Idag ̈ar det vanligt förekommande att musik från nattklubbar skapar störningar till angränsade lokaler, som inte alltför sällan är bostäder. För att minska störningarna i dagsläget krävs det ofta ljuddämpande åtgärder för att fortsätta kunna spela musik, på samma höga nivå, utan att det stör närliggande lokaler i för stor utsträckning. Detta kan kosta en hel del pengar och ta upp plats i lokalen, som man hellre vill använda för andra delar i verksamheten. Detta kandidatexamensarbete unders öker om fenomenet virtual pitch kan användas för att minska dessa störningar med hjälp av programmet ”MaxxBass”, utgivet av Waves. Virtual pitch innebär att en harmonisk serie kan sakna grundtonen samt flera av dess lägre övertoner, men att den mänskliga hjärnan fortfarande kan uppfatta den ursprungliga grundtonen. För att undersöka om störningarna kan minskas med hjälp av virtual pitch gjordes mätningar av ljudtrycksnivån i en nattklubbsliknande lokal samt en angränsande lokal. I den primära lokalen spelades musik utan påverkan av MaxxBass, med viss påverkan av MaxxBass och med påtaglig påverkan av MaxxBass. Ljudnivån mättes i tre olika punkter i de olika rummen f ̈or varje fall, för att kunna skapa ett rumsmedelvärde. Därefter analyserades speciellt de lägre frekvenserna, som ofta är orsaken till störningarna i angränsande lokaler. Resultatet av undersökningen ̈ar att ljudtrycksnivån kunde sänkas med nästan 8dB i den angränsande lokalen, när MaxxBass hade en påtaglig inverkan på ljudet. I mätningarna observerades ökad energi vid högre frekvenser, som dämpades i transmissionen till den angränsande lokalen.

This study seeks to develop and evaluate a program of selfinstructional drill materials for improving the ability of students to detect pitch errors in choral singing. The specific purposes of the study are as follows: (1) To develop and validate a visualaural test for pitch-error detection; (2) to develop a visual-aural, self-instructional program for improving the ability of students to detect pitch errors; and (3) To determine whether the program of self-instructional drill materials modifies the ability to detect pitch errors. In the first phase of this three-phase study, a body of testing materials was assembled, pilot-tested, edited, and judged reliable for use. In Phase II a body of self-instructional, programmed drill materials was assembled, pilot-tested, corrected, and judged ready for evaluation. In Phase III the procedures were as follows: (1) the subjects for whom the program was intended were administered a pretest of their pitch-error detection ability; (2) one group (A) participated in the programmed drill materials developed, while the other group (B) used no programmed materials; (3) both groups were administered a midtest to determine whether there was any change; (4) the latter group (B) participated in the programed drill materials developed, while the first group (A) no longer used the programmed materials; (5) students in both groups were administered a posttest to deterine the effectiveness of the programmed drill materials in developing the ability to detect pitch errors while reading the vocal score.

This thesis describes the design and implementation of audio effect for pitch shifting of monophonic singing signals. The effect can generate two pitch shifted voices from input signal in real-time, while preserving formants. Amount of the shift can be controlled via MIDI controller. The effect is implemented as VST module in the form of dynamic-link library. This work also includes theoretical introduction to related DSP techniques.

Os parâmetros acústicos da voz abordados em diversas pesquisas de análise digital da voz, apresentam-se válidos para o uso em processo diagnóstico e terapêutico. O grupo de parâmetros de perturbação da voz necessita do conhecimento de todos os períodos do trecho de sinal de voz analisado, para ter seu valor calculado. Esta tarefa é desempenhada pelos determinadores de pitch, e a sua precisão determina a confiabilidade que se pode ter nos parâmetros calculados. Este trabalho visa estudar diversos métodos propostos ao longo dos anos e estabelecer qual destes tem a melhor precisão e robustez, quando utilizados com vozes patológicas. Estuda-se também algoritmos estimadores de pitch como uma ferramenta de auxílio para a correção e ajuste dos determinadores. Os resultados obtidos demonstram a necessidade de modificações externas e internas aos algoritmos determinadores e estimadores, para alcançarem a robustez e precisão desejada. Dois algoritmos determinadores, determinador por autocorrelação e por extração de harmônicas, mostraram-se dentro das metas estabelecidas e confirmam-se como os mais promissores em aplicações para obtenção de parâmetros acústicos da voz. / Several researches of digital speech processing validate the use of acoustic parameters of the voice in diagnosis and therapeutic processes. Perturbation parameters need the knowledge of all the periods of the analyzed voice signal, to have their values calculated. This task is carried out by the pitch trackers and their precision determines the reliability off the evaluated parameters. The purpose of this work is to study several methods proposed along the years and to establish which algorithm has the best precision and robustness, when used with pathological voices. The pitch estimation is also studied as an aid tool for the correction and adjustment of the pitch trackers. The results demonstrate the need of external and internal modifications of the trackers and detector algorithms to reach the wanted robustness and precision. The algorithms for autocorrelation and for extraction of harmonics are confirmed as the most promising in applications for obtaining of acoustic parameters of the voice.

