Intelligent drummer module based on beat-tracking

Juan Camilo Gómez Villamil

Universidad de Quindío

Juan Pablo Hernández Mejía

Universidad de Quindío

Luis Miguel Capacho Valbuena

Universidad de Quindío

Introduction: This article is the product of the research “Intelligent drummer module based on beat-tracking”, developed in the Universidad del Quindío in 2020.

Problem: Most of the beat-tracking research tends to work on the exploration of theoretical strategies and not on the development of automatic devices that can be functional in real musical environments. As a consequence of the above, there is a scarcity of electronic devices for musical backing based on the beat-tracking technique.

Objective: To develop an automatic musical backing device based on beat-tracking with real-time operation.

Methodology: To achieve the general objective, the cascade development methodology is applied to address the process in three large phases: Development of the algorithm, implementation, and design of the prototype.

Results: The beat tracking algorithm is evaluated with 179 music excerpts of various musical genres and tested on the evaluation toolbox afterward. It is found that the drummer module algorithm has an AMLt (Allowed Metrical Levels, continuity not required) measure of 74.32%.

Conclusion: The algorithm provides the drummer module a solid operation and the multithreaded programming grants the embedded system real-time playback capability without lag problems.

Originality: Design of a functional product based on beat tracking that provides three uses for a musician: musical accompaniment, musical practice, and Home-Studio recording.

Limitations: The implementation of this prototype within an embedded system with a lack of computational
resources and the complexity of the analysis of audio signals.

Keywords: Algorithm, Beat-tracking, Onset, Embedded system, Multithreading, Drums
Published
2021-01-11
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https://plu.mx/plum/a/?doi=10.16925/2357-6014.2021.01.08