Automatic Indexing of Audio with Timbre Information for Musical Instruments of Definite Pitch

该项目的目标是构建一个系统，用于在给定麦克风声音输入的情况下，自动提取包含以所需音色演奏的曲调的音频文件。该系统将能够识别搜索的数据库中的哪些音频文件与特定乐器或具有选定清晰度的乐器系列的曲调和音色相匹配。该方法包括音频文件的声音处理、分割和索引，以进行基于内容的搜索。第一步是基于低级声音参数，为音色分类制定适当的声音描述。主要过程包括将数据库中的音频文件分割成音乐事件，并使用专用的基于树的结构对它们进行索引。当该步骤完成时，可以搜索使用上述过程索引的音频文件的数据库。这项研究项目具有很强的教育性。它包括研究生在PI的指导下获得声音处理方面的专业知识，并将这一新的研究领域添加到目前由北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校计算机科学研究生课程提供的一系列主题中。波兰-日本信息技术研究所的教职员工和研究生参与这一项目不仅将增加其强大的国际成分，还将使北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的研究生参与国际合作。作为该项目的结果，用户和研究界将可以使用新的工具，用于自动搜索与所需内容匹配的音频文件，包括旋律和音色信息。

The goal of the project is to construct a system for automatic extraction of audio files containing a tune performed with desired timbre, given microphone vocal input. The system will be able to identify which audio files within the searched database match the tune and timbre of specified instrument or instrument family with selected articulation. The approach consists of sound processing, segmentation, and indexing of audio files for content-based searching. The first step is the elaboration of the appropriate sound description for timbre classification, based on low-level sound parameters. The main process involves segmentation of audio files from the database into musical events, and indexing them using a dedicated tree-based structure. When this step is accomplished, the database of audio files, indexed using the above procedure, can be searched. This research project has a strong educational component. It involves graduate students gaining expertise in sound processing under the guidance of PIs and adding this new research domain into a set of topics currently offered by the graduate program in Computer Science at UNC-Charlotte. Involvement of faculty and graduate students from the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology in this project will add not only a strong international component to it, but also will expose graduate students at UNC-Charlotte to international collaboration.As the result of this project, new tools applicable for automatic search of audio files matching desired contents, including melody and timbre information, will be available to users and research community.