The Effects of MP3 Compression on Perceived Emotional Characteristics in Musical Instruments

Musical instrument sounds have distinct timbral and emotional characteristics, and when audio processes are applied to them their timbral and emotional characteristics are changed. This paper investigates the effects of MP3 compression on the emotional characteristics of eight sustained instrument sounds using a listening test. We compared the compressed sounds pairwise over ten emotional categories at several bit rates. The results showed that MP3 compression strengthened neutral and negative emotional characteristics such as Mysterious, Shy, Scary, and Sad; and weakened positive emotional characteristics such as Happy, Heroic, Romantic, Comic, and Calm. Interestingly, Angry was relatively unaffected by MP3 compression. Probably, the background “growl” artifacts added by MP3 compression decreased positive emotional characteristics and increased negative characteristics such as Mysterious and Scary. For instruments, MP3 compression effected some instruments more and others less. The trumpet was the most effected and the horn by far the least

The Effects of MP3 Compression on Emotional Characteristics

Previous research has shown that MP3 compression changes the similarities of musical instruments, while other research has shown that musical instrument sounds have strong emotional characteristics. This paper investigates the effect of MP3 compression on music emotion. We conducted listening tests to compare the effect of MP3 compression on the emotional characteristics of eight sustained instrument sounds. We compared the compressed sounds pairwise over ten emotional categories. The results show that MP3 compression strengthened the emotional characteristics Sad, Scary, Shy, and Mysterious, and weakened Happy, Heroic, Romantic, Comic, and Calm. Interestingly, Angry was relatively unaffected by MP3 compression

The Effects of Audio Processing on the Perceived Emotional Characteristics of Musical Instrument Sounds

Musical instrument sounds have been shown to have distinct timbral and emotional characteristics, and when audio processes are applied to them, their timbral and emotional characteristics are changed. In this thesis, we investigated how audio processes change the perceived emotional characteristics of musical instrument sounds. We first investigated the effects of MP3 compression on the emotional characteristics of instrument sounds, which has not been explored previously. Our results showed that MP3 compression strengthened neutral and negative emotional characteristics such as Scary and Sad, and weakened positive emotional characteristics such as Happy and Romantic. Interestingly, Angry was relatively unaffected by MP3 compression. For artificial reverberation, since our previous research has shown that the distinctive emotional characteristics in musical instruments can be significantly changed with parametric reverberation, we would like to see whether the parametric reverberation results can be applied to real concert hall reverberation, namely convolution reverberation, as well. We would like to know whether these changes in character are relatively uniform or instrument-dependent as well. Our finding shows that convolution reverberation had more pronounced effects on the emotional characteristics compared to parametric reverberation, yet there was a strong agreement in the results of parametric and convolution reverberations. For investigating into the underlying instrument space with reverberation, our results indicate that the underlying instrument space did not change much with both parametric and convolution reverberations, in terms of emotional characteristics. It means that reverberation time has a remarkably consistent effect on the emotional characteristics no matter whether parametric or convolution reverberation was used. It is also a reflection of their deep underlying functional similarities despite their fundamentally different implementations. In terms of applications, our MP3 compression study will give listeners and music streaming service providers some preliminary benchmarks for understanding the emotional effects of MP3 compression on music. For the artificial reverberation studies, the relatively consistent rankings of emotional characteristics between the instruments certainly help each instrument retain its identity in different halls. Moreover, the instrument-independent behavior of concert halls is perhaps what helps distinguish a good music venue from a poor one. This can be an interesting avenue for future work

Lossy Distortion as a Musical Effect

73 pagesLossy audio compression is a digital process that uses models of human hearing to remove parts of the sound deemed less important, in order to compress audio to much smaller file sizes. The MP3 encoding process, one of the most famous lossy audio compression formats, can impart audio with a distinctive watery, muffled sound at higher levels of compression. This sound, which I call “lossy distortion,” can be used as a musical effect to inspire nostalgia for early digital audio, or for a more abstract, ethereal sound. In analyzing creative uses of lossy distortion and existing plugins for lossy distortion, I identify some desirable features that are lacking from existing plugins. To fill these gaps, I built two lossy distortion plugins. One, called Empy, gives the user control over a wide variety of lossy distortion sounds. The other, Fish, emulates a particular sound of lossy distortion that other plugins struggle to achieve, by modifying a popular piece of MP3 encoding software. In their sound and user interface, these plugins explore new ground in the rapidly developing field of lossy distortion plugins

