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David Meredith

Publications and source records attributed to David Meredith.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Methods for Pitch Analysis in Contemporary Popular Music: Multiphonic Tones Across Genres

This study argues that electronic tones routinely used in contemporary popular music - including 808-style bass and power chords - are structurally and perceptually equivalent to multiphonics in contemporary classical music. Using listening tests (n=10) and signal analysis, we show that both types of tones elicit multiple, listener-dependent pitch percepts arising from similar spectral and temporal features. These findings suggest that pitch ambiguity is not confined to experimental classical contexts but is also a feature of mainstream music production.

cs.SD

Methods for pitch analysis in contemporary popular music: multiple pitches from harmonic tones in Vitalic's music

Aims. This study suggests that the use of multiple perceived pitches arising from a single harmonic complex tone is an active and intentional feature of contemporary popular music. The phenomenon is illustrated through examples drawn from the work of electronic artist Vitalic and others. Methods. Two listening tests were conducted: (1) evaluation of the number of simultaneous pitches perceived from single harmonic tones, and (2) manual pitch transcription of sequences of harmonic tones. Relationships between signal characteristics and pitch perception were then analyzed. Results. The synthetic harmonic tones found in the musical sequences under study were observed to transmit more perceived pitches than their acoustic counterparts, with significant variation across listeners. Multiple ambiguous pitches were associated with tone properties such as prominent upper partials and particular autocorrelation profiles. Conclusions. Harmonic tones in a context of contemporary popular music can, in general, convey several ambiguous pitches. The set of perceived pitches depends on both the listener and the listening conditions.

cs.SD

Methods for pitch analysis in contemporary popular music: Vitalic's use of tones that do not operate on the principle of acoustic resonance

Vitalic is an electronic music producer who has been active since 2001. Vitalic's 2005 track "No Fun" features a main synthesiser part built from a sequence of single inharmonic tones that evoke two simultaneous melodies. This part serves as a starting point for examining Vitalic's use of tones that do not operate on the principle of acoustic resonance. The study considers tones that evoke two or more simultaneous pitches and examines various inharmonic partial layouts. Examples outside Vitalic's music are also provided to suggest that similar tone properties can be found elsewhere in contemporary popular music.

cs.SD

Wavelet-Filtering of Symbolic Music Representations for Folk Tune Segmentation and Classification

The aim of this study is to evaluate a machine-learning method in which symbolic representations of folk songs are segmented and classified into tune families with Haar-wavelet filtering. The method is compared with previously proposed Gestalt-based method. Melodies are represented as discrete symbolic pitch-time signals. We apply the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) with the Haar wavelet at specific scales, obtaining filtered versions of melodies emphasizing their information at particular time-scales. We use the filtered signal for representation and segmentation, using the wavelet coefficients' local maxima to indicate local boundaries and classify segments by means of k-nearest neighbours based on standard vector-metrics (Euclidean, cityblock), and compare the results to a Gestalt-based segmentation method and metrics applied directly to the pitch signal. We found that the wavelet based segmentation and wavelet-filtering of the pitch signal lead to better classification accuracy in cross-validated evaluation when the time-scale and other parameters are optimized.

cs.LG

An approach to melodic segmentation and classification based on filtering with the Haar-wavelet

We present a novel method of classification and segmentation of melodies in symbolic representation. The method is based on filtering pitch as a signal over time with the Haar-wavelet, and we evaluate it on two tasks. The filtered signal corresponds to a single-scale signal ws from the continuous Haar wavelet transform. The melodies are first segmented using local maxima or zero-crossings of w_s. The segments of w_s are then classified using the k-nearest neighbour algorithm with Euclidian and city-block distances. The method proves more effective than using unfiltered pitch signals and Gestalt-based segmentation when used to recognize the parent works of segments from Bach's Two-Part Inventions (BWV 772-786). When used to classify 360 Dutch folk tunes into 26 tune families, the performance of the method is comparable to the use of pitch signals, but not as good as that of string-matching methods based on multiple features.

cs.LG

Methods for pitch analysis in contemporary popular music: phenomenological analysis of Primaal's commercial works

This article uses phenomenological analysis to examine pitch-related elements in commercial popular music, focusing on Primaal, a successful electronic music brand whose works have been licensed by major international companies. Working in collaboration with the producers, we identify musical parameters related to pitch and document how their treatment differs radically from Western classical music conventions. Central to Primaal's aesthetic is the deliberate cultivation of \emph{pitch uncertainty}, achieved through multiple techniques: tone inharmonicity, quasi-harmonic tones designed to evoke multiple simultaneous pitches, strategic boosting of upper partials, and continuous frequency trajectories inspired by the Roland TR-808 bass drum. Rather than discrete notes, pitches are distributed around scale degrees (`poles'), with the distribution width serving as an expressive parameter. The music is organised modally rather than tonally, typically focusing on a few degrees with one functioning as a `final'. We show how these pitch-related parameters articulate both large-scale and small-scale musical structure. Signal analysis, supported by psychoacoustic weighting, serves as our transcription method, avoiding the biases inherent in score-based notation. The findings contribute to music analysis, music information retrieval, computational creativity, and psychoacoustics, suggesting that pitch in contemporary popular music often operates as a continuous, multidimensional phenomenon that resists reduction to discrete note representations.

cs.SD

The evolution of inharmonicity and noisiness in contemporary popular music

Much of Western classical music relies on instruments based on acoustic resonance, which produce harmonic or quasi-harmonic sounds. In contrast, since the mid-twentieth century, popular music has increasingly been produced in recording studios, where it is not bound by the constraints of harmonic sounds. In this study, we use modified MPEG-7 features to explore and characterise the evolution of noise and inharmonicity in popular music since 1961. We place this evolution in the context of other broad categories of music, including Western classical piano music, orchestral music, and musique concr\`ete. We introduce new features that distinguish between inharmonicity caused by noise and that resulting from interactions between discrete partials. Our analysis reveals that the history of popular music since 1961 can be divided into three phases. From 1961 to 1972, inharmonicity in popular music, initially only slightly higher than in orchestral music, increased significantly. Between 1972 and 1986, this rise in inharmonicity was accompanied by an increase in noise, but since 1986, both inharmonicity and noise have moderately decreased. In recent years (up to 2020), popular music has remained much more inharmonic than popular music from the 1960s or orchestral music involving acoustic resonance instruments. However, it has become less noisy, with noise levels comparable to those of orchestral music. We relate these trends to the evolution of music production techniques. In particular, the use of multi-tracking may explain the higher inharmonicity in popular music compared to orchestral music. We illustrate these trends with analyses of key artists and tracks.

cs.SD

Understanding and Compressing Music with Maximal Transformable Patterns

We present a polynomial-time algorithm that discovers all maximal patterns in a point set, $D\subset\mathbb{R}^k$, that are related by transformations in a user-specified class, $F$, of bijections over $\mathbb{R}^k$. We also present a second algorithm that discovers the set of occurrences for each of these maximal patterns and then uses compact encodings of these occurrence sets to compute a losslessly compressed encoding of the input point set. This encoding takes the form of a set of pairs, $E=\left\lbrace\left\langle P_1, T_1\right\rangle,\left\langle P_2, T_2\right\rangle,\ldots\left\langle P_{\ell}, T_{\ell}\right\rangle\right\rbrace$, where each $\langle P_i,T_i\rangle$ consists of a maximal pattern, $P_i\subseteq D$, and a set, $T_i\subset F$, of transformations that map $P_i$ onto other subsets of $D$. Each transformation is encoded by a vector of real values that uniquely identifies it within $F$ and the length of this vector is used as a measure of the complexity of $F$. We evaluate the new compression algorithm with three transformation classes of differing complexity, on the task of classifying folk-song melodies into tune families. The most complex of the classes tested includes all combinations of the musical transformations of transposition, inversion, retrograde, augmentation and diminution. We found that broadening the transformation class improved performance on this task. However, it did not, on average, improve compression factor, which may be due to the datasets (in this case, folk-song melodies) being too short and simple to benefit from the potentially greater number of pattern relationships that are discoverable with larger transformation classes.

cs.LG

RecurSIA-RRT: Recursive translatable point-set pattern discovery with removal of redundant translators

We introduce two algorithms, RECURSIA and RRT, designed to increase the compression factor achievable using point-set cover algorithms based on the SIA and SIATEC pattern discovery algorithms. SIA computes the maximal translatable patterns (MTPs) in a point set, while SIATEC computes the translational equivalence class (TEC) of every MTP in a point set, where the TEC of an MTP is the set of translationally invariant occurrences of that MTP in the point set. In its output, SIATEC encodes each MTP TEC as a pair, , where P is the first occurrence of the MTP and V is the set of non-zero vectors that map P onto its other occurrences. RECURSIA recursively applies a TEC cover algorithm to the pattern P, in each TEC, , that it discovers. RRT attempts to remove translators from V in each TEC without reducing the total set of points covered by the TEC. When evaluated with COSIATEC, SIATECCompress and Forth's algorithm on the JKU Patterns Development Database, using RECURSIA with or without RRT increased compression factor and recall but reduced precision. Using RRT alone increased compression factor and reduced recall and precision, but had a smaller effect than RECURSIA.

cs.LG