Soundspotting: A New Kind of Process?
Michael A. Casey · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2011
Soundspotting is a new approach to creating musical streams by selecting and concatenating source segments from a large audio database using methods from music information retrieval. The soundspotting process computes a similarity score between a target audio segment and all the available segments in the source database and selects the closest-matching source to concatenate to the audio output stream forming a real-time response to the target. Examples of target signals are solo instruments, a synthetic signal generated by an algorithm such as frequency modulation, or a previous output of the soundspotting process, thus yielding an audio information feedback circuit. Soundspotting enhances the techniques of sampling, plunderphonics, remixing, and mashups by adding automatic audio organization and an external driving target signal. This article explores the techniques, technologies, and musical possibilities for soundspotting and shows how it extends the canon of existing computer music methods.