The So Strangely Podcast

Music technology PhD Candidate Tim de Reuse recommends “Unmixer: An Interface for Extracting and Remixing Loops” by Jordan Smith,Yuta Kawasaki, and Masataka Goto, published in the proceedings of ISMIR 2019. Tim and Finn interview Jordan about the origins of this project, the algorithm behind the loop extraction, the importance of repetition in music, and the creative and playful applications of Unmixer. Note: This conversation was recorded in December 2019. Techically issues with some tracks contributed to delays. Apologies for the choppy audio quality. Time Stamps [0:01:40] Project Summary [0:05:05] Demonstration of Unmixer [0:14:27] Origins of the UnMixer project  [0:19:44] Factorisation algorithm  [0:28:37] Computational and musical objectives for factorisation [0:36:15] The Unmixer web interface [0:41:30] 2nd Demonstration, parameters and track selection [0:49:13] What Unmixer tells us about music Show notes Recommended article: Smith, J, Kawasaki, Y, & Goto, M. (2019) Unmixer: An Interface for Extracting and Remixing Loops. Proceedings of  20th ISMIR meeting, Delft Netherlands. UnMixer website: https://unmixer.ongaaccel.jp/ Project webpage Interviewee: Dr. Jordan BL Smith, Research Scientist at Tik Tok.Website, twitter Co-host: PhD Candidate Tim de Reuse, website, twitter Papers cited in the discussion: Smith, J. B., & Goto, M. (2018, April). Nonnegative tensor factorization for source separation of loops in audio. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) (pp. 171-175). IEEE. Schmidhuber, J. (2009). Simple algorithmic theory of subjective beauty, novelty, surprise, interestingness, attention, curiosity, creativity, art, science, music, jokes. Journal of SICE, 48(1). Rafii, Z., & Pardo, B. (2012). Repeating pattern extraction technique (REPET): A simple method for music/voice separation. IEEE transactions on audio, speech, and language processing, 21(1), 73-84. Music sampled: Daft Punk, Random Access Memories (2013): Doing it Right (ft. Panda Bear) Martin Solveig & Dragonette, Smash (2011): Hello – Single Edit Mura Masa, Soundtrack To a Death (2014): I’ve Never Felt So Good Other references: Madeon’s Adventure Machine Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2020. The closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion sound demo 1.

This episode brings recommendations from the 2019 ISMIR conference at TUDelft in the Netherlands. A number of contributors, old and new, highlighted papers that had caught their attention.  Note: At ISMIR, all accepted papers were presented via a short 4 minute talk and a poster. This arrangement made it possible to keep all presentations in a single track. All papers and permited talks are posted on the ISMIR site. Time Stamps [0:01:51] Matan’s rec [0:07:27] Rachel’s rec [0:10:51] Andrew’s rec [0:15:20] Ashley and Felicia’s rec [0:19:59] Néstor’s rec [0:26:55] Tejaswinee’s rec [0:31:13] Brian’s rec [0:36:06] Finn’s recs Show notes Matan Gover recommends [A13] Conditioned-U-Net: Introducing a Control Mechanism in the U-Net for Multiple Source Separations by Gabriel Meseguer Brocal and Geoffroy Peeters (paper, presentation) Andrew Demetriou recommends [F10] Tunes Together: Perception and Experience of Collaborative Playlists by So Yeon Park; Audrey Laplante; Jin Ha Lee; Blair Kaneshiro (paper, presentation) Tejaswinee Kelkar recommends [B03] Estimating Unobserved Audio Features for Target-Based Orchestration by Jon Gillick; Carmine-Emanuele Cella; David Bamman (paper, presentation) Ashley Burgoyne and Felicia Villalobos recommend [E13] SAMBASET: A Dataset of Historical Samba de Enredo Recordings for Computational Music Analysis by Lucas Maia; Magdalena Fuentes; Luiz Biscainho; Martín Rocamora; Slim Essid (paper, presentation) Néstor Nápoles López recommends the anniversary paper [E-00] 20 Years of Automatic Chord Recognition from Audio by Johan Pauwels; Ken O’Hanlon; Emilia Gomez; Mark B. Sandler (paper, presentation) Rachel Bittner recommends [A06] Cover Detection with Dominant Melody Embeddings by Guillaume Doras; Geoffroy Peeters (paper, presentation) Brian McFee recommends [E-06] FMP Notebooks: Educational Material for Teaching and Learning Fundamentals of Music Processing by Meinard Müller; Frank Zalkow (paper, presentation, webpage) And Finn’s rec: [D-12] AIST Dance Video Database: Multi-Genre, Multi-Dancer, and Multi-Camera Database for Dance Information Processing  By Shuhei Tsuchida; Satoru Fukayama; Masahiro Hamasaki; Masataka Goto. (Paper, presentation) Keynotes: Henkjan Honing’s What makes us musical animals and Georgina Born’s MIR redux: Knowledge and realworld challenges, and new interdisciplinary futures [F-14] The ISMIR Explorer – A Visual Interface for Exploring 20 Years of ISMIR Publications by Thomas Low; Christian Hentschel; Sayantan Polley; Anustup Das; Harald Sack; Andreas Nurnberger; Sebastian Stober (paper, presentation, website) Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2019. Algorithmic music samples from the blog post Music Transformer: Generating Music with Long-Term Structure, and included under the principles of fair dealing. The closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion sound demo 1.