A piece of popular music is usually defined as a combination of vocal melody and instrumental accompaniment. People often start with the melody part when they are trying to compose or reproduce a piece of popular music. However, creating appropriate instrumental accompaniment part for a melody line can be a difficult task for non-musicians. Automation of accompaniment generation for vocal melodies thus can be very useful for those who are interested in singing for fun. Therefore, a computer software system which is capable of generating harmonic accompaniment for a given vocal melody input has been presented in this thesis. This automatic accompaniment system uses a Hidden Markov Model to assign chord to a given part of melody based on the knowledge learnt from a bank of vocal tracks of popular music. Comparing with other similar systems, our system features a high resolution key estimation algorithm which is helpful to adjust the generated accompaniment to the input vocal. Moreover, we designed a structure analysis subsystem to extract the repetition and structure boundaries from the melody. These boundaries are passed to the chord assignment and style player subsystems in order to generate more dynamic and organized accompaniment. Finally, prototype applications are discussed and the entire system is evaluated.

xviii, 216 p. : ill. (some col.) / The focus of this dissertation is on how language experience shapes perception of a non-native prosodic contrast. In Tokyo Japanese, fundamental frequency (F0) peak and fall are acoustic cues to lexically contrastive pitch patterns, in which a word may be accented on a particular syllable or unaccented (e.g., tsúru 'a crane', tsurú 'a vine', tsuru 'to fish'). In English, lexical stress is obligatory, and it may be reinforced by F0 in higher-level prosodic groupings. Here I investigate whether English listeners can attend to F0 peaks as well as falls in contrastive pitch patterns and whether training can facilitate the learning of prosodic categories. In a series of categorization and discrimination experiments, where F0 peak and fall were manipulated in one-word utterances, the judgments of prominence by naïve English listeners and native Japanese listeners were compared. The results indicated that while English listeners had phonetic sensitivity to F0 fall in a same-different discrimination task, they could not consistently use the F0 fall to categorize F0 patterns. The effects of F0 peak location and F0 fall on prominence judgments were always larger for Japanese listeners than for English listeners. Furthermore, the interaction between these acoustic cues affected perception of the contrast by Japanese, but not English, listeners. This result suggests that native, but not non-native, listeners have complex and integrated processing of these cues. The training experiment assessed improvement in categorization of Japanese pitch patterns with exposure and feedback. The results suggested that training improved identification of the accented patterns, which also generalized to new words and new contexts. Identification of the unaccented pattern, on the other hand, showed no improvement. Error analysis indicated that native English listeners did not learn to attend specifically to the lack of the F0 fall. To conclude, language experience influences perception of prosodic categories. Although there is some sensitivity to F0 fall in non-native listeners, they rely mostly on F0 peak location in language-like tasks such as categorization of pitch patterns. Learning of new prosodic categories is possible. However, not all categories are learned equally well, which suggests that first language attentional biases affect second language acquisition in the prosodic domain. / Committee in charge: Susan Guion Anderson, Chairperson; Melissa A. Redford, Member; Vsevolod Kapatsinki, Member; Kaori Idemaru, Outside Member

Os parâmetros acústicos da voz abordados em diversas pesquisas de análise digital da voz, apresentam-se válidos para o uso em processo diagnóstico e terapêutico. O grupo de parâmetros de perturbação da voz necessita do conhecimento de todos os períodos do trecho de sinal de voz analisado, para ter seu valor calculado. Esta tarefa é desempenhada pelos determinadores de pitch, e a sua precisão determina a confiabilidade que se pode ter nos parâmetros calculados. Este trabalho visa estudar diversos métodos propostos ao longo dos anos e estabelecer qual destes tem a melhor precisão e robustez, quando utilizados com vozes patológicas. Estuda-se também algoritmos estimadores de pitch como uma ferramenta de auxílio para a correção e ajuste dos determinadores. Os resultados obtidos demonstram a necessidade de modificações externas e internas aos algoritmos determinadores e estimadores, para alcançarem a robustez e precisão desejada. Dois algoritmos determinadores, determinador por autocorrelação e por extração de harmônicas, mostraram-se dentro das metas estabelecidas e confirmam-se como os mais promissores em aplicações para obtenção de parâmetros acústicos da voz. / Several researches of digital speech processing validate the use of acoustic parameters of the voice in diagnosis and therapeutic processes. Perturbation parameters need the knowledge of all the periods of the analyzed voice signal, to have their values calculated. This task is carried out by the pitch trackers and their precision determines the reliability off the evaluated parameters. The purpose of this work is to study several methods proposed along the years and to establish which algorithm has the best precision and robustness, when used with pathological voices. The pitch estimation is also studied as an aid tool for the correction and adjustment of the pitch trackers. The results demonstrate the need of external and internal modifications of the trackers and detector algorithms to reach the wanted robustness and precision. The algorithms for autocorrelation and for extraction of harmonics are confirmed as the most promising in applications for obtaining of acoustic parameters of the voice.

