An examination of more than sixty years of successes and failures in developing technologies that allow computers to understand human spoken language. Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey famously featured HAL, a computer with the ability to hold lengthy conversations with his fellow space travelers. More than forty years later, we have advanced computer technology that Kubrick never imagined, but we do not have computers that talk and understand speech as HAL did. Is it a failure of our technology that we have not gotten much further than an automated voice that tells us to "say or press 1"? Or is there something fundamental in human language and speech that we do not yet understand deeply enough to be able to replicate in a computer? In The Voice in the Machine, Roberto Pieraccini examines six decades of work in science and technology to develop computers that can interact with humans using speech and the industry that has arisen around the quest for these technologies. He shows that although the computers today that understand speech may not have HAL's capacity for conversation, they have capabilities that make them usable in many applications today and are on a fast track of improvement and innovation. Pieraccini describes the evolution of speech recognition and speech understanding processes from waveform methods to artificial intelligence approaches to statistical learning and modeling of human speech based on a rigorous mathematical model-specifically, Hidden Markov Models (HMM). He details the development of dialog systems, the ability to produce speech, and the process of bringing talking machines to the market. Finally, he asks a question that only the future can answer: will we end up with HAL-like computers or something completely unexpected?

The first work to propose a comprehensive musicological framework to study sound-based music, a rapidly developing body of work that includes electroacoustic art music, turntable composition, and acoustic and digital sound installations. The art of sound organization, also known as electroacoustic music, uses sounds not available to traditional music making, including prerecorded, synthesized, and processed sounds. The body of work of such sound-based music (which includes electroacoustic art music, turntable composition, computer games, and acoustic and digital sound installations) has developed more rapidly than its musicology. Understanding the Art of Sound Organization proposes the first general foundational framework for the study of the art of sound organization, defining terms, discussing relevant forms of music, categorizing works, and setting sound-based music in interdisciplinary contexts. Leigh Landy's goal in this book is not only to create a theoretical framework but also to make the work more accessible-to suggest a way to understand sound-based music, to give a listener what he terms "something to hold on to," for example, by connecting elements in a work to everyday experience. Landy considers the difficulties of categorizing works and discusses such types of works as sonic art and electroacoustic music, pointing out where they overlap and how they are distinctive. He proposes a "sound-based music paradigm" that transcends such traditional categories as art and pop music. Landy defines patterns that suggest a general framework and places the studies of sound-based music into interdisciplinary contexts, from acoustics to semiotics, proposing a holistic research approach that considers the interconnectedness of a given work's history, theory, technological aspects, and social impact. The author's ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (EARS, www.ears.dmu.ac.uk), the architecture of which parallels this book's structure, offers updated bibliographic resource abstracts and related information.

Winner of the 2003 Emerging Scholar Award, presented by the Society for Music Theory In this book, David Temperley addresses a fundamental question about music cognition: how do we extract basic kinds of musical information, such as meter, phrase structure, counterpoint, pitch spelling, harmony, and key from music as we hear it? Taking a computational approach, Temperley develops models for generating these aspects of musical structure. The models he proposes are based on "preference rules," which are criteria for evaluating a possible structural analysis of a piece of music. A preference rule system evaluates many possible interpretations and chooses the one that best satisfies the rules. After an introductory chapter, Temperley presents preference rule systems for generating six basic kinds of musical structure: meter, phrase structure, contrapuntal structure, harmony, and key, as well as pitch spelling (the labeling of pitch events with spellings such as A flat or G sharp). He suggests that preference rule systems not only show how musical structures are inferred, but also shed light on other aspects of music. He substantiates this claim with discussions of musical ambiguity, retrospective revision, expectation, and music outside the Western canon (rock and traditional African music). He proposes a framework for the description of musical styles based on preference rule systems and explores the relevance of preference rule systems to higher-level aspects of music, such as musical schemata, narrative and drama, and musical tension.