Music Education doctoral candidate Ethan Hein recommends “Equity and Music Education: Euphemisms, Terminal Naivety, and Whiteness” by Juliet Hess, published in Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 2017. Ethan and Finn interview Dr. Juliet Hess about this study and whiteness in music education, and addressing systemic racism from within our areas of academia. Time Stamps [0:00:10] Intro with Ethan Hein [0:08:29] Interview: Dr. Juliet Hess, Background and Case Studies [0:18:50] Interview: Multiculturalism and Music [0:29:31] Interview: Whiteness in the Conservatory [0:36:19] Interview: Context and Implications [0:44:06] Interview: Future work [0:51:50] Closing with Ethan Hein Show notes Recommended article: Hess, J. (2017). Equity and Music Education: Euphemisms, Terminal Naivety, and Whiteness. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 16(3). (HTML, PDF) Interviewee: Dr. Juliet Hess, Assistant Professor of Music Education at Michigan State University  Co-host: Ethan Hein, Doctoral Candidate in Music Education at New York University (website, twitter) Sources cited in the discussion: Kendrick Lamar’s Alright (youtube) Chris Thile’s performance on Prairie Home companion is no longer available Emma Stevens – Blackbird by The Beatles sung in Mi’kmaq (youtube) Correction: this performance is from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, not Newfoundland where there has been controversy around seal hunting. Both provinces are within the ancestral territory of Mi’kmaq People. Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2006. Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. 2nd edition. Toronto, ON: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (Publisher page) Juliet Hess (2018) Interrupting the symphony: unpacking the importance placed on classical concert experiences, Music Education Research, 20:1, 11-21, DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2016.1202224 (HTML) Juliet Hess’ new book:  Hess, Juliet. (2019) Music Education for Social Change: Constructing an Activist Music Education,  Routledge (Publisher page) Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2019. The closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion sound demo 1.

Postdoctoral fellow Sarah Sauvé recommends “Individual differences in rhythmic cortical entrainment correlate with predictive behavior in sensorimotor synchronization” by Sylvie Nozaradan, Isabelle Peret, and Peter E. Keller, published in Nature Scientific Reports in 2016. Sarah and Finn interview Dr. Nozaradan about the measures of metrical perception and rhythm production, entrainment to difficult stimuli, and what these results imply for a replication study conducted with older participants. Time Stamps [0:00:10] Intro with Sarah [0:09:41] Interview: Where this study comes from [0:14:25] Interview: Challenging stimuli [0:22:09] Interview: Older listeners replication [0:26:43] Interview: Task 3, metrical prediction [0:38:25] Interview: Implications for everyday musical experiences [0:44:43] Closing debrief Show notes Recommended article: Nozaradan, S., Peretz, I., & Keller, P. E. (2016). Individual differences in rhythmic cortical entrainment correlate with predictive behavior in sensorimotor synchronization. Scientific reports, 6, 20612. Interviewee: Dr. Sylvie Nozaradan, Institute of neuroscience at UC Louvain, in Belgium (Google Scholar Profile) Co-host: Dr. Sarah Sauvé, Postdoctoral fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Website, twitter) Contact Questions, comments, and article recommendations are always welcome! Get in touch here, through the contact page, or on twitter, or email the producer directly: finn at sostrangely.com Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2019. The closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion sound demo 1.

