Applications of Semantic Web Technologies in Music Production.

Abstract

The development of tools and services for the realisation of the Semantic Web has been a very active field of research in recent years, with a strong focus on linking existing data. In the field of music information management, Semantic Web technologies may facilitate searching and browsing, and help to reveal relationships with data from other domains. At the same time, many algorithms have been developed to extract low and high-level features, which enable the user to analyse music and audio in detail. The use of semantics in the process of music production however is still a relatively new field of research. With computer systems and music processing applications becoming increasingly powerful and complex in their underlying structure, semantics can help musicians and producers in decision processes, and provide more natural interactions with the systems. Audio effects represent an integral part in modern music production. They modify an input signal and may be applied in order to enhance the perceived quality of a sound or to make more artistic changes to it in the composition process. Employing music information retrieval (MIR) and Semantic Web technologies specifically for the control of audio effects has the potential to be a significant step in their evolution. Detailed descriptions of the use of audio effects in a music production project can additionally facilitate the description of work flows and the reproducibility of production procedures, adding an additional layer of depth to MIR. We substantiate the hypothesis that the collection of audio related metadata during the production process is beneficial, by comparing the results of various feature extraction techniques on audio material before and after the application of audio effects. We develop a formal Semantic Web ontology for the domain of Audio Effects in the context of music production. The ontology enables the creation of detailed metadata about audio effects implementations within the Studio Ontology framework for use in music production projects. The ontology contains inter-linkable classification systems based on different criteria constituting an interdisciplinary classification. Finally, we evaluate the ontology and present several use cases and applications, such as adaptive audio effects using and creating semantic metadata