Danceability

[baltoro]

This isn't really a controversial subject. I know that some of you are musicians,...this one's for you.
In today's Los Angeles Times is an article in the Science File, entitled: "Just What Makes a Hit Single ?"
The article is about a British researcher who writes a computer program to analyze pop music songs to determine whether the song will be a commercial success or not. The analysis rates the song using 23 different quantities, as evaluated by British music fans (wankers and wankettes ???), and based on that, predicts whether the song will be a hit or not. It has a 60% success rate,...which I think is bogus. The big problem: the algorithm does NOT evaluate the harmonic structure of the song.
They have a website dedicated to this musical application:
Score A Hit

[baltoro]

Those of you American Rock and Roll fans might remember: BOSTON,...
Peace Of Mind, You Tube,...More Than A Feeling, You Tube,...and, Rock 'n' Roll Band, You Tube

Rock Star, Tom Scholtz, who obtained a Bachelor's and Master's in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, originally wrote a computer program to analyze popular Rock and Roll songs for the qualities that made them a big hit with fans, based his musical techniques on this information and then created one of the best selling Rock 'n' Roll albums in recent history.
Using my TOP SECRET technique to analyze the musical elements of Boston's Rock 'n' Roll hits (reading the published sheet music), I was appalled to discover that Boston's songs are all about HARMONY. It's very simple stuff,...almost all Major Chords,...and melodies that are typically major thirds or fifths,...
Biut, I think Boston's real secret was that their sound was very clean and saturated (what music producers call a FAT sound),...and, of course, the vocalist,...Brad Delp was a strong, powerful singer,...with, a quality that is rare in Rock 'n' Roll,...perfect pitch,...

...So, there you have it,...if you are COOL ENOUGH,...any assembly language programmer can become a Rock Star,... :eek

[dedndave]

i think they were all grads from MIT - or students, at least
i love all boston tunes

[vanjast]

Well it just proves what I've been saying for years.... REAL MUSICIANS ARE EDUCATED PEOPLE...period!!

There might be the natural talent here and there, but the musicians that last 'for ever' come from educational backgrounds.
:U

[hutch--]

I am lucky in the dance field, I have 3 left feet.  :P

[donkey]

I used to try karaoke every once in a while, then of course the cease and desist orders started to pile up not to mention the lawsuit from the SPCA down the road so I finally gave it up. Its a shame, it was an easy way to guarantee good service, after all, one Journey tune and I was alone in the bar (well aside from the damn cats all over the place)

:dazzled: Don't stop believing...hold on to that feeeeeeeling......

[Ghostly]

I was practically raised on rock music, apart from Boston my parents used to bombard me with stuff like Uriah Heep, Rainbow, Meat Loaf, Nazareth, Asia, Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith, Grand Funk Railroad, America, Saga, April Wine etc...

So in other words I had a wonderful childhood :)

It's funny though how much American/British rock music I was subjected to in my youth despite being born/living in Sweden, actully I can't recall any swedish music from that period of my life. Obviously I'm not the only one, I remember a lead programmer at a place I worked at a couple of years ago who had the principle that no work could/should be done in a day until you had rocked out to Ram Jam's Black Betty at very high volume (what else?), sure woke everybody up with a kick in the morning.

[dedndave]

Abba maybe ?
nah - if they liked GFR and Uriah Heap, they probably didn't listen to much Abba   :P

[anunitu]

I remember my first encounter with R&R,I was all of 10 years old and with my Father in the bar/food place that he worked at. To keep me busy while he got his pay check,he gave me some quarters to play the jute box,and I first heard Elvis,and a rock and roller was born after the first few bars. I love VERY hard rock,and metal.