Get downloading and get down! This step-by-step resource teaches you techniques for making the most of iTunes. Manage a library of music, automate playback of your favorite music, burn audio CDs, and load and unload songs from Apple's iPod or another external MP3 player. Discover the multitude of ways you can search and browse the iTunes Music Store. Record, edit, and share audio over a local network. Author Todd Stauffer provides plenty of information and instruction in a smartly written style that communicates clearly in non-technical language. Make musical magic with help from "How to Do Everything with iTunes for Macintosh and Windows."Organize, manipulate, and manage your music Instantly buy and download music from the iTunes Music Store Encode, translate, and record your own audio Share music within the same household Add and view album artwork Search by title, style, artist, genre, album, and more Create archives, libraries, and playlists Use iTunes with other iLife '04 applications Customize the Visualizer and hook iTunes to your stereo Run iTunes like a DJ and keep your party thumping Import and work with AAC, MP3, AIFF, and WAV audio files About the author: Todd Stauffer is the best-selling author of all three editions of "How to Do Everything with Your iMac," and the originator of the "How to Do Everything" series.

Go beyond HTML5's Audio tag and boost the audio capabilities of your web application with the Web Audio API. Packed with lots of code examples, crisp descriptions, and useful illustrations, this concise guide shows you how to use this JavaScript API to make the sounds and music of your games and interactive applications come alive. You need little or no digital audio expertise to get started. Author Boris Smus introduces you to digital audio concepts, then shows you how the Web Audio API solves specific application audio problems. You'll not only learn how to synthesize and process digital audio, you'll also explore audio analysis and visualization with this API. Learn Web Audio API, including audio graphs and the audio nodes Provide quick feedback to user actions by scheduling sounds with the API's precise timing model Control gain, volume, and loudness, and dive into clipping and crossfading Understand pitch and frequency: use tools to manipulate soundforms directly with JavaScript Generate synthetic sound effects and learn how to spatialize sound in 3D space Use Web Audio API with the Audio tag, getUserMedia, and the Page Visibility API

This work addresses this problem in the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) domain. We divide the general problem into five basic categories depending on the number of microphones being used and whether the interframe or interband correlation is considered. The first category deals with the single-channel problem where STFT coefficients at different frames and frequency bands are assumed to be independent. In this case, the noise reduction filter in each frequency band is basically a real gain. Since a gain does not improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for any given subband and frame, the noise reduction is basically achieved by liftering the subbands and frames that are less noisy while weighing down on those that are more noisy. The second category also concerns the single-channel problem. The difference is that now the interframe correlation is taken into account and a filter is applied in each subband instead of just a gain. The advantage of using the interframe correlation is that we can improve not only the long-time fullband SNR, but the frame-wise subband SNR as well. The third and fourth classes discuss the problem of multichannel noise reduction in the STFT domain with and without interframe correlation, respectively. In the last category, we consider the interband correlation in the design of the noise reduction filters. We illustrate the basic principle for the single-channel case as an example, while this concept can be generalized to other scenarios. In all categories, we propose different optimization cost functions from which we derive the optimal filters and we also define the performance measures that help analyzing them.

Pure Data (Pd) is a graphical programming environment for audio and more; libpd is a wrapper that turns Pd into a portable, embeddable audio library. Brian Eno's soundtrack of the game Spore is generated by Pure Data. Inception The App is based on libpd and has been downloaded more than three million times. The popular RJDJ also uses the technology. The purpose of this book is to present tools and techniques for using Pure Data and libpd as an audio engine in mobile apps (for Android and iOS). The tools described are perfect for the sound engine for a game or for transforming a phone or tablet into an experimental instrument. After reading the book, audio developers will know how to prepare Pd patches for use with libpd, and app developers will know how to use all features of the libpd API. Readers with some experience in both computer music and mobile development will be able to create complete musical apps. The book includes a crash course in Pd, just enough to allow readers to make sounds and control them, as well as a discussion of existing solutions for rapidly deploying Pd patches to mobile devices. An introduction to Android or iOS development is beyond the scope of this book; readers will be expected to have a basic grasp of their platform of choice, including a working development setup. The book will, however, explain how to integrate libpd into an existing setup. A number of sample apps, ranging from minimal to full featured, for both Android and iOS, will illustrate all major points.

