ProjectProposal-NankunHuang
From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06
MELODY, a revolutionary music creation/management system
::1 Outline
This project aims to create a music composition system for music composers and song writers. The main motivation is that music composers and song writers are much more comfortable writing their music on a standard 5 line score than using some sort of computer input. On the other hand, the computer is a very powerful tool to preview/edit/remix music.
::2 Target User Group
2.1 Professional Music Composer The first group of user is professional song composers. These are the people who are responsible for creating the notes and melodies in a song. They do not worry about words in a song (in case of vocals) or which instruments are used to play certain parts of music (symphony music). Music composers are worried with 3 main things: The melody, the cords and the beat of the music. To express these things unto a recordable medium, the traditional use a 5 lined music score.
2.2 Song lyric writer The second group of users which the MELODY system target are the song-writers. Song writers are people who write out lyrics to the song. Song-writer’s main responsibility is to create rhyming words to a song. This process is typically done while the song melody itself is being written or when the music itself is done. Lyric-writer’s main difficulty is to create lyrics which synergize well with the rhythm and beat of the song.
2.3 Music DJ/audio engineer/music producer The next groups of users which the MELODY system targets are DJs, sound engineers. Music DJ and music producers. This encompass a broad group of people who are in charge of editing, mixing and synthesizing music in addition to the base track produced by the music composer and the lyrics written by the song-writer. This group of people require an easy collaboration tool which stores the music in digital format so that it can be easily altered. Storing and archiving music would also be under the responsibility of this group. In the case of music produced for a symphony, this group of people are also responsible for rearranging the music for different instruments and printing out the sheeted music so that instrument players in the symphony can use them.
::3 Problem descriptions
3.1 Difficulty in previewing music The first problem with the traditional way of writing music (by marking notes on the 5-line score) is the difficulty involved in previewing what the final music will sound like. Music composers often “hear” the sounds in their heads before writing these down into a score. However there is no way for the music composer to know how the final music will sound like or whether it will confer to what he/she has in mind.
3.2 Difficulty in mixing/editing handwritten music on computer Another problem with the traditional music production process is the difficulty of mixing/editing handwritten music scores. Usually these scores needs to be digitized through some method ( such as a midi keyboard ) and the resulting music file can then be put through a sound editing package to mix/edit the music. This process of digitizing is slow, costly, cumbersome and error prone.
3.3 Discomfort in composing music on a computer Other music composers resort to composing their music directly on a computer using a midi keyboard input device. However many music composers avoids this because it’s not as intuitive and natural to them as writing on the 5 lined score sheet. There are also portability problems when it comes to creating music on the computer. Usually the physical places where song composers feels the most inspired are not places where there is easy access to the computer. Even laptops are limiting due to battery life.
3.4 Difficulty in archiving sheet music For music created in the traditional music sheet, storage and archiving are difficult. Compared to a computerized database, using paper as a storage medium has many disadvantages such as the difficulty in categorization, difficulty in searching.
3.5 Difficulty in creating custom printout of sheet music When creating symphony music for many instruments, it’s often difficult to generate computerized printouts for all different types of instruments. This process is usually done manually by a separate group of people who type the score out. This task is laborious and time-consuming and has potential to be made easier
::4 Analysis
The professional music composer rarely works in an office environment. Being artists who rely heavily on their inspiration, Music composers usually come up with their best tunes while in a comfortable environment. Many famous music composers work from their home or holiday resort.
In order to work with comfort, these artists definitely need the kind of interface which they are most comfortable with. Most musicians have been trained from young to read and write from the standard 5-lined musical score. As a result of these years of training, using a pen/pencil and the 5 lined score sheet is the most natural way to compose tunes for most music composers.
One of the biggest obstacles for music composers who compose by using the traditional pen and paper medium is the difficulty in previewing the music. Although trained composers can often “hear” the tunes in their head, they also like to validate their composition by actually hearing it. Traditionally, music composers can do this by playing out his/her composition with a piano or by digitizing the music score and then previewing the result on a computer. Both of this process are slow and cumbersome and can break away the composer from his/her “flow” of composition.
Alternatives existing technology do exist to alleviate some of these problems. One of the technologies available currently is the midi keyboard which can be connected to the computer to digitize music. This approach simplifies the process of converting music from the paper format into the digital format.
From the perspective of a song lyric writer, he wants to create words which match the tune of the song and yet rhyme well. The song lyric writer’s main problem is to find an easy way to sync up his words to the song’s tunes. Usually this process is manually, the song writer would sing out the lyrics as a demonstration to the singer who would then learn it. Another approach would be to write out the song lyrics next to the song notes, but this is extra labor and it’s also error-prone.
For the music engineer/production manager, they need an easy way to edit/mix/cut music, for this reason, this process is usually done in the computer. For this reason, many such production package exist such as Sonic Foundry Soundforge and Apple garageband exist. These programs allow music to be easily mixed and edited. However they do not solve the fundamental problem that handwritten music can’t be edited or stored on the computer.
This creates a fundamental disjoint between the need of the music composer, the song lyric writer versus the need of the production side of music creation. The former 2 parties prefer to work on paper with a pen which is comfortable, convenient and non-obtrusive to their creative process. However, the production studios like to store music in the digital format due to the ease of editing, re-mastering, storage and archiving.
::5 Solution & Sketches
5.1 Music Production diagram
This diagram shows how music is usually produced in a traditional production studio and also in the MELODY system. The different units which oversee the production music are the Music composer who writes the tunes, the lyric writer who produces the lyrics to the song, the singer who produce the vocals and finally the audio/effects engineers who mixes the songs into a final CD. The MEODY system targets 3 of these 4 essential groups of people who produce the music
5.2 Work flow diagram
This shows the overall picture of the MELODY solution system. The music composer can use the Anoto-enabled 5 lined music sheet to write his/her composition. The music notes are automatically fed into the MELODY computer and the resulting preview music generated from the digitally recognized notes can be automatically sent back to the music composer’s smart-phone as an mp3 file so that the music composer can immediately preview his results.
This music file is also captured and sent to the lyric writer. The lyric writer can then use this as a basis to start his lyric writing on a specially formatted digital paper.
The resulting information are all fed into the MELODY central computer where edits to the music can be made. At any time during the production process, previews can be made through a MIDI synthesizer
For symphony music which has multiple instruments involved, the MELODY system can also generate score printouts. These printouts can be automatically generated since all of the required information prepared by the song-writer and editors are already inside the MELODY system, sheeted printouts are only one way of representing these data.
5.3 Non-Destructive file format
The key to the power of the MELODY system is a non-destructive file format in which each layer of edits can be put on top the next without affecting the layers beneath it. The main components of “music composition” and “song lyrics” can be captured via the anoto system.
Edits can then be made to the music itself ( change of pitch ..etc ) while for song lyrics, synchronization information can be added. On top of this, all other edits such as mixing in other tracks/sound effects are added.
With this architecture, the Music composer can change his/her composition slightly without affecting everything else in the system. It’s the same for the song lyric writer, changing the lyrics will not change the sound effects or other tracks being mixed into the final music. This non-destructive way of creating music offers many advantages over the linear sequential way which is traditionally employed.
5.4 Sample user interface for music composer
