Automatic annotation of musical audio for interactive applications

PhDAs machines become more and more portable, and part of our everyday life, it becomes apparent that developing interactive and ubiquitous systems is an important aspect of new music applications created by the research community. We are interested in developing a robust layer for the automatic annotation of audio signals, to be used in various applications, from music search engines to interactive installations, and in various contexts, from embedded devices to audio content servers. We propose adaptations of existing signal processing techniques to a real time context. Amongst these annotation techniques, we concentrate on low and mid-level tasks such as onset detection, pitch tracking, tempo extraction and note modelling. We present a framework to extract these annotations and evaluate the performances of different algorithms. The first task is to detect onsets and offsets in audio streams within short latencies. The segmentation of audio streams into temporal objects enables various manipulation and analysis of metrical structure. Evaluation of different algorithms and their adaptation to real time are described. We then tackle the problem of fundamental frequency estimation, again trying to reduce both the delay and the computational cost. Different algorithms are implemented for real time and experimented on monophonic recordings and complex signals. Spectral analysis can be used to label the temporal segments; the estimation of higher level descriptions is approached. Techniques for modelling of note objects and localisation of beats are implemented and discussed. Applications of our framework include live and interactive music installations, and more generally tools for the composers and sound engineers. Speed optimisations may bring a significant improvement to various automated tasks, such as automatic classification and recommendation systems. We describe the design of our software solution, for our research purposes and in view of its integration within other systems.EU-FP6-IST-507142 project SIMAC (Semantic Interaction with Music Audio Contents); EPSRC grants GR/R54620; GR/S75802/01

On the Creative Use of Score Following and Its Impact on Research

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Trombone Synthesis by Model and Measurement

A physics-based synthesis model of a trombone is developed using filter elements that are both theoretically-based and estimatedfrom measurement. The model consists of two trombone instrument transfer functions: one at the position of the mouthpieceenabling coupling to a lip-valve model and one at the outside of the bell for sound production. The focus of this work is onextending a previously presented measurement technique used to obtain acoustic characterizations of waveguide elements forcylindrical and conical elements, with further development allowing for the estimation of the flared trombone bell reflection andtransmission functions for which no one-parameter traveling wave solution exists. A one-dimensional bell model is developedproviding an approximate theoretical expectation to which estimation results may be compared. Dynamic trombone modelelements, such as those dependent on the bore length, are theoretically and parametrically modeled. As a result, the trombonemodel focuses on accuracy, interactivity, and efficiency, making it suitable for a number of real-time computer music applications

A History of Audio Effects

Audio effects are an essential tool that the field of music production relies upon. The ability to intentionally manipulate and modify a piece of sound has opened up considerable opportunities for music making. The evolution of technology has often driven new audio tools and effects, from early architectural acoustics through electromechanical and electronic devices to the digitisation of music production studios. Throughout time, music has constantly borrowed ideas and technological advancements from all other fields and contributed back to the innovative technology. This is defined as transsectorial innovation and fundamentally underpins the technological developments of audio effects. The development and evolution of audio effect technology is discussed, highlighting major technical breakthroughs and the impact of available audio effects

Non-Standard Sound Synthesis with Dynamic Models

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This Thesis proposes three main objectives: (i) to provide the concept of a new generalized non-standard synthesis model that would provide the framework for incorporating other non-standard synthesis approaches; (ii) to explore dynamic sound modeling through the application of new non-standard synthesis techniques and procedures; and (iii) to experiment with dynamic sound synthesis for the creation of novel sound objects. In order to achieve these objectives, this Thesis introduces a new paradigm for non-standard synthesis that is based in the algorithmic assemblage of minute wave segments to form sound waveforms. This paradigm is called Extended Waveform Segment Synthesis (EWSS) and incorporates a hierarchy of algorithmic models for the generation of microsound structures. The concepts of EWSS are illustrated with the development and presentation of a novel non-standard synthesis system, the Dynamic Waveform Segment Synthesis (DWSS). DWSS features and combines a variety of algorithmic models for direct synthesis generation: list generation and permutation, tendency masks, trigonometric functions, stochastic functions, chaotic functions and grammars. The core mechanism of DWSS is based in an extended application of Cellular Automata. The potential of the synthetic capabilities of DWSS is explored in a series of Case Studies where a number of sound object were generated revealing (i) the capabilities of the system to generate sound morphologies belonging to other non-standard synthesis approaches and, (ii) the capabilities of the system of generating novel sound objects with dynamic morphologies. The introduction of EWSS and DWSS is preceded by an extensive and critical overview on the concepts of microsound synthesis, algorithmic composition, the two cultures of computer music, the heretical approach in composition, non- standard synthesis and sonic emergence along with the thorough examination of algorithmic models and their application in sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition. This Thesis also proposes (i) a new definition for “algorithmic composition”, (ii) the term “totalistic algorithmic composition”, and (iii) four discrete aspects of non-standard synthesis

Computational Creativity and Music Generation Systems: An Introduction to the State of the Art

Computational Creativity is a multidisciplinary field that tries to obtain creative behaviors from computers. One of its most prolific subfields is that of Music Generation (also called Algorithmic Composition or Musical Metacreation), that uses computational means to compose music. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this research field, it is sometimes hard to define precise goals and to keep track of what problems can be considered solved by state-of-the-art systems and what instead needs further developments. With this survey, we try to give a complete introduction to those who wish to explore Computational Creativity and Music Generation. To do so, we first give a picture of the research on the definition and the evaluation of creativity, both human and computational, needed to understand how computational means can be used to obtain creative behaviors and its importance within Artificial Intelligence studies. We then review the state of the art of Music Generation Systems, by citing examples for all the main approaches to music generation, and by listing the open challenges that were identified by previous reviews on the subject. For each of these challenges, we cite works that have proposed solutions, describing what still needs to be done and some possible directions for further research

Este Futuro es Otro Futuro: The role of social discourse on the [under]development of contemporary academic electronic music in Perú

This dissertation explores the history of Peruvian electroacoustic and electronic musical experimentation since its arrival to the country, while confronting the particular issues that have kept their practice from being academically embraced or implemented into the official channels for musical learning. It reviews the failures and successes of the Peruvian technologically based musical arts in front of the social structures and ideologies that have historically permeated all the cultural activities of the country. By moving away from a traditional technical and formalist approach that confronts academically based electroacoustic and electronic music from the perspective of the musical object, this work unveils the highly politicized history of responses towards these arts in Perú and the direct role of the particular nationalistic postcolonial models on their development or lack of it. It is within a plural and ambiguous set of nationalists, nativist, socialist, anti-foreign and indigenist ideologies, analyzed in this work, that we can identify a constant: the suspicion towards, and ultimately, the rejection of technologically based musical traditions as an element in the construction of a history of Peruvian music. Most actors in this work, whether composers, performers or music researchers, that have attempted to dedicate their efforts towards the implementation of technology beyond the logic of the recording studio and tech-support, have had to negotiate their participation in musical academic and popular cultures according to the way they were perceived by the political and cultural surroundings of their time. This situation would force many of them to construct the cultural identities that could allow them to participate in national institutionalized discourses and practices, moving away from technology or maintaining it as a peripheral activity. In the majority of cases, those musicians interested in technology would either migrate in search of training and professional opportunities, or shift direction towards other musical practices. By analyzing, in this work, the national discourses of/about our actors and the silence of the institutions (public and private) we reveal an agent-structure relational behavioral pattern toward musical technology and related sound arts that is at the heart of its historical undermining