"Speech Processing and Soft Computing" includes coverage of synergy between speech technology and bio-inspired soft computing methods. Through practical cases, the author explores, dissects and examines how soft computing may complement conventional techniques in speech enhancement and speech recognition in order to provide robust systems. The material is especially useful to graduate students and experienced researchers who are interested in expanding their horizons and investigating new research directions through review of the theoretical and practical settings of soft computing methods in very recent speech applications.

Inside Computer Music is an investigation of how new technological developments have influenced the creative possibilities of composers of computer music in the last 50 years. This book combines detailed research into the development of computer music techniques with nine case studies that analyze key works in the musical and technical development of computer music. The book's companion website offers demonstration videos of the techniques used and downloadable software. There, readers can view interviews and test emulations of the software used by the composers for themselves. The software also presents musical analyses of each of the nine case studies to enable readers to engage with the musical structure aurally and interactively.

Modern Recording Techniques is the bestselling, authoritative guide to sound and music recording. Whether you're just starting out or are looking for a step-up in the industry, Modern Recording Techniques provides an in-depth read on the art and technologies of music production. It's a must-have reference for all audio bookshelves. Using its familiar and accessible writing style, this ninth edition has been fully updated, presenting the latest production technologies and includes an in-depth coverage of the DAW, networked audio, MIDI, signal processing and much more. A robust companion website features video tutorials, web-links, an online glossary, flashcards, and a link to the author's blog. Instructor resources include a test bank and an instructor's manual. The ninth edition includes:Updated tips, tricks and insights for getting the best out of your studio; An introduction to the Apple iOS in music production; Introductions to new technologies and important retro studio techniques; The latest advancements in DAW systems, signal processing, mixing and mastering.

Selling Digital Music, Formatting Culture documents the transition of recorded music on CDs to music as digital files on computers. More than two decades after the first digital music files began circulating in online archives and playing through new software media players, we have yet to fully internalize the cultural and aesthetic consequences of these shifts. Tracing the emergence of what Jeremy Wade Morris calls the "digital music commodity," Selling Digital Music, Formatting Culture considers how a conflicted assemblage of technologies, users, and industries helped reformat popular music's meanings and uses. Through case studies of five key technologies - Winamp, metadata, Napster, iTunes, and cloud computing - this book explores how music listeners gradually came to understand computers and digital files as suitable replacements for their stereos and CD. Morris connects industrial production, popular culture, technology, and commerce in a narrative involving the aesthetics of music and computers, and the labor of producers and everyday users, as well as the value that listeners make and take from digital objects and cultural goods. Above all, Selling Digital Music, Formatting Culture is a sounding out of music's encounters with the interfaces, metadata, and algorithms of digital culture and of why the shifting form of the music commodity matters for the music and other media we love.

Video games open portals into fantastical worlds where imaginative play prevails. The virtual medium seemingly provides us with ample opportunities to behave and act out with relative safety and impunity. Or does it? Sound Play explores the aesthetic, ethical, and sociopolitical stakes of our engagements with gaming's audio phenomena-from sonic violence to synthesized operas, from democratic music-making to vocal sexual harassment. Author William Cheng shows how the simulated environments of games empower designers, composers, players, and scholars to test and tinker with music, noise, speech, and silence in ways that might not be prudent or possible in the real world. In negotiating utopian and alarmist stereotypes of video games, Sound Play synthesizes insights from across musicology, sociology, anthropology, communications, literary theory, and philosophy. With case studies that span Final Fantasy VI, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2, this book insists that what we do in there-in the safe, sound spaces of games-can ultimately teach us a great deal about who we are and what we value (musically, culturally, humanly) out here.