Music tech and data science professor Brian McFee recommends Vocals in Music Matter: The Relevance of Vocals in the Minds of Listeners by Andrew Demetriou, Andreas Jansson, Aparna Kumar, and Rachel M. Bittner, published in the 2018 ISMIR proceedings. Brian and Finn interview Andrew Demetriou about this research combining descriptions of music on Spotify and survey responses on what users pay attention to, like, and dislike in music generally and vocals specifically. Time Stamps [0:00:00] Introduction with Brian [0:10:05] Interview: Introduction: Origins of paper and Survey 1 analysis [0:20:15] Interview: Results of survey 1 and ethical research practices at Spotify [0:27:03] Interview: Second Survey construction, analysis, and results [0:34:37] Interview: Problems of terminology and labeling [0:43:27] Interview: Overall results and absence of vocals terms in music descriptions [0:53:30] Interview: Implications for everyday music listening [0:58:40] Closing with Brian (12/10 for efficient summary) Show notes Recommended article: Demetriou, A., Jansson, A., Kumar, A., & Bittner, R. M. Vocals in Music Matter: The Relevance of Vocals in the Minds of Listeners. Proceedings of ISMIR 2018 (pp. 514-520). Slide deck from the corresponding ISMIR talk that caught Brian’s attention Interviewee: Andrew Demetriou Co-host: Prof. Brian McFee And here is the action shot of the research team card sorting participants’ text responses to Survey 1. Spotify researchers (left to right) Rachel Bittner, Andreas Jansson, Andrew Demetriou, and Aparna Kumar working through the text responses to Survey 1. Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2018. The closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion sound demo 1.

Music Theorist Mariusz Kozak recommends “When the Sound Becomes the Goal. 4E Cognition and Teleomusicality in Early Infancy” by Andrea Schiavio, Dylan van der Schyff, Silke Kruse-Weber and Renee Timmers, published in Frontiers in Psychology. Marius and Finn interview Andrea about this framing of early musical development and implications of an embodied, embedded, extended and enactive approach to cognitive science. Time Stamps [0:00:10] Intro with Mariusz [0:11:16] Interview: Origins and the 4 Es [0:21:40] Interview: Attention, Intention, and Mirror Neurons [0:32:59] Interview: Sound Goals and Musical Actions [0:40:28] Interview: Reception of Theory [0:53:03] Closing with Mariusz Show notes Recommended article: Schiavio, A., van der Schyff, D., Kruse-Weber, S., & Timmers, R. (2017). When the Sound Becomes the Goal. 4E Cognition and Teleomusicality in Early Infancy. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1585. Interviewee: Dr. Andrea Schiavio, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Graz Co-host: Prof. Mariusz Kozak, Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia University Works cited in the discussion: Chemero, A. (2011). Radical embodied cognitive science. MIT press. Craighero, L., Leo, I., Umilta, C., and Simion, F. (2011). Newborns’ preference for goal-directed actions. Cognition, 20, 26–32. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011 02.011 D’Ausilio, A. (2007). The role of the mirror system in mapping complex sounds into actions. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 5847–5848. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0979-07.2007 D’Ausilio, A. (2009). Mirror-like mechanisms and music. The Scientific World Journal, 9, 1415–1422. doi:10.1100/tsw.2009.160 Gerson, S. A., Bekkering, H., and Hunnius, S. (2015a). Short-term motor training, but not observational training, alters neurocognitive mechanisms of action processing in infancy. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 1207–1214. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00774 Haslinger, B., Erhard, P., Altenmüller, E., Schroeder, U., Boecker, H., & Ceballos-Baumann, A. O. (2005). Transmodal sensorimotor networks during action observation in professional pianists. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 282–293. doi:10.1162/0898929053124893 Haueisen, J., & Knösche, T. R. (2001). Involuntary motor activity in pianists evoked by music perception. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13, 786–792. doi:10.1162/08989290152541449 Hickok-Gallese debate at NYU (2103) Do Mirror Neurons Explain Anything? Kohler, E., Keysers, C., Umiltà, M. A., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., and Rizzolatti, G. (2002). Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons. Science, 297, 846–848. doi: 10.1126/science.1070311 Menary, R. (2010). Introduction to the special issue on 4E cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 9, 459–463. Mukamel R., Ekstrom A.D., Kaplan J., Iacoboni M., Fried I., Single-Neuron Responses in Humans during Execution and Observation of Actions. Current Biology, vol. 20, nº 8. Novembre, G., Ticini, L. F., Schütz-Bosbach, S., & Keller, P. E. (2014). Motor simulation and the coordination of joint actions in real time. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 1062–1068. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst086 Overy, K., and Molnar-Szakacs, I. (2009). Being together in time: musical experience and the mirror neuron system. Music Perception, 26, 489–504. doi: 10.1525/mp.2009.26.5.489 Perone, S., Madole, K. L., Ross-Sheehy, S., Carey, M., and Oakes, L. M. (2009). The relation between infants’ activity with objects and attention to object appearance. Developmental Psycholology, 44, 1242–1248. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.44.5.1242 Proffitt, D. R., Stefanucci, J., Banton, T., & Epstein, W. (2003). The role of effort in perceiving distance. Psychological Science, 14(2), 106-112. Schiavio, A. & Timmers, R. (2016). Motor and audiovisual learning consolidate auditory memory of tonally ambiguous melodies. Music Perception, 34(1), 21-32 Schiavio, A. & van der Schyff, D. (2016). Beyond musical qualia. Reflecting on the concept of experience. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, & Brain, 26(4), 366-378 Thompson, E. (2007). Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Wilson, A. D., & Golonka, S. (2013). Embodied cognition is not what you think it is. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 58. Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2018.  The closing music includes a sample of Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion Sound Demo 1.

