A Real-Time Tempo and Meter Tracking System for Rhythmic Improvis

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time system for detecting tempo and meter in rhythmic improvisation, enabling computers to synchronize with human musicians without prior agreement, evaluated through simulation with promising results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel real-time rhythmic feature detection system that operates without prior input agreement, facilitating musical interaction between humans and computers.

Findings

System detects tempo and meter consistently under certain conditions

Evaluation through simulation shows promising accuracy

Provides a foundation for more robust rhythm synchronization systems

Abstract

Music is a form of expression that often requires interaction between players. If one wishes to interact in such a musical way with a computer, it is necessary for the machine to be able to interpret the input given by the human to find its musical meaning. In this work, we propose a system capable of detecting basic rhythmic features that can allow an application to synchronize its output with the rhythm given by the user, without having any prior agreement or requirement on the possible input. The system is described in detail and an evaluation is given through simulation using quantitative metrics. The evaluation shows that the system can detect tempo and meter consistently under certain settings, and could be a solid base for further developments leading to a system robust to rhythmically changing inputs.