Online User Reviews and Professional Reviews: A Bayesian Approach to Model Mediation and Moderation Effects

We propose a Bayesian analysis of mediation and moderation effects embedded within a hierarchical structure to examine the impacts of two sources of WOM information — online user reviews and professional reviews in the context of software download. Our empirical results indicate that the impact of user reviews on software download varies over time and such variation is moderated by product variety. The increase in product variety strengthens the impact of positive user reviews, while weakening the impact of negative user reviews. Furthermore, professional reviews influence software download both directly and indirectly, partially mediated by volume of online user reviews. Receiving positive professional reviews leads to more software download, yet receiving very negative professional reviews has a negative impact on the number of download. The increase in professional ratings not only directly promotes software download but also leads to more active user WOM interactions, which in turn leads to more download

Teaching and Learning Music Technologically

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, multimedia technology has transformed all educational paradigms. In this mixed-methods study, the researcher shows the effects of inspiring instructional technologies on assimilating musical knowledge and developing performance concepts. Thus, assisted- technology learning is the foundation of inspiration to induce music performance and theory, hardening self-esteem as the core subject of this study. The researcher measures time and skills gathered over two years by a group of high school music students, assessing them with two variables: first, traditional conservatory instruction, and second, the MusicLab method. In addition, the researcher quantifies how technological tools intervene in fundamental musical knowledge and development in a greater or lesser time and what capacities are established more than others at the same phase with the two variables

The Impact of the Digital Instrument and the Score on Controlled Improvisation When using Acoustic Instruments in an Electroacoustic Context

This paper considers various elements that influence the decisions taken when designing performance environments for compositions featuring acoustic instruments with electronics. The implications of choosing different models for the control of the electronics are discussed. Models lying along a continuum between fully automated systems at one end and passive environments controlled by a human performer at the other are considered. The ways in which choices made when mapping control parameters to the sound engine affect the affordances available to the human performer are explored, and the advantages of using a score to define parameters for improvisation are discussed. Following from this, different models for notating the electronic part in mixed compositions are presented and the implication of using the computer as the principal agent for controlling the electronic part are considered. This leads into a discussion as to what constitutes a score for the electronic part. Different paradigms are presented and their implications considered. The paper then discusses the ease of encoding and decoding musical information at different representational levels into and out of a computer. This has implications for machine learning and score following systems. The paper concludes by presenting an example of a digital performance environment from the author’s own work, together with a score for controlled improvisation using the interface

Towards a framework for identifying attitudes and intentions to music acquisition from legal and illegal channels

Technological developments have had a profound effect on modern music acquisition, allowing people to share music over the Internet for free. The research identifies the antecedents of consumers’ attitudes and intentions to acquire music from various channels. The paper reports findings of a structured questionnaire survey of university students in the UK and Greece (n=511). Using structural equation modeling the authors conclude that consumers’ intention to acquire music via a legal channel is influenced by idolatry, the perceived quality of music, the perceived likelihood of punishment (digital legal channel only) and their subjective norm. On the other hand, intention to acquire music via an illegal channel is influenced by the perceived benefits of piracy. The price of legitimate music was only significant for the illegal street vendor channel, whereas idolatry had a positive effect on illegal downloading. Gender had moderating effects on perceived likelihood of punishment and attitude, and income moderated attitude and intention from P2P platforms. The findings carry important implications for academic researchers, practitioners and policy makers

Audio to Architecture: House Music as a Form Generator

Contemporary music undergoes similar process of creation to that of the design process through computation and variation. House music as a representation of contemporary culture has a layered structure that allows specific characteristics to identify it as house music. Song components can vary and mix in different orders that form new dynamic compositions. I am going to explore the idea that every house music component can be translated into geometry with the use of parametric design techniques