Subject: Re: Rhythm perception From: Michael Fulton <michaeljfulton(at)hotmail.com> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:36:03 +0000> >We were discussing rhythm patterns the other day and the question came >up about how one determined the start of a pattern. If there is a >heavy emphasis on one beat of the sequence then I can understand that >that is taken as the first beat. > But if the sequence is unemphasised how does one decide? Or do >people decide differently, or is it cultural? > >I am not sure where to start to look -- as ever this is outside my >general field of study -- but I though this list might be the place >to ask for clues. > >I hope I have explained the question sufficiently! > >==John ffitch As far as I am aware the two most successful systems to date for extracting information about musical measures are by Klapuri and Goto (Klapuri being the better). These both identify the foot tapping rate or tactus as its called and also the start of each measure. The system by Goto relied on detecting chord changes and Klapuris system looked for rythmic fluctatuations in the signals amplitude i.e. low,loud,-,loud. However, both these relied on their being some form of emphasis/change and were designed for primarily western popular music. If the sequence is unemphasisied then I suppose it really is a purely subjective decision based on experience and culture. The papers I have mentioned are http://www.cs.tut.fi/sgn/arg/klap/sapmeter.pdf and http://staff.aist.go.jp/m.goto/PROJ/bts.html No.9 on page Hope this helps as this is also a problem that has been troubling me recently i.e. given a peice of music how do we reliably regocnise the start of each measure ? Mick