[Ghostly]

Abba was not their thing, Mom also listened to alot of Bonnie Tyler (drove dad almost mad with endless repeats of Total Eclipse of the Heart), Aldo Nova (mostly ballads from Twitch), Stevie Nicks solo stuff, Kate Bush, Air Supply, Mike Oldfield (Maggie Reilly vocals) but again I can't recall them listening to any Swedish music from that time, although I think I recall an old 'Hooked on a Feeling' single amongst their collection :p

[baltoro]

The mathematics for writing a computer program that will analyze music (in WAVE or MP3 format) is pretty intense.
I has purchased on of those audio Home Studio programs, where you can record your song from a MIDI enebled electronic instrument,...and, output the result in WAVE of MP3 format. It was alot of fun,...and, you could write auxillary DLLs (Plug-Ins) for it, which is what I wanted to do,... :eek
I bought a book on the subject once,...the frequency spectrum analysis using the Fast Fourier Transform,...and, I'm PROUD to say that I got, maybe, 20 or 30 pages into it before it was completely incomprehensible.
If you are interested, there is a good introductory website: Music and Computers, A Theoretical and Historical Approach, Columbia University
...About a year ago, REDSKULL posted an assembly code example for a simple Fast Fourier Transform (SSE3) version.

[dedndave]

the math for FFT is a little hairy   :P
but, understanding what it does isn't too bad

in electronics, we often use oscilloscopes
they are typically used to display voltage on the Y axis and time on the X axis, both in linear form

in RF and microwaves (specialized sub-fields), we use another piece of equipment called a spectrum analyzer
it displays amplitude on the Y axis (usually in logarithmic power form) and frequency on the X axis

FFT is one way to get from an oscilloscope to a spectrum analyzer   :P
there are many little signals that you may not see on an oscilloscope that pop right out on a spectrum analyzer

[vanjast]

and, I'm PROUD to say that I got, maybe, 20 or 30 pages into it before it was completely incomprehensible.

Read it again ..and again.... and again  :bg
I find that if I do not understand stuff I carry on reading.. and only somewhere near the end of the document, it sort of falls into place.
FFT's are one of these subjects like this, and with a few re-reads the finer points come to light.

The maths is really so simple, but it's the method/algorithm that is first a brain imploder, but after a while you'll see it's also a simple thing
I feel sorry for the people that invented this  :bdg

Think of it this way...
Every 'system' has a natural oscillation frequency (Your steering wheel wobbles when your tyres are unbalanced, The earth rotates in 23.9xx something hours)
FFT allows you to isolate/reject/(and other goodies) and view these frequencies in digital format, thus allowing you to use this data for whatever purpose you desire.
So from the real world we can sample... detect/reject/adjust on a digital system... then shove the 'adjusted' sample back into the real world.

Applications such as encryption, communications, flight control.. audio filtering.... options are endless

[oex]

The maths is really so simple, but it's the method/algorithm that is first a brain imploder, but after a while you'll see it's also a simple thing
I feel sorry for the people that invented this  :bdg

hmmm.... discovered or invented?.... I never really got the difference.... I remember I was once told at school "discoveries are embodied in nature while inventions are embodied in artefacts" or something to that effect....

Math/Software has no inventions in my book, only discoveries

[baltoro]

VANJAST,
You're right,...of course. My original comment was something of a joke.
In the general sense, I understand what the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) does with data,...I think one of it's original applications (as DAVE mentioned above) is analyzing digital signal data (radio frequency, radar, sonar) into components that were significant to the analyst.
My biggest problem if I was to implement a FFT analysis of segment of music, is with the WAVE format itself. WAVE format files (and MP3) have a huge amount information (this is what creates the high fidelity sound). And, choosing the appropriate algorithms to determine, say, a musical pitch and interval, the predominant rhythm,...the characteristics of a sound wave of a particular musical instrument (piano. bass, guitar),...or, even the key signature of the musical composition are way beyond my current level of knowledge.
One of the advantages of purchasing a commercial home studio/music songwriter application is that it comes with a software synthesizer, which does all the work of converting Digital MIDI data into actual WAVE format orchestral sounds.