Data Scientist Vincent Lostanlen recommends Katherine Kinnaird’s “Aligned Hierarchies: A Multi-Scale Structure-Based Representation for Music-Based Data Streams”, published in the proceedings of ISMIR (2016). Vincent and Finn interview Dr. Kinnaird about this method for abstracting structure in music through repetition, how it has been implemented for fingerprinting on Chopin’s Mazurkas, and how Aligned Hierarchies could be used for other tasks and on other musics. Show notes Recommended article: Kinnaird, K. M. (2016). Aligned Hierarchies: A Multi-Scale Structure-Based Representation for Music-Based Data Streams. In ISMIR  (pp. 337-343). http://m.mr-pc.org/ismir16/website/articles/020_Paper.pdf Interviewee: Dr. Katie Kinnaird, Data Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow, Affiliated to the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University twitter @kmkinnaird ‏ Co-host: Dr. Vincent Lostanlen, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Visiting scholar at MARL at NYU, twitter: @lostanlen Papers cited in the discussion: M. Casey, C. Rhodes, and M. Slaney. Analysis of minimum distances in high-dimensional musical spaces. IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, 16(5):1015 – 1028, 2008. J. Foote. Visualizing music and audio using self- similarity. Proc. ACM Multimedia 99, pages 77–80, 1999. M. Goto. A chorus-section detection method for musical audio signals and its application to a music listening station. IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, 14(5):1783–1794, 2006. P. Grosche, J. Serrà, M. Müller, and J.Ll. Arcos. Structure-based audio fingerprinting for music retrieval. 13th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, 2012. Time Stamps [0:00:10] Intro with Vincent Lostanlen [0:17:22] Interview: Origins of the Aligned Hierarchies [0:30:22] Interview: Implementation & Fingerprinting on the Mazurkas [0:52:55] Interview: New applications and developments for Aligned Hierarchies [1:02:57] Closing with Vincent Lostanlen Credits The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2018. The closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s Speech-Song Illusion Sound Demo 1.

A short introduction to The So Strangely Podcast on recent research in Music Science. **** Follow the podcast on Twitter @sostrangelypod Get in touch with the producer, finn @ sostrangely.com **** The So Strangely Podcast is produced by Finn Upham, 2018. Closing music includes a sample of Diana Deutsch’s speech-song illusion sound demo 1.