Our review article on melody extraction algorithms for the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine is finally available online! The printed edition will be coming out in March 2014.
I believe (not just as I am a co-author!) that it will become a key reference in the Music Information Retrieval area and beyond, as it provides a very nice overview of approaches, challenges and applications for melody extraction from polyphonic music signals. Justin Salamon has been the main author (congratulations, Justin!) and the paper has benefit from the contribution of two key experts: Gaël Richard, and Dan Ellis, with who I had the chance to collaborate on a previous comparative study on melody extraction published at IEEE TASP (128 citations according to google scholar).
Finally, I like very much this kind of tutorial papers providing a comprehensive introduction to a given topic and with a very attractive design. I hope you will enjoy it!
J. Salamon, E. Gómez, D. P. W. Ellis and G. Richard, “Melody Extraction from Polyphonic Music Signals: Approaches, Applications and Challenges“, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 31(2):118-134, Mar. 2014.
Abstract—Melody extraction algorithms aim to produce a sequence of frequency values corresponding to the pitch of the dominant melody from a musical recording. Over the past decade melody extraction has emerged as an active research topic, comprising a large variety of proposed algorithms spanning a wide range of techniques. This article provides an overview of these techniques, the applications for which melody extraction is useful, and the challenges that remain. We start with a discussion of ‘melody’ from both musical and signal processing perspectives, and provide a case study which interprets the output of a melody extraction algorithm for specific excerpts. We then provide a comprehensive comparative analysis of melody extraction algorithms based on the results of an international evaluation campaign. We discuss issues of algorithm design, evaluation and applications which build upon melody extraction. Finally, we discuss some of the remaining challenges in melody extraction research in terms of algorithmic performance, development, and evaluation methodology.
For further information about this article please visit Justin Salamon’s research page.
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Emilia Gómez: personal website 