Det här arbetet berör frågeställningen kring hur en specifika pitchrörelser i tre generella frekvensområden påverkar hur man uppfattar källan och affekten av magi genom ett interaktivt media. Med hjälp av tidigare forskning kring ljudperception och interaktivt lyssnande i samband med ytterligare research och löpande mindre undersökningar, framställdes en artefakt.Undersökningen omfattade 17 informanter mellan åldrarna 18-50 fördelade mellan en intervju- och enkätbaserad undersökning. De fick interagera med tre olika ljudeffekter och svara på frågor. Skillnaden mellan intervjuerna och enkätundersökningen var att de som deltog i enkäten endast interagerade med en av de tre ljudeffekterna.I resultatet visade det sig att majoriteten av informanterna kunde koppla ljudeffekterna till den ljudkälla de var konceptuellt baserade på. Det visade sig också att ljudeffektens betydelse var mer benägen att förändras beroende på om ljudet var stokastiskt eller deterministiskt. Det ansågs bland annat att en nedåtgående pitchrörelse tillförde en känsla av tyngd i några av ljudeffekterna, och att en uppåtgående rörelse löste upp eller tillförde energi beroende på vilket frekvensområde det påverkade.I en fördjupad version av studien hade både artefakten behövt omfattas och analyseras ur fler perspektiv och av fler involverade, samt innehålla deltagande ifrån en större mängd erfarna och oerfarna lyssnare över ett mer omfattande ålderspann.

The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of pitch perception of auditors when presented with musical tones whose frequencies were modulated. Research problems were: estimation of the effect of musical training upon pitch perception; estimation of the effect of stimuli of differing tonal qualities and frequency ranges upon perception; and estimation of the effect of solo and ensemble performances upon pitch perception. Subjects for the study were thirty musicians and thirty nonmusicians. Subjects were students at North Texas State University and Paris Junior College who had volunteered for the study. A test containing thirty-six items was developed which required subjects to match a tone created by a sawtooth wave generator to a simultaneously presented musical tone performed with vibrato. Each subject was tested individually, and allowed three attempts to match each test item. After the third playing of each item, a reading was taken of the frequency selected by the subject, Using the split half method, reliability for the test was found to be .86 for nonmusicians and .88 for musicians. ANOVA evaluation of responses of subjects indicated that there was a significant difference.in the location of pitch among musicians and nonmusicians, with musicians locating the pitch somewhat higher in the frequency spectrum than nonmusicians. Neither group located the pitch of modulated musical tones at the geometric mean of the modulation. Differences located in responses of the groups were consistant with regard to stimuli of varying frequency levels and timbres, and were unaffected by either solo or ensemble performance of the stimulus. Subsidiary findings indicated that among musicians no significant differences in pitch perception may be traced to the major performing instrument of the subject; differences in these subgroups and nonmusicians were consistant with the findings comparing musicians as "a whole and nonmusicians. Suggestions were made concerning application of the findings to musical training and concerning possibilities for further investigation in perception of pitch.

This master dissertation is an attempt to find the best way for a young and aspiring music producer or songwriter to start a career within the pop music industry. The aim of the project is to gain knowledge from the process of pitching music to publishers, record labels and artists and to improve that process with the knowledge gained. As an additional method I also invited professionals from the music industry (A&R, artist and producers/writers) to share their views on the topic. The work resulted in several songs and song sketches, but it is important to point out that the audio is not part of the analysis and rather a biproduct of the project. The focus of this dissertation lies on the process of pitching music, building a network and the learning effect only. / I detta arbete ska jag försöka hitta ett bra sätt för en blivande musikproducent eller låtskrivare att starta en karriär inom popmusikindustrin. Syftet med projektet är att utveckla kunskap om hur man pitchar musik till förlag, skivbolag och artister och genom den processen ständigt förbättra arbetsmetoden. Som ytterligare en metod förde jag också samtal med yrkesverksamma från musikbranschen (A&R, artist och producenter/låtskrivare) för att på så sätt få ta del av andra åsikter om ämnet. Arbetet resulterade i flera låtar och sångskisser men det är viktigt att förtydliga att musiken inte är en del av analysen utan snarare en biprodukt av projektet. Uppsatsen fokuserar endast på arbetsprocessen och den kunskap som är kopplad till den.