the larger cultural (aesthetic) phenomenon, and the research is further supported by interviews with expert practitioners, as well as phonographic (aural) and literary analysis. The theoretical and practical findings drawn out of the research illuminate an unexamined practice with profound impact upon popular music culture. The research narrative is therefore capable of reshaping our understanding of creative beat-making in the flux of a shifting legal and pragmatic landscape. Furthermore, the non-linear, juxtaposed, and arguably metamodern dimensions of the practice readdress current/historical debates about Hip Hop, putting sonic materiality at the forefront of the discussion, and challenging the methodological strategies deployed thus far for the study of contemporary, electronic, and Afrological music forms. As such, there is an identifiable need for a thorough exploration of, and theorising upon, this form of record production practice. From Dr. Dre, through to De La Soul, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Boards of Canada, Statik Selektah, Marco Polo, Griselda Records, and Frank Dukes, sample-based hip-hop producers have creatively renegotiated the landscape surrounding sample use through alternative production approaches. These techniques deploy the creation of interim sampling content for subsequent use in what can be described as a form of ‘meta’ phonographic process: an innovative phenomenon with important creative implications powering some of today’s biggest hits and—arguably—an evolutionary strategy facilitating the future development of the genre (and sample-based music as a whole). In the aesthetic pursuit of what makes a newly created source ‘phonographic’ in the context of sample�based Hip Hop, the project addresses the way in which we consider how the sonic past interacts with the music present, and extrapolates upon the way in which such a musical practice may mirror a metamodern zeitgeist in other arts, and culture as a whole

EFFECTIVE ROBUST PATCHWORK METHOD TO THE VULNERABLE ATTACK FOR DIGITAL AUDIO WATERMARKING

This paper presents patchwork based digital audio watermarking. The advanced growth in transmission of digital data has resulted in a corresponding elevation in the need for copyright protection of signal. Cryptography and steganography are used for the content protection but do not completely solve the copyright issue. Watermarking is a method to protect and identify the digital data while maintaining the quality of the host media, it permits various types of watermarks to be hidden in audio signal e.g. image, audio and video. This paper limits on image embedding technique using patchwork-based method. In patchwork based method average of all segments of approximate coefficients is calculated for embedding watermark into sound signal. The experimental results shows that proposed method achieves imperceptibility for audio signal as watermarked audio signal is inaudible after embedding watermark and robustness of watermark against different signal processing attacks with higher PSNR. The resulting audio is robust to attacks and exhibits good quality in term of peak signal to noise ratio. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed system