comparison publications/sempre2014/mauch_sempre2014_GF_edits.txt @ 175:26224791546f

edited sempre paper

+Paper title.
+Matthias Mauch and Chris Cannam: Efficient Computer-Aided Pitch Track and Note Estimation for Scientific Applications
+
+Abstract.
+We present **Tony**, a free, open-source software tool for 
+computer-aided pitch track and note annotation of melodic audio content.
+The accurate annotation of fundamental frequencies and notes
+is essential to the scientific study of 
+intonation in singing and other instruments.
+Unlike commercial applications for singers and producers 
+or other academic tools for generic music annotation and visualisation
+**Tony** has been designed for the scientific study of monophonic music:
+a) it implements state-of-the art algorithms for pitch and note estimation from audio,
+b) it provides visual and auditory feedback of the extracted pitches 
+for the identification of detection errors,
+b) it provides an intelligent graphical user interface 
+through which the user can identify and rapidly correct estimation errors,
+c) it provides functions for exporting pitch track and note track 
+enabling further processing in spreadsheets or other applications.
+Software versions for Windows, OSX and Linux platforms can be downloaded from
+http://code.soundsoftware.ac.uk/projects/tony
+
+Keyword 1.
+Pitch/Note Analysis
+
+Keyword 2.
+Software
+
+Keyword 3.
+Singing.
+
+Aims.
+We aim to make the scientific annotation of melodic content more efficient.
+==> We aim to make the annotation of melodic content for scientific purposes more efficient. 
+(also, possibly move this sentence to the end)
+
+Music psychologists interested in the analysis of pitch and intonation 
+usually use software programs originally aimed at the analysis of speech
+(e.g. Praat http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/) or generic audio annotation
+tools (e.g. Sonic Visualiser http://www.sonicvisualiser.org/)
+to extract pitches of notes from audio recordings. 
+Since these programs were not conceived for musical pitch analysis, 
+the process of extracting note frequencies remains laborious and can take
+many times the duration of the recording.
+
+On the other hand, commercial tools such as
+Melodyne (http://www.celemony.com/), Songs2See (http://www.songs2see.com/) or 
+Sing&See (http://www.singandsee.com/) have 
+unknown frequency estimation procedures (proprietary code)
+and do not provide export formats needed for scientific analysis.
+
+==> Commercial tools such as Melodyne (http://www.celemony.com/), Songs2See (http://www.songs2see.com/) or 
+Sing&See (http://www.singandsee.com/) also exists for these purposes, however 
+their frequency estimation procedures are typically not public (proprietary code),
+and they do not provide export formats suitable for scientific analysis.
+
+
+An academic note annotation system [1] exists, but does not feature 
+note extraction. It is also not openly available.
+
+==> An note annotation system [1] developed for academic purposes exists, but it does not feature 
+note extraction. It is also not openly available. (openly ?? => open source, free/prop.? )
+
+This is why, during our own research on intonation [2], 
+we decided to code our own pitch extraction tool that would avoid the shortcomings.
+
+==> This is why we decided to develop our own pitch extraction tool that would avoid 
+the above shortcomings during our own research on intonation [2].
+
+
+Methods.
+For automatic pitch and note estimation we use the pYIN method [3]. 
+The method provides precise pitch and note estimates and 
+automatically determines which parts of the recording are voiced.
+
+The graphical user interface is based upon the 
+open source software libraries from Sonic Visualiser.
+
+==> The graphical user interface is based upon 
+open source software libraries originally developed for the Sonic Visualiser software.
+
+It features the audio waveform, a spectrogram representation, 
+the pitch track and notes. Users can scroll and zoom in time.
+**Tony** does not only play back the original audio, 
+but also, optionally, sonifications of the pitch track (melody line) 
+and the note track (discrete pitches with durations).
+Notes' pitches are robustly estimated as the median of the pitch track
+that occurs during the duration of the note.
+
+(robustly? I know it's good, but nothing really supports the fairly strong statement here…)
+
+The user can delete, move, cut, merge, crop and extend notes, 
+and the note's frequency is adapted accordingly.
+The user can delete spurious parts of the pitch track 
+and shift the pitch track in frequency.
+In order to efficiently correct erroneous pitch tracks, the user can select 
+a time interval, and **Tony** will provide various alternative 
+pitch tracks. The user can then pick the correct one.
+
+Outcomes.
+The system is currently being used for two projects:
+for the generation of new training and test data for Music Informatics research, 
+and for a new project on intonation in unaccompanied solo singing.
+
+==>  The system is currently being used for two projects:
+1) for the generation of new training and test data for Music Informatics research, 
+and 2) a research project on intonation in unaccompanied solo singing.
+
+Preliminary feedback by the users suggests that 
+the system does indeed facilitate pitch annotation 
+and provides vital features that cannot be found in other tools.
+
+
+Title for final section.
+Conclusions
+
+[Q37].
+We presented **Tony** a new software tool for computer-assisted
+annotation of melodic audio content for scientific analysis.
+No other existing program combines pitch and note estimation, 
+a graphical user interface with auditory feedback,
+rapid, computer-aided correction of pitches and
+and extensive exporting facilities.
+**Tony** is freely available for use on Windows, OSX and Linux platforms
+from http://code.soundsoftware.ac.uk/projects/tony/.
+
+Acknowledgements.
+Matthias Mauch is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. 
+We would like to thank Justin Salamon, Rachel Bittner and Juan Bello 
+for their comments and coding help.
+
+Three key references. (APA v6)
+[1] Pant, S., Rao, V., & Rao, P. (2010). A melody detection user interface for polyphonic music. 2010 National Conference On Communications (NCC), 2010.
+[2] Mauch, M., Frieler, K., & Dixon, S. (under review). Intonation in Unaccompanied Singing: Accuracy, Drift and a Model of Intonation Memory.
+[3] Mauch, M., & Dixon, S. (2014). pYIN : a Fundamental Frequency Estimator Using Probabilistic Threshold Distributions. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2014).
+
+Comments/queries to organisers.
+