For most of the history of film-making, music has played an integral role serving many functions - such as conveying emotion, heightening tension, and influencing interpretation and inferences about events and characters. More recently, with the enormous growth of the gaming industry and the Internet, a new role for music has emerged. However, all of these applications of music depend on complex mental processes which are being identified through research on human participants in multimedia contexts. The Psychology of Music in Multimedia is the first book dedicated to this fascinating topic. The Psychology of Music in Multimedia presents a wide range of scientific research on the psychological processes involved in the integration of sound and image when engaging with film, television, video, interactive games, and computer interfaces. Collectively, the rich chapters in this edited volume represent a comprehensive treatment of the existing research on the multimedia experience, with the aim of disseminating the current knowledge base and inspiring future scholarship. The focus on empirical research and the strong psychological framework make this book an exceptional and distinctive contribution to the field. The international collection of contributors represents eight countries and a broad range of disciplines including psychology, musicology, neuroscience, media studies, film, and communications. Each chapter includes a comprehensive review of the topic and, where appropriate, identifies models that can be empirically tested. Part One presents contrasting theoretical approaches from cognitive psychology, philosophy, semiotics, communication, musicology, and neuroscience. Part Two reviews research on the structural aspects of music and multimedia, while Part Three focuses on research examining the influence of music on perceived meaning in the multimedia experience. Part Four explores empirical findings in a variety of real-world applications of music in multimedia including entertainment and educational media for children, video and computer games, television and online advertising, and auditory displays of information. Finally, the closing chapter in Part Five identifies emerging themes and points to the value of broadening the scope of research to encompass multisensory, multidisciplinary, and cross-cultural perspectives to advance our understanding of the role of music in multimedia. This is a valuable book for those in the fields of music psychology and musicology, as well as film and media studies.

This book offers an overview of audio processing, including the latest advances in the methodologies used in audio processing and speech recognition. First, it discusses the importance of audio indexing and classical information retrieval problem and presents two major indexing techniques, namely Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) and Phonetic Search. It then offers brief insights into the human speech production system and its modeling, which are required to produce artificial speech. It also discusses various components of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. Describing the chronological developments in ASR systems, and briefly examining the statistical models used in ASR as well as the related mathematical deductions, the book summarizes a number of state-of-the-art classification techniques and their application in audio/speech classification. By providing insights into various aspects of audio/speech processing and speech recognition, this book appeals a wide audience, from researchers and postgraduate students to those new to the field.

Unleash your iPod touch and take it to the limit using secret tips and techniques. Fast and fun to read, Taking Your iPod touch 5 to the Max will help you get the most out of iOS 5 on your iPod touch. You'll find all the best undocumented tricks, as well as the most efficient and enjoyable introduction to the iPod touch available. Starting with the basics, you'll quickly move on to discover the iPod touch's hidden potential, like how to connect to a TV and get contract-free VoIP. From e-mail and surfing the Web, to using iTunes, iBooks, games, photos, ripping DVDs and getting free VoIP with Skype or FaceTime--whether you have a new iPod touch, or an older iPod touch with iOS 5, you'll find it all in this book. You'll even learn tips on where to get the best and cheapest iPod touch accessories. Get ready to take iPod touch to the max What you'll learn * How to get your music, videos, and data onto your iPod touch * How to manage your media * Tips for shopping in the App Store and iTunes Store * Getting the most out of iBooks * Using Mail on your iPod touch * Keeping in touch with FaceTime Who this book is for Anyone who wants to get the most out of their iPod touch 5.Table of Contents * Bringing Home the iPod touch * Putting Your Data and Media on the iPod touch * Interacting with Your iPod touch * Browsing with Wi-fi and Safari * Touching Photos and Videos * Touching Your Music * Shopping at the iTunes Store * Shopping at the App Store * Reading and Buying Books with iBooks * Setting Up and Using Mail * Staying on Time and Getting There * Using your Desk Set * Photographing and Recording the World Around You * Video Calling with FaceTime * Customizing Your iPod touch

