Effectiveness of Note Duration Information for Music Retrieval

Alexandra L. Uitdenbogerd

School of Computer Science and IT

Date and time: 11.30am-12.30pm, Friday 1st April, 2005

Venue: 10.08.04

Chair: Xiaodong Li

Abstract:

Content-based music information retrieval uses features extracted from music to answer queries. For melodic queries, the two main features are the pitch and duration of notes. The note pitch feature has been well researched whereas duration has not been fully explored. In this paper, we discuss how the note duration feature can be used to alter music retrieval effectiveness. Notes are represented by strings called standardisations. A standardisation is designed for approximate string matching and may not capture melodic information precisely. To represent pitches, we use a string of pitch differences. Our duration standardisation uses a string of five symbols representing the relative durations of adjacent notes. For both features, the Smith-Waterman alignment is used for matching. We demonstrate combining the similarity in both features using a vector model. Results of our experiments in retrieval effectiveness show that note duration similarity by itself is not useful for effective music retrieval. Combining pitch and duration similarity using the vector model does not improve retrieval effectiveness over the use of pitch on its own.

In addition to discussing the above paper, Sandra will report on the latest developments of the RMIT MIRT project, as well as recent efforts of the music retrieval community to run TREC-like evaluation experiments.

About the speaker:

Alexandra L. Uitdenbogerd is a lecturer in Computer Science at RMIT. Her main research interests are music information retrieval (MIR), computer-assisted language learning, and search engine technology. Currently she is supervising two PhD students with MIR research topics. In addition she sings, records, composes and occasionally plays an instrument in various musical genres.


Seminar Organisation

Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary. If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to make suggestions for speakers, please contact Xiaodong Li, the seminar co-ordinator.