Slashdot Mirror
Using Computers for Sophisticated Music Analysis
Tom Avril writes "Need an accompaniment for your melody? Seeking a virtual dancer to try out your new choreography? Or perhaps you're making a new TV commercial, and you need a snippet of music that sounds something like Radiohead, but a bit more mellow. Increasingly, sophisticated software can help with these sorts of tasks. We got a look at the latest from the nascent field of Music Information Retrieval, after its conference in Philadelphia: 'A key part of the conference each year is the announcement of results from a sort of software shoot-out — a competition in which various universities pit their music-analysis algorithms against one another. Entrants from more than a dozen countries competed in 18 tasks, using their computers to "listen" to selections of music, then identify such things as the genre, mood, composer or title. The eventual goal: to help people search for music they might like by combing through millions of audio files in a database. ... In another task, the computer had to identify tunes that someone hummed. "The idea is, you go into the karaoke bar and start humming, and the computer retrieves your song," Downie said.'"
Artist: Britney Spears
Song: Hit Me Baby
Rating: Shit
Conclusion: Humans are weak and stupid
Action Plan: Terminate Britney Spears
You start humming and the RIAA deducts the money from your account for your reproduction.
Or perhaps you're making a new TV commercial, and you need a snippet of music that sounds something like Radiohead, but a bit more mellow.
MORE mellow than 'Fake Plastic Trees?'
This actually may work, especially if you are selling some sort of sleeping aid or anti-anxiety medication.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
On the one hand, I'd love it if my home stereo could determine what song I was humming and start playing along.
On the other hand, my family would kill me.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Self-regulating karaoke. If the computer can't tell what the hell you're singing it's probably best for you to stay off the stage.
-Peter
Or perhaps you're making a new TV commercial, and you need a snippet of music that sounds something like Radiohead, but a bit more mellow.
You don't need software algorithms for that, just go download a Coldplay album. Except maybe replace "mellow" with "soulless."