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AGREEMENT AMONG HUMAN AND AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPTIONS OF GLOBAL SONGS

  • Yuto Ozaki
  • , John McBride
  • , Emmanouil Benetos
  • , Peter Q. Pfordresher
  • , Joren Six
  • , Adam T. Tierney
  • , Polina Proutskova
  • , Emi Sakai
  • , Haruka Kondo
  • , Haruno Fukatsu
  • , Shinya Fujii
  • , Patrick E. Savage
  • Keio University
  • Institute for Basic Science
  • Queen Mary University of London
  • Ghent University
  • Birkbeck University of London

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cross-cultural musical analysis requires standardized symbolic representation of sounds such as score notation. However, transcription into notation is usually conducted manually by ear, which is time-consuming and subjective. Our aim is to evaluate the reliability of existing methods for transcribing songs from diverse societies. We had 3 experts independently transcribe a sample of 32 excerpts of traditional monophonic songs from around the world (half a cappella, half with instrumental accompaniment). 16 songs also had pre-existing transcriptions created by 3 different experts. We compared these human transcriptions against one another and against 10 automatic music transcription algorithms. We found that human transcriptions can be sufficiently reliable (~90% agreement, κ ~.7), but current automated methods are not (<60% agreement, κ <.4). No automated method clearly outperformed others, in contrast to our predictions. These results suggest that improving automated methods for cross-cultural music transcription is critical for diversifying MIR.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationISMIR 2021 - The International Society For Music Information Retrieval Conference, Proceedings
PublisherInternational Society for Music Information Retrieval
Pages500-508
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781732729902
StatePublished - 2021
Event22nd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, ISMIR 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Nov 7 2021Nov 12 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, ISMIR 2021

Conference

Conference22nd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, ISMIR 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period11/7/2111/12/21

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