Over the last century, developments in electronic music and art have enabled new possibilities for creating audio and audio-visual artworks. With this new potential has come the possibility for representing subjective internal conscious states, such as the experience of hallucinations, using digital technology. Combined with immersive technologies such as virtual reality goggles and high-quality loudspeakers, the potential for accurate simulations of conscious encounters such as Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) is rapidly advancing. In Inner Sound, author Jonathan Weinel traverses the creative influence of ASCs, from Amazonian chicha festivals to the synaesthetic assaults of neon raves; and from an immersive outdoor electroacoustic performance on an Athenian hilltop to a mushroom trip on a tropical island in virtual reality. Beginning with a discussion of consciousness, the book explores how our subjective realities may change during states of dream, psychedelic experience, meditation, and trance. Taking a broad view across a wide range of genres, Inner Sound draws connections between shamanic art and music, and the modern technoshamanism of psychedelic rock, electronic dance music, and electroacoustic music. Going beyond the sonic into the visual, the book also examines the role of altered states in film, visual music, VJ performances, interactive video games, and virtual reality applications. Through the analysis of these examples, Weinel uncovers common mechanisms, and ultimately proposes a conceptual model for Altered States of Consciousness Simulations (ASCSs). This theoretical model describes how sound can be used to simulate various subjective states of consciousness from a first-person perspective, in an interactive context. Throughout the book, the ethical issues regarding altered states of consciousness in electronic music and audio-visual media are also examined, ultimately allowing the reader not only to consider the design of ASCSs, but also the implications of their use for digital society.

Notion is a unique program that combines notation, sequencing, and live performance into one easy-to-use package. This book shows all types of users - amateurs, teachers, and professionals - how to best use the program, and how it fits their creative needs for efficient and effective music production and performance at any level. Learn the fundamentals of Notion's interface, develop an intelligent and well-thought-out workflow, and discover how to integrate your desktop computer and iPad so that your productivity can continue whether you're at your desk, in the studio, or on the road. Noted music technology professor George J. Hess has been extremely close to the PreSonus development team as they have elevated this valuable application to an entirely new level. The insights he brings are invaluable, offering an incredible all-access pass to music notation for the busy and creative musician. Create Music with Notion includes practical projects and supporting session files for all experience levels, along with focused video tutorials that demonstrate many of the creative techniques presented in the text, while revealing how to get the most out of the included sessions.

An innovative investigation of the inner workings of Spotify that traces the transformation of audio files into streamed experience. Spotify provides a streaming service that has been welcomed as disrupting the world of music. Yet such disruption always comes at a price. Spotify Teardown contests the tired claim that digital culture thrives on disruption. Borrowing the notion of "teardown" from reverse-engineering processes, in this book a team of five researchers have playfully disassembled Spotify's product and the way it is commonly understood. Spotify has been hailed as the solution to illicit downloading, but it began as a partly illicit enterprise that grew out of the Swedish file-sharing community. Spotify was originally praised as an innovative digital platform but increasingly resembles a media company in need of regulation, raising questions about the ways in which such cultural content as songs, books, and films are now typically made available online. Spotify Teardown combines interviews, participant observations, and other analyses of Spotify's "front end" with experimental, covert investigations of its "back end." The authors engaged in a series of interventions, which include establishing a record label for research purposes, intercepting network traffic with packet sniffers, and web-scraping corporate materials. The authors' innovative digital methods earned them a stern letter from Spotify accusing them of violating its terms of use; the company later threatened their research funding. Thus, the book itself became an intervention into the ethics and legal frameworks of corporate behavior.

Die Optimierung des Web-Auftritts ist fur Entscheider und Mediengestalter ein wesentliches Ziel ihrer Tatigkeit. Anhand von Erkenntnissen der Ergonomie und Arbeitswissenschaft erklart der Autor, was Besucher auf Internetseiten fesselt und zum Kauf anregt, aber auch, was abschreckt. Fur die Planung eines erfolgreichen E-Business-Auftritts vermittelt das Buch wichtige Grundsatze. Fur das Design einer Informationsseite werden Internet-spezifische Prasentationsregeln erlautert, deren Ziel ein Internet-Auftritt ist. Ein Uberblick uber die grundlegenden Internet-Konzepte rundet das Werk ab."

