good-sounds.org is a new platform for sharing and evaluating instrumental samples developed by the MTG-UPF and KORG. Musicians upload their played sounds which are then analyzed and compared with the ones that the community has identified as good ones. The community of musicians active in the site establishes what a “good sound” is by voting on the uploaded sounds. From these votes the system learns how to evaluate sounds and how to give a score to them. These scores evolve as the community gives more feedback and the system learns from it. It currently supports single notes of flute, clarinet, trumpet, cello and violin, but it will evolve with the integration of more instruments and more types of sounds.
 

The analysis of every sound is performed using Essentia (http://essentia.upf.edu) and it focuses on five sound attributes: Pitch Stability, Dynamic Stability, Timbre Stability, Timbre Richness, and Attack Clarity. The system displays the analysis results and ranks the sounds either based on the automatic scoring or on the user votes from which the automatic analysis is based on.
 

The goal of the good-sounds.org project is to become a useful tool for musicians that can help them improve their playing. For the system to give relevant feedback it also requires the participation of musicians in the website, uploading and commenting on the existing sounds. 

 

ABOUT MTG-UPF (http://mtg.upf.edu/)


The Music Technology Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra is a leading research group with more than 40 researchers, carrying out research on topics such as audio signal processing, sound and music description, musical interfaces, sound and music communities, and performance modeling. The MTG wants to contribute to the improvement of the information and communication technologies related to sound and music, carrying out competitive research at the international level and at the same time transferring its results to society. To that goal, the MTG aims at finding a balance between basic and applied research while promoting interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate knowledge from both scientific/technological and humanistic/artistic disciplines. 

 

About KORG (http://www.korg.com/)

Since its establishment in 1963, KORG INC. has always strived to manufacture epoch-making electronic musical instruments using innovative creativity and the company’s own extensive technological expertise. In 1975, KORG introduced the world’s first compact tuner with a needle meter and has marketed innovative products worldwide at the forefront of the musical instruments market. KORG synthesizers combine excellent sound quality and features and have earned the support of music fans and professional musicians everywhere. Today, KORG designs and develops a wide range of electronic musical instruments from synthesizers and tuners, to digital pianos, signal processors, digital recorders and other peripheral equipment.