#lang scribble/manual @(require (for-label racket)) @title{Onsets} Onset detector@section{categories} UGens>Analysis @section{related} Classes/BeatTrack, Classes/Loudness, Classes/MFCC, Classes/Pitch, Classes/KeyTrack @section{description} An onset detector for musical audio signals - detects the beginning of notes/drumbeats/etc. Outputs a control-rate trigger signal which is 1 when an onset is detected, and 0 otherwise. For more details of all the processes involved, the different onset detection functions, and their evaluation, see: D. Stowell and M. D. Plumbley. Adaptive whitening for improved real-time audio onset detection. emphasis::Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC2007)::, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2007. See http://www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/digitalmusic/papers/2007/StowellPlumbley07-icmc.pdf. @section{classmethods} @section{private} categories @section{method} kr @section{argument} chain an FFT chain. @section{argument} threshold the detection threshold, typically between 0 and 1, although in rare cases you may find values outside this range useful. @section{argument} odftype chooses which emphasis::onset detection function:: is used. In many cases the default will be fine. More choices are listed below. The remaining args are all tweak factors, explained below in section Advanced features: @section{argument} relaxtime @section{argument} floor @section{argument} mingap @section{argument} medianspan @section{argument} whtype @section{argument} rawodf @section{Discussion} The following choices are available for @racketblock[odftype:: : ] @section{definitionlist} ## @racketblock[\power:: || generally OK, good for percussive input, and also very efficient ## ] @racketblock[\magsum:: || generally OK, good for percussive input, and also very efficient ## ] @racketblock[\complex:: || performs generally very well, but more CPU-intensive ## ] @racketblock[\rcomplex:: || performs generally very well, and slightly more efficient than ] @racketblock[\complex:: ## ] @racketblock[\phase:: || generally good, especially for tonal input, medium efficiency ## ] @racketblock[\wphase:: || generally very good, especially for tonal input, medium efficiency ## ] @racketblock[\mkl:: || generally very good, medium efficiency, pretty different from the other methods :: For the FFT chain, you should typically use a frame size of 512 or 1024 (at 44.1 kHz sampling rate) and 50% hop size (which is the default setting in SC). For different sampling rates choose an FFT size to cover a similar time-span (around 10 to 20 ms). The onset detection should work well for a general range of monophonic and polyphonic audio signals. The onset detection is purely based on signal analysis and does not make use of any "top-down" inferences such as tempo. Which onset detection function should you choose? The differences aren't large, so I'd recommend you stick with the default ] @racketblock[\rcomplex:: unless you find specific problems with it. Then maybe try ] @racketblock[\wphase::. The ] @racketblock[\mkl:: type is a bit different from the others so maybe try that too. They all have slightly different characteristics, and in tests perform at a similar quality level. ] @section{subsection} Advanced features Further options are available, which you are welcome to explore if you want. They are numbers that modulate the behaviour of the onset detector: @section{list} ## strong::relaxtime:: and strong::floor:: are parameters to the whitening process used, a kind of normalisation of the FFT signal. (Note: in \mkl mode these are not used.) @section{list} ## strong::relaxtime:: specifies the time (in seconds) for the normalisation to "forget" about a recent onset. If you find too much re-triggering (e.g. as a note dies away unevenly) then you might wish to increase this value. ## strong::floor:: is a lower limit, connected to the idea of how quiet the sound is expected to get without becoming indistinguishable from noise. For some cleanly-recorded classical music with wide dynamic variations, I found it helpful to go down as far as 0.000001. :: ## strong::mingap:: specifies a minimum gap (in FFT frames) between onset detections, a brute-force way to prevent too many doubled detections. ## strong::medianspan:: specifies the size (in FFT frames) of the median window used for smoothing the detection function before triggering. :: @section{examples} @racketblock[ ( s.waitForBoot({ // Prepare the buffers b = Buffer.alloc(s, 512); // Feel free to load a more interesting clip! // a11wlk01 is not an ideal example of musical onsets. d = Buffer.read(s, Platform.resourceDir +/+ "sounds/a11wlk01.wav"); }); ) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Move the mouse to vary the threshold ( x = { var sig, chain, onsets, pips; // A simple generative signal sig = LPF.ar(Pulse.ar(TIRand.kr(63, 75, Impulse.kr(2)).midicps), LFNoise2.kr(0.5).exprange(100, 10000)) * Saw.ar(2).range(0, 1); // or, uncomment this line if you want to play the buffer in //sig = PlayBuf.ar(1, d, BufRateScale.kr(d), loop: 1); chain = FFT(b, sig); onsets = Onsets.kr(chain, MouseX.kr(0,1), \rcomplex); // You'll hear percussive "ticks" whenever an onset is detected pips = WhiteNoise.ar(EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(0.001, 0.1, 0.2), onsets)); Out.ar(0, Pan2.ar(sig, -0.75, 0.2) + Pan2.ar(pips, 0.75, 1)); }.play; ) x.free; // Free the synth //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Or we could expand this multichannel, run a series of different thresholds at the same time, // to sonify the effect of the threshold value. // A little hard to listen to at first: try and identify a pitch at which the best sort of // detection is happening. // You'll hear "bobbling" at low pitches where the threshold is definitely too low. ( var threshes = (0.1, 0.2 .. 1); x = { var sig, chain, onsets, pips; // A simple generative signal sig = LPF.ar(Pulse.ar(TIRand.kr(63, 75, Impulse.kr(2)).midicps), LFNoise2.kr(0.5).exprange(100, 10000)) * Saw.ar(2).range(0, 1); // or, uncomment this line if you want to play the buffer in //sig = PlayBuf.ar(1, d, BufRateScale.kr(d), loop: 1); chain = FFT(b, sig); onsets = Onsets.kr(chain, threshes, \rcomplex); // Generate pips at a variety of pitches pips = SinOsc.ar((threshes).linexp(0, 1, 440, 3520), 0, EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(0.001, 0.1, 0.5), onsets)).mean; Out.ar(0, Pan2.ar(sig, -0.75, 0.2) + Pan2.ar(pips, 0.75, 1)); }.play; ) x.free; // Free the synth [b, d].do(_.free); // Free the buffers :: ]