Semantic Audio Analysis Utilities and Applications.

Abstract

Extraction, representation, organisation and application of metadata about audio recordings are in the concern of semantic audio analysis. Our broad interpretation, aligned with recent developments in the field, includes methodological aspects of semantic audio, such as those related to information management, knowledge representation and applications of the extracted information. In particular, we look at how Semantic Web technologies may be used to enhance information management practices in two audio related areas: music informatics and music production. In the first area, we are concerned with music information retrieval (MIR) and related research. We examine how structured data may be used to support reproducibility and provenance of extracted information, and aim to support multi-modality and context adaptation in the analysis. In creative music production, our goals can be summarised as follows: O↵-the-shelf sound editors do not hold appropriately structured information about the edited material, thus human-computer interaction is inefficient. We believe that recent developments in sound analysis and music understanding are capable of bringing about significant improvements in the music production workflow. Providing visual cues related to music structure can serve as an example of intelligent, context-dependent functionality. The central contributions of this work are a Semantic Web ontology for describing recording studios, including a model of technological artefacts used in music production, methodologies for collecting data about music production workflows and describing the work of audio engineers which facilitates capturing their contribution to music production, and finally a framework for creating Web-based applications for automated audio analysis. This has applications demonstrating how Semantic Web technologies and ontologies can facilitate interoperability between music research tools, and the creation of semantic audio software, for instance, for music recommendation, temperament estimation or multi-modal music tutoring