Ableton Grooves will empower you to create realistic-sounding drum grooves using Ableton Live and the Ableton Grooves Drum Racks - specifically created for this book by certified Ableton Live trainer Josh Bess. Each groove is written using MIDI Maps, an original and powerful programming concept introduced for the first time in this book. With MIDI Maps and the MIDI Note Editor, you'll learn not only how to read the exercises but also how to use them to develop your own creative and musical grooves. Bess presents musical notation alongside the MIDI Maps so that you can understand both the technological and musical sides of what you're learning and creating. Ableton Grooves teaches much more than how to map out beats and grooves! It demonstrates concepts that become stepping-stones to a new way of thinking and creating while introducing diverse groove styles. Tips and hints throughout the book and accompanying DVD-ROM reveal several ways you can create something new for yourself. This book demonstrates how to program many groove styles, while presenting several techniques that add important musical feel and emotion. Included are over 80 standard and diverse dance, rock, metal, funk, R&B, jazz, Latin, and hybrid drum set grooves.

Ableton Live 9 is a groundbreaking music production and performance application whose uniquely nonlinear and incredibly flexible features set it far apart from all the other digital audio applications. It is equally adept at making beats, remixing, live recording, DJing, live looping, sound design, electronic music, hip-hop, and much more. Unlike other books about Live that simply explain its features like a second manual, this hands-on-centric book contains a series of exercises that walk you through all the features you need to produce professional-sounding music with Ableton Live 9. As a fundamental instructional component to Power Tools for Ableton Live 9, certified Ableton instructor Jake Perrine guides you through the creation of an actual track from start to finish. In addition, you get plenty of practice using Live with the included audio content, video tutorials, exercises, audio samples, and third-party plug-in demos contained on the accompanying DVD-ROM. A substantial appendix section offers discussions of important non-Ableton-specific topics, including digital audio basics, components of a producer's studio, considerations when buying a DAW computer, and more.

Digital Performer for Engineers and Producers is designed to help people who already have some familiarity with Digital Performer - or any other DAW software - jump directly into some of the extremely important and powerful capabilities of this incredible software. Author and noted DP guru David E. Roberts has been directly involved with the development of this incredibly powerful and innovative DAW software since 1993; he is also responsible for artist/VIP support at MOTU and has been training new users for the past 20 years. Considering Roberts' depth of understanding and insightful experience, this Quick Pro Guide offers a uniquely succinct path to understanding and eventually mastering Digital Performer. Digital Performer for Engineers and Producers focuses specifically on music production, mixing, film scoring, and live performance. This important resource helps the reader get right down to the essential tasks, providing insight, tips, and tricks that help the creative mind link existing knowledge to the important activities most commonly implemented by DAW users at every level. The accompanying DVD-ROM provides extremely powerful and supportive video tutorials featuring Magic Dave Roberts doing what he does best: revealing the insider tips and tricks that have kept Digital Performer at the forefront of DAW technology since its inception.

(Quick Pro Guides). This Quick Pro guide is specifically designed to help engineers and producers who are already proficient in another DAW software platform, make the transition to Logic Pro. Text, illustrations, and examples are geared toward demonstrating the creative, practical, and technical benefits provided by Apple in this well-developed application. Everything in this book is to instruct someone who is already somewhat proficient in the modern recording world on how to use this powerfully exciting and creatively conceived software tool. The guide includes a Quickstart chapter for instant gratification, allowing the novice to become familiar with the software in a minimum amount of time, along with an accompanying DVD-ROM containing video and audio examples to support the text. Dot Bustelo's signature approach to teaching Logic has been sought out by musicians of every musical genre. She has helped them and through this book will help you get up and running quickly. You'll find many of the tips, tricks, and insider techniques that powered Logic Pro to its industry-leading status as the best tool for unleashing creativity in recording and producing.

Once you've learned how to use microphones and mixers (Book 1), and to record instruments and vocals (Book 2), discover how to get the most out of your recording software and plug-ins in Book 3 of the Hal Leonard Recording Method. In addition to providing valuable insights into the functionalities, feature, and capabilities of these modern recording tools, it covers the basics of digital recording in a very straightforward and focused manner. Also included are informative interviews with several power users who share the ways they put technology to work in their recordings and productions. This provides a valuable balance of practical insights and insider tips and tricks, making Recording Software and Plug-ins a powerful resource.